Behaviour Modification Test 5

Front 1

How was stimulus control an important part of the punishment contingency for Ben?

Back 1

Hitting became a conditioned stimulus for required exercise. Each time Ben hit, at school he was made to do exercise immediately (this was done with parental and ethics board consent), the exercise at first had to be prompted physically, then verbally.

Front 2

What is a punisher? Give an example that you experienced and identify both the response and the punisher.

Back 2

An immediate consequence of an operant behaviour that causes that behaviour to decrease in frequency.
Example: When I told my mom to shut up (response), she took my phone away from me (punisher).

Front 3

State the principle of punishment

Back 3

If, in a given situation, someone does something that is immediately followed by a punisher, then that person is less likely to do the same thing again when he or she next encounters a similar situation.

Front 4

How does the meaning of the word punishment for behaviour modifiers differ from the meaning of that word for most people?

Back 4

a) It occurs immediately after the problem behaviour
b) It isn’t a form of moral sanction, vengeance or retribution
c) It isn’t used to deter others from engaging in the target behaviour

Front 5

Define unconditioned punisher, and give an example that illustrates the complete definition

Back 5

Stimuli that are punishing without prior learning.
Example: The pain you feel after touching a hot stove is an unconditioned punisher

Front 6

Describe or define four different types of punishers and give an example of each

Back 6

a) Pain-inducing (physical) punisher: Stimuli that activate pain receptors. As well as unpleasant smells and tastes.
Example: Bobby calls his mother a loser, so she spanks him.
b) Reprimand: A strong negative verbal stimulus immediately contingent on behaviour, also includes a fixed stare or firm grasp.
Example: John spills his milk, and his father yells at him “You’re a bad boy”.
c) Timeout: A period of time immediately following a particular behaviour during which an individual loses the opportunity to earn reinforcers. Can be exclusionary or non-exclusionary
Example: When a teacher saw John hit another child during recess, immediately made him go inside and sit in the principals office for 5 minutes.
d) Response cost: The removal of a specified amount of a reinforcer immediately following a beahviour. May have a direct-acting or indirect-acting effect.

Front 7

Under which of the four categories of punishment would you put the type of punishment used with Ben? Justify your choice

Back 7

Reprimand was used when Ben was told “no hitting”. When he was made to stand-up and sit 10 times he was receiving nonexclusionary time out, as a stimulus associated with less reinforcement is introduced.

Front 8

Define conditioned punisher and give an example not in this chapter.

Back 8

A stimulus that is a punisher as a result of having been paired with another punisher.
Example: When John hits his sister, his mother yells, “Bad boy!” and spanks him causing pain (unconditioned punisher), eventually, being called a bad boy alone is a punisher for John (conditioned punisher).

Front 9

Distinguish between an exclusionary and nonexclusionary timeout

Back 9

Exlusionary timeout: removing an individual briefly from a reinforcing situation immediately following a behaviour.
Nonexlusionary timeout: Introducing into the situation, immediately after the behaviour, a stimulus associated with less reinforcement.

Front 10

What is an example of response-cost punishment that parents commonly apply to their children

Back 10

When a child refuses to eat their dinner, because they are too busy playing with a toy, their parents punish the behaviour by taking away their toy.

Front 11

State the procedures for extinction, response cost and exclusionary timeout

Back 11

Extinction: In this procedure, a reinforcer is withheld pollowing a previously reinforced response
Response cost: A beahviour is taken away following an undesirable response
Exclusionary time out: Removing an individual briefly from a reinforcing siutaiton immediately following a behaviour.

Front 12

Distingusih between the direct-acting and indirect-acting effects of punishment. Give an example of each

Back 12

Direct-acting effect: The decreased freuqncy of a response because of immediate punishing consequences. Example: Immediatley after John hits his brother, his mother takes away 2 of the stickers he earned earlier that day.
Indirect-acting effect: Punishment is the weakinging of a response followed by a punisher even though the punisher is delayed. Example: A man speeds through an intersection, and is caught by photo radar. A week later he is given a ticket through the mail.

Front 13

What are three reasons that could explain the effectiveness of a delayed punisher in decreasing a behaviour.

Back 13

a) Because of instructions about the behaviour leading to the punisher
b) Because of self-statements that intervene between the beahviour and the delayed backup punisher
c) Because of immediate conditioned punishers that interved between the beahviour and delayed backup punisher.

Front 14

If you do a good job of attending to the first two factors influencing the effectiveness of punishment, you may not have to apply punishment. Discuss.

Back 14

By minimizing the causes of the undesirable behaviour, while maximizing the conditions for a desirable alternative beahviour may cause the desirable beahviour to compete so strongly with the undesirable beahviour that it’s greatly reduced or completely suppressed without using a punisher.

Front 15

What are two conditions under which a mild punisher can be effective?

Back 15

a) If the reinforcer for the undesirable beahviour is withheld following instances of the behaviour
b) If a desirable alternative behaviour is reinforced with a strong reinforcer.

Front 16

What steps might you follow to experimentally determine whether a verbal reprimand is a punisher for a particular child.

Back 16

Reprimand the child verbally immediately each time they emit the target behaivour for several trials and see if there is a decrease or an increase in the behaviour. Sometimes using two punishers is more effective, so once you’ve done the first condition for several trials, repeat using verbal reprimand as well as a second punisher like time out, and observe if the frequency of the behaviour changes.

Front 17

Compare S^D to S^Dsubp, give an example of each from your own experience.

