Roots of Applied Behavior Analysis

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Roots of Applied Behavior Analysis
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Explanations of Human Behavior

• Why do people behave the way they do?
• Can we predict behavior?
• Why do people behave in socially inappropriate
  ways?

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Useful theories

• Inclusive it must explain a substantial amount
  of behavior
• Verifiable can we test it out?
• Predictive utility can we use the theory to
  predict what someone may do under similar
  conditions?
• Parsimonious is it the simplest explanation?

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Biophysical Explanations

• Genetic or hereditary factors
• We are often predisposed to behave a certain way
  - temperament including activity level,
  adaptability, threshold of responsiveness,
  distractibility, persistence, etc.
• Genetics may Increase the probability of certain
  behavioral characteristics

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Biochemical explanations

• Excesses or deficiencies of certain chemicals
  determine certain behaviors or disorders i.e.,
  autism
• No proof the abnormalities exist but may not be
  the cause
• Past belief that biochemical or physiological
  influences result in brain damage but this is
  unsubstantiated

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Developmental Explanations

• Psychoanalytic theory progression through
  certain stages as an explanation
• Piaget cognitive and moral stages of development

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Cognitive Explanations

• Discovery learning
• Motivation is intrinsic
• Teachers do not impart knowledge, they rearrange
  the environment to facilitate learning
• Constructivism students must construct their
  own knowledge
• Concept development is the goal

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Behavioral Explanations

• Behavior is learned
• Functional relationship between two environmental
  events behavior and consequence (POSITIVE
  REINFORCEMENT)
• NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT a behavior increases
  when an unpleasant environmental condition is
  removed or reduced in intensity

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Behaviorism (contd)

• EXTINCTION When a previously reinforced
  behavior is no longer reinforced, the behavior
  decreases
• ANTECEDENT CONTROL discriminative stimulus an
  antecedent that occurs right before the behavior
  (it occasions the behavior)
• Stimulus control the relationship between the
  behavior and the antecedent

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Antecedent Stimulus

• Antecedent stimulus serves as a signal or cue
  for the behavior
• Setting events- influence behavior by temporarily
  changing the value or effectiveness of a
  reinforcer
• Simple kind of setting event satiation or
  deprivation
• Kazdin social, physiological, and environmental

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Setting events

• Bailey, Wolery, Sugai instructional
  dimensions, physical dimensions, social
  dimensions, and environmental changes
• Issues of students ethnic or cultural heritage
  Personalized Contextual Instruction (see box pg
  14-15)

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Other learning principles

• Modeling demonstration of the behavior
• Shaping reinforcement of successive
  approximations to a desired behavior

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Behavior

• Must be able to see or hear or feel or smell the
  behavior
• Observable
• Quantifiable
• Less concerned with explaining a behavior and
  more concerned with describing it
• Which environmental factors increase, decrease,
  or maintain the behavior?

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Behaviorists

• Pay attention to heredity, psychological
  problems, or developmental stages
• Priority is on present environmental conditions
  that maintain behavior and the relationships
  between the conditions and the behavior
• Manipulate the variables

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Historical development of Behaviorism

• Pavlov Respondent conditioning with dogs
• food UCS tone CS
• Salivation - UR salivation CR
• Pairing stimuli so that an unconditioned stimulus
  elicits a response respondent, Pavlovian, or
  classical conditioning

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Associationism

• Edward Thorndike work with cats
• Law of Exercise a response made in a particular
  situation becomes associated with that situation
• Law of Effect any act which in a given
  situation produces satisfaction becomes
  associated with that situation, so that when the
  situation recurs that act is more likely than
  before to recur also

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Behaviorism

• Originated by Watson (1914-1925) mind,
  instinct, thought, emotion not useful in in
  understanding behavior
• Albert and the white rat conditioned a startle
  response in a baby by pairing with loud noise
  with a white rat
• Fear is a conditioned response

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Operant conditioning

• B.F. Skinner (1904-1988) distinguished
  operant from respondent conditioning
• Respondent conditioning reflexive
• Operant conditioning voluntary behavior
• Concerned with consequences of behavior and the
  functional relationships between behaviors and
  consequences
• Moved from the laboratory into applied settings
  Behavior modification

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1960s

• Much research Journal of Applied Behavior
  Analysis
• Baer for research to qualify as Applied Behavior
  Analysis, it must
• change socially important behavior
• deal with observable and quantifiable behavior
• be objectively defined
• demonstrate clear evidence of a functional
  relationship between the behavior and the
  intervention

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Applied Behavior Analysis

• More rigorously defined than behavior
  modification
• Must have effective analysis of behavior change
  through documentation