Chapter 12 Eliminating Inappropriate Behavior Through Punishment 1 Briefly describe how Ben s aggressive behavior was eliminated The program was conducted at Ben s school throughout the school day On the day that the contingent exercise was introduced Ben s first hit was followed by the nearest adult saying Ben no hitting Stand up and sit down 10 times The adult then held Ben s hand and lifted it over his head to prompt standing up and then pulled his upper body forward to prompt sitting down at the same time saying Stand up sit down each time Although Ben showed some verbal resistance to the exercise on a few occasions physical prompting was necessary only on the first few training trials On subsequent days only verbal reminders were necessary to prompt the exercise task From an average of approximately 30 hits per day during baseline Ben s hits dropped to 11 on the first day of the program 10 on the second day 1 on the third day and either zero or 1 thereafter After two weeks of the procedure the staff stopped applying the contingent exercise to see what would happen to Ben s hits The frequency of hits remained low for 4 days but then began to increase over the next 4 days The staff reinstituted the contingent exercise and observed an immediate drop in the frequency of hitting to near zero Ben could run about and interact with other children and no longer showed the distressful aggressiveness characteristic of his past behavior 2 How was stimulus control an important part of the punishment contingency for Ben 3 What is a punisher Describe an example in which you identify both the response and the punisher A punisher is a stimulus whose presentation immediately after a behavior causes that behavior to decrease in frequency In Ben s case contingent exercise was a punisher for hitting 4 State the principle of punishment 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 she or he next encounters a similar situation 5 How does the meaning of the word punishment for behavior modifiers differ from the meaning of that word for most persons Sending a person to prison is seen as punishment for committing a crime But going to prison is not likely to be an immediate consequence of committing the crime Also many individuals believe that prison is and should be a form of retribution that is given because the individual deserves it in some moral sense Moreover sending a person to prison is often viewed as a deterrent to other potential wrongdoers For behavior modifiers however the word punishment does not mean any of these things it is simply a technical term referring to the application of an immediate consequence following an individual s specific behavior in a specific situation that has the effect of decreasing the likelihood of future instances of that individual engaging in that specific behavior in that specific situation 6 Define unconditioned punisher and give an example of it 7 8 9 10 11 12 Unconditioned punishers pain inducing punishers are stimuli that are punishing without prior learning For example spankings pinches electric shock ammonia vapor cold baths very loud or harsh sounds prolonged tickling and hair tugging Describe or define four different types of punishers and give an example of each Pain inducing punisher also referred to as a physical punisher is a stimulus immediately following a behavior that activates pain receptors or other sense receptors that typically evoke feelings of discomfort For example spankings pinches electric shock ammonia vapor cold baths very loud or harsh sounds prolonged tickling and hair tugging Reprimand is a strong negative verbal stimulus immediately contingent on behavior An example would be a parent saying No That was bad immediately after a child emits an undesirable behavior Timeout is a period of time immediately following a particular behavior during which an individual loses the opportunity to earn reinforcers Foxx and Shapiro 1978 reported an example of nonexclusionary timeouts Children in a classroom wore ribbon that was removed for a short time when a child was disruptive When not wearing the ribbon the child was not allowed to participate in classroom activities and was ignored by the teacher Response cost involves the removal of a specified amount of a reinforcer immediately following a behavior Working in a classroom setting for example Sullivan and O Leary 1990 showed that loss of tokens each of which could be exchanged for 1 minute of recess for off task behavior successfully decreased it Under which of the four categories of punishment would you put the type of punishment used with Ben Justify your choice I think the type of punishment used with Ben would be considered a reprimand because immediately after he emits the undesirable behavior a nearby adult says Ben no hitting Stand up and sit down 10 times Define conditioned punisher and give an example that is not in this chapter In Chapter 4 we noted that a stimulus that is a punisher as a result of having been paired with another punisher is called a conditioned punisher For example when a child tries to eat dessert before he she eats dinner his her parents might immediately reprimand the child following the undesired behavior Distinguish between an exclusionary and nonexclusionary timeout An exclusionary timeout consists of removing an individual briefly from a reinforcing situation immediately following a behavior A nonexclusionary timeout consists of introducing into the situation immediately following a behavior a stimulus associated with less reinforcement What is a common example of response cost punishment that parents apply to their children A common example of response cost punishment that parents apply to their children would be taking away a portion of their allowance when undesired behavior occurs State the procedures for extinction response cost and exclusionary timeout The principle of extinction operant states that a if in a given situation an individual emits a previously reinforced behavior and that behavior is not followed by a reinforcer 13 14 15 16 17 b then that person is less likely to do the same thing again when next encountering a similar situation Stated differently if a response has been increased in frequency through positive reinforcement then completely ceasing to reinforce the response will cause it to decrease in frequency Response cost