Back 17

S^D is a stimulus in the presence of which a response will be reinforced. Example: The sound of icecream truck music is an S^D for me to go outside and buy and icecream.
A S^Dsubp is a stimulus in which the presence of a response will be punished. Exmaple: If my mom tells me to "play my music quiety” (S^Dsubp), if I play it at full volume (behaviour), my mother will reprimand me (punisher)

Front 18

Compare S^triangle to S^Dsubp. Give an example of each from your own experience

Back 18

An S^triangle is a stimulus that a behaviour will not receive reinforcement Example: If I want to ride a roller coaster, but a sign says “Roller coaster is not working” (S^triangle), the sign is a stimulus, telling me that this beahviour will not be reinforced. A S^Dsubp is a stimulus that a behaviour will receive a punisher. Example: A sign says “Do not sit on the roller coaster, those who enter will be kicked out of the park” (S^Dsubp), if I sit on the roller coaster (behaviour) they will be kicked out of the park (punisher)

Front 19

What are four guidelines in regard to delivering a punisher?

Back 19

a) The punisher should be presented immediately following the undesirable beahvioru.
b) The punisher should be presented following every instance of the undesirable beahviour.
c) The delievery of the punisher should not be paire diwth positive reinforcement.
d) The person administering the punisher should remain calm when doing so.

Front 20

We suggested that if behaviour modifiers are unable to detect most instances of a behaivour to be punished, they should have serious doubts about the value of implementing a punishment procuedure.

Back 20

a) Give two reasons to support this suggestion.
-These may be occasions in which the undesirable behaviour is positively reinforced, which would maintain its strength
-Punishement procedures have negative side effects and it may be unethical to impletement a procedure that may not be effective when it also has negative side effects.
b) What alternative means for decreasing behaviour are available to the beahviour modifier (See Ch. 6 and 12)
-Extinction, DRL, DRO, DRI, DRA

Front 21

In two or three sentences, describe either the case of the lemon juice therapy with Sandra or the ice cube therapy with Gerri.

Back 21

Gerri had a bruxism problem, to decrease her bruxism mild physical therapeutic punishment was used. Whenever behavior modifiers could hear her grinding her teeth, they put an icecube on her face for a few seconds. Within a few days her teeth grinding decreased considerably, and after 2 months had almost completely ceased.

Front 22

What is pica? What factors influencing the effectiveness of punishment did Johnston incorporate into their treatment for pica?

Back 22

Pica is eating inedible or non-nutritive substances.
a) Johnson et al. incorporated and taught a desirable alternate response, by reinforcement of eating off the placemat (praise and good taste).
b) The punisher (washing face with damp cool washcloth for 15 seconds) was delievered immediately following every instance of the undesirable beavhiour (eating something not on the placemat).

Front 23

Briefly describe the procedure that Mathews taught mothers to decrease dangerous behaviours of their 1 year old children. Was the timeout component exclusionary or nonexclusionary? Jusitfy your choice

Back 23

Mothers were taught to praise a chld for playing appropriately, and say “No: and place the child in a playpen for a brief period immediately contingent upon the dangerous behaviour.
This is an exclusionary time out, because the child is removed from the situation, and placed in a “timout pen”.

Front 24

Cite six potential harmful side effects of the application of punishment.

Back 24

a) Aggressive behaviour
b) Emotional behaviour
c) Escape and Avoidance behaviour
d) No new behaviour
e) Modeling of the punishment
f) Overuse of the punishment

Front 25

Briefly describe the right-to-effective-treatment and freedom-from-harm positions in regard to the deliberate use of punishment treatment procedures.

Back 25

Right-to-effective-treatment: A client’s right to effective treatment may dictate the use of quicker-acting punishment procedures rather than slower-acting procedures involving positive reinforcement of alternate beahviour
Freedom-from-harm position: Nonaversive methods for eliminating unacceptable behaviour are always least as effective as punishment and that therefore using pain-inducing punishment is never justified.

Front 26

Give an example of functional communication training

Back 26

Children who emitted self-injurious behaviour were taught a simple communicative response eg. Ringing a bell or a verbal response, as an alternative to self-abuse to obtain attention. This eliminated the self-injurious behaviour.

Front 27

List six conditions that should be met for behaivour modifiers to design punishment programs

Back 27

a) The behaviour is very maladaptive and it’s in the client’s best interest to bring about rapid beahviour change.
b) Clear steps are taken to maximize the conditions for a desirable alternative response and to minimize the causes of the response to be punished before resorting to punishment
c) The client or client’s parent or guardian provides informed consent
d) The intervention meets ethical standards
e) Punishment is applied according to clear guidelines
f) The program includes safeguards to protect the client.

Front 28

In view of the controversy regarding the use of punishment, do you agree with the way punishment was used with Ben? Defend your answer.

Back 28

I agree with the punishment used with Ben. It began to work immediately, and standing and sitting is exercise, which is ultimately good for one’s body.

Front 29

Give an example of how punishment is applied by people who aren’t aware that they’re doing so.

Back 29

Criticising or ridiculing a person for inadequate behaviour. These are punishing and will likely suppress future instances of that behaviour. The may cause the person to become discouraged and give up in trying to develop adequate behaviour, and avoid the administer of the criticism.

Front 30

Identify three areas where more research is needed on the use of timeout with children

Back 30

a) Evaluate the relative efficacy of exclusionary vs nonexlusionary timeout
b) Examine how to best teach children how to comply with timeout when applied
c) Examine how best to teach parents and treatment staff to implement timeout effectively and within acceptable ethical guidelines.

Front 31

Do you think parents should use punishment? Discuss

Back 31

I think that parents should use punishment. However, I don’t think they should use harsh physically punishment, because it is correlated with higher instances of mental disorders later in life. I do think that reprimand, timeout and response cost punishments can be effective.