Unit 2, PSY 4600ScheduleTuesday and Thursday: LectureMonday, 9/22: 7:00-8:30 PM Instructional Assistance

1st Floor Wood Hall LoungeTuesday, 9/23: Exam

Stairs made fun

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thefuntheory.comChanging behavior for the better using fun consequences

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Last unit: Respondent Behavioral Relations

S--->R

US--->UR CS--->CR

This unit: Operant Behavioral Relations

MO:SD/S∆:R--->Sc

Focus on operant consequences and SDs and S∆s

SO 2: Basic Behavioral Principles

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1. ReinforcementA. PositiveB. Negative (difference between pos & neg?)

1. Escape (alarm clock, safety harness after chime)

2. Avoidance (safety harness before chime; child plays quietly)

2. Punishment3. Operant Extinction (withheld, not withdrawn)

Examples and sample exam questions on page 20 of the Study Objectives

(terminates or avoids, e-aversive stim that comes before, TV screen clears, food reinforcement, avoid vs. pun, Decrease to avoid conseq – not correct;student asks question, professor says; pun dec; avoid incr; cannot increase a nonbehavior; extinction burst, taking truck away, sending a child from the table; language will be very clear in the examples I provide on the exam)

SO 2: Some Examples (in SOs)• Rafael gets a muscle cramp. He massages the

muscle and the cramp immediately decreases in severity. As a result, when Rafael gets a muscle cramp in the future, he massages it more often than he had done in the past.

• A student wants to make a copy. She inserts her Bronco Card into a copy machine and pushes the button. No copies are made. The student pushes and pushes the button, but still no copies are made. As a result, the student pushes the copy button on that machine less often.

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SO 2 (Examples, cont.)• Barbara calls her little sister a scardy cat and the

little sister immediately begins to cry. As a result, Barbara calls her sister a scardy cat more often in the future.

• A worker is standing around with co-workers and puts on her hard hat before entering the construction area. Her supervisor sees this and immediately says “Hey, that’s great, Grace! Thanks for making safety first a reality!” As a result, Grace puts on her hard hat less often in the future.

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(effect on behavior, can’t just look at the conseq; teachers and elementary school children, criticism,attention)

SO 2: Final Examples

• Jake gets bitten by bugs when he walks in the woods. One day, he puts on a new kind of bug repellant and does not get bitten by bugs. As a result, in the future, he puts on that new kind of bug repellant before he walks in the woods more often.

• Suzie is a 5-year old who loves the beach – playing in the sand, running around, splashing in the water. She throws sand in the face of her two cousins and her parents immediately require her to sit on the beach blanket for 5 minutes. As a result, Suzie doesn’t throw sand at her cousins as often in the future.

6(exam examples, Tas can use examples from your exams)

SO 3: Abbreviations: Unconditioned and Conditioned Reinforcers

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Unconditioned Reinforcer

SR NOT UR UR=Unconditioned Response

Conditioned Reinforcer

Sr NOT CR CR=Conditioned Response

SOs 4-9 Explanatory FictionsMichael, 1993

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On your own.

Do you have any questions over that material?

Be forewarned, however, before I answer I will ask how you answered the study objective(s).

SO 10-11: Introduction

Chances material starts with animal training– Dolphin training, e.g., Shedd Aquarium, San Diego Sea

World, Georgia Aquarium – Behavioral enrichment in zoos, e.g., Honolulu Zoo,

Atlanta Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, Disney Land and Disney World, Busch Gardens-Orlando

– Animal training (dogs, cats, horses, etc.), Karen Pryor (Don’t shoot the dog), Mary Burch & Jon Bailey (How dogs learn), Mary Burch, (Citizen Canine – AKA), Gillette Obedience Training (Galesburg, MI), Applied animal training practicum (WMU, UMN-Duluth)

– “Clicker Training”: Clicker as an Sr (athletes)

9(: animal training; Gulf oil spill dogs and turtle eggs; Binti Jua – Brookfield zoo, Otto Fad, Ken Ramirez)

SO 11: The Aggressive Bull ElephantSan Diego Zoo: Intro

• An aggressive elephant• Husbandry includes cutting off calluses on feet,

otherwise, eventually they can’t walk• G. Priest established a “click” as an Sr• Shaped the elephant to walk to a wall with hole in

it, put its foot through the hole, and stand patiently while the vet cut off the calluses.

10(SO10 on your own)

SO 11: Development and Testing of an Sr

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When food deprived (MO):

Development

NS (click) / SR (carrot) (no behavior is necessary!)

NS becomes an Sr

Critical features:• The NS is paired with an SR (or Sr) (NOT a US!)• The NS precedes the SR when pairing takes place• No behavior is necessary• The NS becomes an Sr (NOT a CS!)

(How trainers made click; all in SOs,click, crticial features on slide - not for the exam need to test)

SO 11: Development and Testing of an Sr

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Testing

When food deprived (MO):

R (any response) ----> Sr (click)

*If R increases in frequency, the NS has become an Sr

Critical features:1. The Sr follows the response (operant relation)2. The Sr is presented alone (not with the SR)3. The R must increase in frequency in the future4. The Sr must occasionally be paired with the SR

(*essential - if the R doesn’t increase, no reinforcer, click critical features)

SO11: Sample test questionAssume that a direct care worker wants to use the sound of a bell as an Sr to increase the extent to which an autistic child touches a toy.A.Diagram what the staff member should do to make the bell into an Sr, labeling all parts of your diagram with the correct behavioral terms.

