How to reinforce behaviors

The following information is from Unit 4 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon. 

Four rules on when to reinforce:

1. Reinforce or punish immediately after teaching a new task

• How to reinforce when teaching a large group of students
• Giving the students access to a computer program or using a     technology where all student responses are immediately reinforced
• Break the large group into small groups so that all students can receive teacher attention
• The teacher gives specific verbal praise and reinforcement in response to a student’s answers to work on a paper
• However, this method is delayed
• Example of immediate reinforcement by a teacher for one student: the     student would not work unless the teacher gave him attention, so she told him to raise his hand for her attention after he solved one problem
• As he worked more consistently she required him to complete more work to get her attention

2. Reinforce every correct response when teaching a new task

• Require more correct responses before reinforcement as the behavior occurs more often
• Gradually give intermittent reinforcement as the behavior becomes proficient
• Example: gambling is effective at creating gamblers because it inconsistently rewards the gambler for giving money for the chance of getting money (if the gambler always won and then suddenly did not win, he would not assume there was a chance he might win again)

3. Avoid consistent reinforcement for paying attention, persistence to work, and working on-task

• Consistent reinforcement can lead to a student not paying attention or being off-task on work when the teacher is NOT giving direct attention
• An example of how a teacher increased a student’s on-task behavior without giving him direct attention:
• The student has a chart with 25 squares for him to fill as he is reinforced for work completion
• The 25 squares lead to choosing a game for the class to play
• The teacher has a timer on her desk that goes off every set minutes (she keeps track with a card on her desk that shows time intervals like 30 minutes, 2 minutes, 20 minutes, etc.)
• The teacher reinforces the student for work completion (filling a square on the chart) every time the timer goes off
• Since the student does not know when the timer will go off, he has to keep working
• Over time the teacher increases the time intervals
• Over time the bell is faded and the teacher checks independently of the bell
• Over time the points are faded and the teacher gives verbal praise or occasional privileges for work completion

 4. Reinforce improvement in correct behavior

• Do not insist on perfection in the beginning
• Students who know the most tend to get the most reinforcement when it is the students who know less (who need to work harder) who need the reinforcement
• Reinforce ALL students for behavior improvement
• Do not reinforce the wrong behavior
• To change a problem behavior (i.e. a student crying in response to being asked to work), do not sometimes reinforce the behavior by appeasing the student because it will reinforce the problem behavior (intermittent reinforcement for the wrong behavior)

Terms for types of reinforcement:

• Continuous reinforcement: a response is always reinforced by a reinforcing stimulus
• Intermittent reinforcement: a response is sometimes reinforced by a reinforcing stimulus and sometimes is not reinforced
• Predictable intermittent reinforcement:
• Fixed interval reinforcement: the first response after a fixed period is reinforced by a reinforcing stimulus (i.e. a student can watch television after he reads for ten minutes)
• Fixed ratio reinforcement: a reinforcing stimulus is given after a set number of responses (i.e. a student can watch television after he reads ten pages in his book)
• Unpredictable intermittent reinforcement:
• Variable interval reinforcement: the response after a variable period is reinforced by a reinforcing stimulus
• For example, a five minute variable interval reinforcement means that a response is reinforced, on average, every five minutes
• Variable ratio reinforcement: a reinforcing stimulus is given after a variable number of responses
• For example, a variable ratio-twenty reinforcement means that, on average, every twentieth response is reinforced but that any number of responses from one to forty may also be reinforced
• Resistance to extinction: a behavior is resistant to extinction if it continues to occur more often or last longer with no reinforcement than another behavior
• The behavior occurs without reinforcement

Types of reinforcers and punishers

The following information is from Unit 3 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.

• Unlearned reinforcers and punishers
• Unlearned or unconditioned reinforcers: stimuli that do not need to be paired with another reinforcer (i.e. food, water, warmth, and activities)
• Unlearned or unconditioned punishers: stimuli that do not need to be paired with another punisher (i.e. loud noise, painful events, and uncomfortable heat or cold)

• Learned reinforcers and punishers
• Neutral stimuli: stimuli that have no effect on behavior
• Learned or conditioned reinforcer: neutral stimuli followed by an unlearned reinforcer (i.e. verbal praise followed by allowing a student to play a game or giving stars for positive behavior where the stars equal minutes a student can play with a toy)
• Types
• Social reinforcer: teacher behavior in response to a student with voice tone, verbal praise, attention, or smiling
• Token reinforcer: points or other tokens in response to a student’s positive behavior that he can trade for other reinforcers
• Grandma’s Rule AKA Premack’s Principle: preferred activities reinforce unpreferred activities (i.e. “You may watch TV if you finish your homework for math”)
• Contingent: the reinforcer is only delivered when the student shows the desired behavior
• Learned or conditioned punisher: neutral stimuli followed by an unlearned punisher (i.e. negative verbal words like “no” or “stop” followed by a parent spanking her child or removing a privilege)

Reinforcement, Punishment and Extinction

The following information is from Unit 2 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.

