Advanced ABA for Teachers

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Advanced ABA for Teachers

• ED 556

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Today

• Go over Syllabus
• Go over PsycInfo project
• Review
• Technical language and basic concepts
• Analyzing Behavior Change
• Reinforcement

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Why Use Technical Terms?

• Effective communication
• Demonstrates professionalism in your field
• CH H - Mastering the technical vocabulary of
  ABA is an important first step in becoming a
  behavior analyst
• recommend students study the fields technical
  terminology with diligence (p. xv)
• ABA is a science
• Using precise terminology facilitates goal of
  thorough understanding of socially important
  behaviors
• Note It takes practice to learn new
  terminology!
• Especially when there are similar words already
  in your repertoire

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Basic Concepts

• What is ABA?
• Technical definition The science in which
  tactics derived from the principles of behavior
  are applied to improve socially significant
  behavior and experimentation is used to identify
  the variables responsible for the improvement in
  behavior
• What you might say to your Aunt Sally
• a scientific approach to understanding why
  people do what they do and helping them make
  meaningful changes in their behavior

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Behavior

• The activity of living organisms everything a
  person does, including how he moves, what he
  says, thinks, and feels
• A well-known technical definition
• That portion of an organisms interaction with
  its environment that is characterized by
  detectable displacement in space through time of
  some part of the organism and that results in a
  measurable change in at least one aspect of the
  environment (Johnston and Pennypacker, 1993, p.
  23)

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Response

• An instance of behavior
• Response topography refers to the physical shape
  or form of the response
• Response class A group of responses with the
  same function (each response in the group is
  maintained by the same reinforcer or produces the
  same effect on the environment)
• Examples
• Saying thank you
• Opening a bag of chips

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Environment

• Conglomerate of circumstances in which the
  organism exists
• Includes not only the organisms external
  features but physical events inside its skin
• Example itching
• Stimulus an energy change that affects an
  organism through its receptor cells

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Respondent Behavior

• The response component of a reflex
• Its elicited by a stimulus that precedes it
• Does not require a history of learning
  examples?
• Respondent Conditioning
• New stimuli can acquire the ability to elicit
  respondent behavior
• How did Pavlov do this?

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The Process

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US) ? Unconditioned
  Response (UR)
• Neutral Stimulus US ? UR
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) ? Conditioned Response
  (CR)
• Pavlov's dog
• 1. Food (US) ? Salivation (UR)
• 2. Bell (NS) Food (US) ? Salivation (UR)
• 3. Bell (CS) ? Salivation (CR)

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Respondent Behavior

• The response component of a reflex
• Its elicited by a stimulus that precedes it
• Does not require a history of learning
  examples?
• Respondent Conditioning
• New stimuli can acquire the ability to elicit
  respondent behavior
• How did Pavlov do this?
• How did Little Albert come to fear animals?

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• Little Albert (Watson Rayner, 1920)
• 1. Loud noise (US) ? startle/crying (UR)
• 2. White rat (NS) Loud noise (US) ?
  startle/crying (UR)
• 3. White rat (CS) ? startle/crying (CR)

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Respondent Behavior

• The response component of a reflex
• Its elicited by a stimulus that precedes it
• Does not require a history of learning
  examples?
• Respondent Conditioning
• New stimuli can acquire the ability to elicit
  respondent behavior
• How did Pavlov do this?
• How did Little Albert come to fear animals?
• Example Teaching nighttime continence

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Nocturnal Enuresis Therapy(Bell Pad)

• Enuresis can occur because the sensation of a
  full bladder does not elicit waking
• 1. Alarm ? Waking
• 2. Full bladder Alarm ? Waking
• 3. Full bladder ? Waking

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Respondent Behavior

• The response component of a reflex
• Its elicited by a stimulus that precedes it
• Does not require a history of learning
  examples?
• Respondent Conditioning
• New stimuli can acquire the ability to elicit
  respondent behavior
• How did Pavlov do this?
• How did Little Albert come to fear animals?
• Example Teaching nighttime continence
• Example Taste aversion

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Taste Aversion Conditioning

• Chemotherapy-related nausea can produce taste
  aversion
• 1. Chemical ? Nausea
• 2. Food Chemical ? Nausea
• 3. Food ? Nausea
• Broberg Bernstein (1987) treated this problem
  by transferring taste aversion to a specific food
  
• 1. Chemical ? Nausea
• 2. Lozenge Chemical ? Nausea
• 3. Lozenge ? Nausea

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Respondent Behavior

• The response component of a reflex
• Its elicited by a stimulus that precedes it
• Does not require a history of learning
  examples?
• Respondent Conditioning
• New stimuli can acquire the ability to elicit
  respondent behavior
• How did Pavlov do this?
• How did Little Albert come to fear animals?
• Example Teaching nighttime continence
• Example Taste aversion
• Example Why does Katie scream when she sees a
  vacuum cleaner?

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Vacuum Cleaner Phobia

• One day, Katies mom got out the vacuum and
  turned it on it was a very loud and sudden
  sound
• 1. Loud sound ? startle/crying
• 2. Sight of vacuum cleaner Loud sound ?
  startle/crying
• 3. Sight of vacuum cleaner ? startle/crying

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Operant Behavior

• Any behavior whose future frequency is determined
  primarily by its history of consequences
• Its not elicited like respondent behavior its
  maintained by consequences that have followed it
  in the past
• Examples
• Saying hi

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Teacher walks in the room
Bobby says, hi
Teacher smiles and says, hi!
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Operant Behavior

• Any behavior whose future frequency is determined
  primarily by its history of consequences
• Its not elicited like respondent behavior its
  maintained by consequences that have followed it
  in the past
• Examples
• Saying hi
• Kicking a ball

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Teacher walks in the room
Bobby says, hi
Teacher smiles and says, hi!
Ball rolls to Jimmys foot
Jimmy kicks
Ball goes flying!
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Operant Behavior

• Any behavior whose future frequency is determined
  primarily by its history of consequences
• Its not elicited like respondent behavior its
  maintained by consequences that have followed it
  in the past
• Examples
• Saying hi
• Kicking a ball
• Katie screaming when her mom gets out the vacuum
  cleaner how could this be both respondent AND
  operant behavior?

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Teacher walks in the room
Bobby says, hi
Teacher smiles and says, hi!
Ball rolls to Jimmys foot
Jimmy kicks
Ball goes flying!
Mom brings out vaccuum
Katie screams and cries
Mom puts the vacuum away
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Consequence

• Everyday usage?
• Technical definition stimulus that follows a
  given behavior in a relatively immediate temporal
  sequence and alters the probability of future
  occurrences of that type of behavior
• Note that awareness of the consequence, intent,
  and trying to get the consequence are not part
  of the definition
• 2 forms
• A stimulus is increased or added to the
  environment
• An already present stimulus is reduced or removed
  from the environment
• 2 behavioral outcomes
• The future frequency of the behavior increases
• The future frequency of the behavior decreases

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Three-Term Contingency

• Operant Conditioning establishment of a
  functional relationship between behavior and its
  consequences and between behavior and certain
  antecedent conditions
• Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence
• Contingency refers to the dependency of a
  particular consequence on the occurrence of
  behavior