Antecedent Control Procedures

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Antecedent Control Procedures
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Stimulus Control

• Learning to do things under the right
  circumstance (time, place, circumstance)
• Response that occurs in the presence of SD but
  not in its absence is under stimulus control
• EXAMPLE
• Green light go
• Stop sign stop
• Item out of reach ask for help

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Stimulus is SD if

• SD is a signal that a particular response will
  result in reinforcer
• What are the stimuli in the school environment
  that are SDs for student behavior?
• EXAMPLES
• Put up overhead S. write notes gets good
  grades on a test
• T. asks a question S. raises hand student
  gets called on

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Stimulus is S? if

• In the presence of a stimulus the response does
  not occur
• A response that was SR in the presence of an SD
  is not SR in the presence of an S?
• S? response no reinforcement
• S? no response
• Hold up a cookie S. says cake S. does not
  get cookie

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How to Teach Stimulus Discrimination

• In teaching, we set up the SD for specific
  behavior to occur and the provide SR
• We do not SR when behavior does not occur
• Example
• Teacher has a picture of a cookie and provides
  SR when student says cookie and not when a
  picture of a drink is present

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Problems

• Overselectivity
• The S. responds to some irrelevant stimulus or to
  only one aspect of the stimulus as opposed to the
  stimulus as a whole
• Examples
• Remembering names by the seat one sits in or
  context (trouble when you see person out of
  context)

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Other Ways to Teach Discriminative Stimulus

• Prompts
• additional stimulus that increases the
  probability that an SD will occasion a response
• are for rapid learning without excessive mistakes
• Response prompts form of assistance with a
  reponse
• Stimulus prompts temporary changes to the
  stimulus

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Prompts

• Use the least amount of prompts necessary to
  facilitate correct responding
• Focus on the stimulus not distract from it
• Any prompt that is added to an instructional
  interaction must be faded (i.e., removed)
• Prompts occur BEFORE the childs response
• Prompts occur during or after the instruction
• A prompt is only a good prompt if it results in
  a childs correct response
• Prompts must be faded gradually and systematically

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• Verbal
• Does the number end in a 0, then it is a factor
  of 10
• Visual
• Vocational jig
• How to put correct headings on paper
• Word walls

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• Modeling
• Models most likely imitated
• Have high status
• Have a demonstrated competence
• Similar to themselves
• Limitations
• Some behaviors difficult to imitate
• Over reliance on prompts rather than natural SD

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Fading (shifting stimulus control to the stimulus)

• Fading too quickly can put a behavior on
  extinction
• Fading too slowly can cause a behavior to be
  prompt dependent

• Using full physical prompts to teach hand
  washing. Moving to no prompts before the student
  is ready may leave the student staring at the
  water.
• S. waits to wash hands until someone takes the
  students hand and prompts him through the
  activity

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Most-to-Least Prompting

• Select the target behavior
• Identify the stimulus that signals the student to
  respond
• Select the number of levels and type of prompts
  in the hierarchy
• Determine the length of the response interval
• Determine the criterion for progressing to the
  next level of prompt
• Select the schedule for testing
• Determine the consequences for responding
• Determine data collection

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Least-to-Most Prompting

• Identify the stimulus that cues the student to
  respond
• Select the number of levels and the type of
  prompts in the hierarchy
• Determine the length of the response interval
• Determine the consequences to be used for each
  student response
• Select a data collection system

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Graduated Guidance

• Most often used with chained tasks
• Task analysis is taught simultaneously
• Prompts are provided and removed as necessary
  based on independent responding

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Time Delay

• Identify the cue for student responding
• Identify the controlling prompt
• Determine the students ability to wait for the
  prompt
• Identify the number of 0-sec delay trails
• Determine the length of the prompt delay interval
• Determine consequences for responding
• Select a data collection system

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Stimulus Prompts

• Response prompts the stimulus remains the same
  and only responses are prompted (prompts
  discussed previously)
• Stimulus Prompts uses stimulus prompts altering
  the stimulus to insure correct responding
• Provides development of stimulus control without
  practicing errors
• Most effective if only SD is change and stimulus
  attributes of the S? remain the same

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Differences in Shaping and Fading

• Fading involves the gradual changing of the
  prompts while the response remains the same
• Shaping involves the gradual changing of a
  RESPONSE while the stimulus stays the same

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Shaping

• Steps in using shaping
• Define target behavior
• Know where to start
• Determine how long to remain at each criterion
  level before moving to the next step
• If step is too large, then the behavior will not
  get reinforced (put on extinction)

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Shaping - Differential Reinforcement

• In fading a response in the presence of and SD
  is reinforced and a response to an S? is not
• In shaping, differential reinforcement is paired
  to responses that successively approximate the
  desired response

Cupcake
cupcake
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Shaping of a response

• Differential reinforcement for successive
  approximations
• Differential reinforcement
• Only those responses that meet a criterion are
  reinforced
• Shifting criterion for reinforcement
• to obtain the terminal behavior
• Used only when no combination of SR, prompting,
  or changing are not successful

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Teaching Behaviors Mad Up of Chains

• Task Analysis
• Breaking behaviors into their components
• Breaking terminal behavior down to small tasks
• Identify prerequisite skills required. It is
  difficult to have a TA inside of a TA.
• List materials needed to perform the target skill
• List all the component of the task in the order
  in which they must be preformed
• EXAMPLE How to make a peanut butter and jelly
  sandwich

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Teaching Complex Behaviors

• Chaining
• Reinforce individual responses for occurring in
  sequence to form a complex behavior
• Typically used with a task that has been task
  analyzed
• EXAMPLE
• Get ready for the quiz
• Step 1 put books and notes away
• Step 2 get out pencil
• Step 3 get quiet

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Teaching Behaviors Made Up of Chains

• Backward Chaining
• Last component is taught first
• Forward Chaining
• First component is taught first
• Total Task Chaining
• Requires the performance of all behaviors in the
  chain until mastery

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• Response Fading
• Gradually delaying or reducing the magnitude of a
  response prompt
• Stimulus Fading
• Gradually removing elements of a stimulus until a
  new stimulus is formed that continues to control
  the response
• Considerations
• Fading too quickly can put a behavior on
  extinction
• Fading too slowly can cause a behavior to be
  prompt dependent