• Punishment vs. extinction
• Punishment: denying a reinforcement
• Extinction: denying a reinforcement for only one type of behavior

• How to use consequent stimuli:
• Use reinforcement when you want to increase or strengthen a behavior
• Use punishment (no reinforcement in this unit) when you want to decrease or weaken a behavior
• Time out: deny all reinforcement for all behavior for a specified period of time
• Extinction: deny reinforcement for one behavior

Examples of when to use the consequent stimuli

1. A mother previously solved her young son’s tantrums with attention (telling him to stop or giving him something to appease him). A behaviorist helped the mother to use punishment and reinforcement by giving her three procedures of how she ought to respond to her son. The son’s behavior then improved.

Son’s behavior	Mother’s behavior
Shows a problem behavior (i.e. tantrum or kicking)	Gives him a warning signal
Continues a problem behavior	Puts him in his room and ignores him for a specified time
Plays and behaves appropriately	Gives him attention, praise, and affection

2. A teacher previously dealt with problem behaviors of two students by using threats that were ineffective. A behaviorist helped the teacher to use extinction and reinforcement by giving her three procedures of how she ought to respond to the two students and the class as a whole. The two students’ behavior improved.

Teacher’s behavior	Students’ behavior
Makes rules clear and repeats them as needed	Students know what teacher expects
Ignores problem behaviors and gives attention to students with appropriate behaviors	Students who show problem behaviors do not get teacher attention
Praise students for behavior improvement with specific praise and privileges (i.e. “you get to go to recess early because you finished your work neatly and carefully ”)	Students who show appropriate behaviors get teacher attention, praise, and privileges

Terms:

• Consequent stimulus: follows a response and strengthens it or weakens it
• Reinforcer: follows a response and strengthens it
• Reinforcement: the procedure to use a reinforcing stimulus
• Punisher: follows a response and weakens it
• Punishment: the procedure to use a punishing stimulus
• Extinction: follows a response and weakens it by providing no reinforcing stimulus for that response
• Time out: follows a response and weakens it by providing no reinforcing stimulus of any response for a period of time

Teaching: encouraging, discouraging, and maintaining behavior

The following information is from Unit 1 of the book Teaching: A Course in Psychology by Wesley C. Becker, Siegfried Engelmann, and Don R. Thomas. 

Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.

• Teaching a new behavior to children
• Three step process
• Teacher presents a stimulus or task to the student
• Student responds
• Teacher reinforces response
• Teacher does not reinforce response when:
• The student does not respond
• The student makes an unrelated response

• Terms
• Set: group of things or relationships that share properties
• Stimulus: event in environment that influences behavior
• Functional definition of a stimulus: provides the environmental event, the procedure, and the effect on behavior
• For example, a functional definition for a student doing his homework everyday and then playing a video game would be: the environmental event playing a video occurred after homework completion and increased working on homework
• The video game reinforces homework completion
• Students vary by what is truly reinforcing or punishing
• Procedural definition of a stimulus: provides the environmental event and effect on behavior
• For example, a procedural definition for a student doing his homework and then playing a video game would be: the student will have access to a video game after he completes his homework
• Concept instance: members in a stimulus set in a concept class (i.e. cats and dogs are members of the concept class pets)
• Not-instance: members of another concept class that is NOT taught (i.e. cars and shoes are not members of the concept class pets)
• Preceding stimuli: events in the environment that influence how a child responds
• Task signals: signals related to the teaching objective, such as concept instances and not-instances
• Prompting signals: signals that the teacher uses to get the correct response
• The prompt is unrelated to the teaching and must be faded out
• Others to be defined: attention signals, “do it” signals, and directions
• Response or task response: how the students responds to receive reinforcement
• Consequent stimuli: stimulus events that occur after responses
• Reinforcing stimuli: strengthen responses
• Punishing stimuli: weaken responses
• Extinction: lack of reinforcement to response