To solve:1. What is the NS?2. What do you pair it with?

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SO11: Sample test questionAssume that a direct care worker wants to use the sound of a bell as an Sr to increase the extent to which an autistic child touches a toy.B.Now diagram what the staff member should do to make sure the bell is an Sr, labeling all parts of your diagram with the correct behavioral terms.

To solve:1. What is the response?2. Do reinforcers come before or after a response?3. What is the Sr?4. To prove a stimulus is a reinforcer, what must

happen to the response?

14(another example is in the SOs)

SO12: Difference BetweenRespondent Conditioning and Development of an Sr

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The confusion: Both involve pairing an NS with another stimulus

Difference:

Respondent NS/US, or NS/CS Conditioning:

Development NS/SR, or NS/Sr

of an Sr:

(Respondent conditioning: NS becomes a CS-->CR; Sr NS becomes Sr; R-->Sr)

SO13: Respondent Conditioning & Development of an Sr

16(Although separate and distinct, there are times when they occur together)

Elephant: Click became an Sr

When food deprived:NS (click)/SR (carrot)Click became an Sr

Respondent conditioning: Click is also going to become a CS

NS (click) does not elicit salivationUS (carrot) UR (salivation) yes, elephants salivateNS (click)/US (carrot) UR (salivation)CS (click) CR (salivation)

SO14: When both respondent conditioning & development of an Sr will occur together

• When the NS is paired with a stimulus that is both a US and SR or a CS and an Sr

• Example of when it won’t happen: Pupillary constrictionA. Bright light is a US URB. Bright light is not an SR

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SO15: Behavioral Enrichment in Zoos• Behavioral interventions designed to improve the well

being and health of captive animals• Hal Markowitz started this work in the 1970s• Zoos have a very important function: protection of

endangered species, education of public– keep humans from destroying natural habitats– keep humans from killing off species of animals (ivory

tusks or furs)– protect and preserve species that are endangered due

to disease, natural disasters

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(back to an extension of animal training: mother nature ain’t kind – Poling story)

Zoos• Many of us cringe when we think about

zoos – animals in prison• But over the years, zoos have been

attempting to make life better for the animals

19(but most zoos have come a long way..)

SO16: Two popular* approaches zoos have tried to make life better for animals

• Make the enclosures more naturalistic• Add toys, boomer balls

20Neither – terrifically effective – naturalistic enclosures first)

*popular, but ineffective

SO16: What’s the problem, even when enclosures are naturalistic?

• Naturalistic enclosures sometimes do have some benefits for the animals

• Certainly make us more comfortable

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SO16: What’s the problem, even when enclosures are naturalistic?

• Fail to include the behavioral contingencies in the wild that reinforce species typical (and active) behavior

• Much of the behavior of free-ranging animals involves getting food (the only one mentioned by Chance), fighting off or fleeing predators, natural migration, securing mates and mating, establishing social hierarchies, etc.

• It’s the consequences of those behaviors that maintain much of the active behavior of wild animals– some behavior is, of course, genetic– over the years, they have discovered, however, that many behaviors

that were once considered inherited are learned

22(most groups, dominant male: stallions, mares; gorillas; ducklings following Momcloseness to object, following in the natural environment, bird’s songs)

SO16: What’s the problem, even when enclosures are naturalistic?

• In zoos, food is provided usually in the same place at the same time each day, animals are completely protected from predators, certainly cannot migrate to different locations, and are not subjected to threats of their domination from outside animals

• There is “no reason” for animals to be active• Behaviorally the reason to be active:

R (species typical behaviors) SR (food or other reinforcers) • What happens if behaviors are not followed by reinforcement?

23(in a zoo, no one wants to see an antelope/Bambi killed, mauled, and eaten by a hyena)

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Great enclosures, but no reinforcement for active behaviors

Toys and boomerballs, but noreinforcement for playing with them

SO17: Examples of Behavioral Enrichment

• Servals

25(Who can’t love a face like this? Click…Servals swim in the wild; naturalisticenclosures included ponds – servals didn’t’ swim. Guess what was missing?)

Enrichment for Servals:Honolulu Zoo

26(not squirmish about dead fish; only dead mammals; click; 5-gallon ice, cross-species)

Species typical behavior (swimming) with same reinforcement as in the wild (fish)

Enrichment for Elephants: Honolulu Zoo

27(variation on the same theme: elephant keggers; not beer!)

Species typical behavior (manipulating objects with trunk) with the same reinforcement as in the wild (food)

Enrichment for Langor Monkeys:Honolulu Zoo

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Species typical behavior (grooming and foraging) with reinforcement (fruit loops)

(mop head on bungee cord, laced with fruit loops, last slide on this)

SO18: Delusions, hallucinationsClinical applications

• Chance presents a number of very interesting cases

• Delusions and hallucinations - seeing, hearing things that aren’t really there (little green men, voices, etc.)

• Sometimes they are organic or have physiological causes - brain injury, Alzheimers, drugs - sometimes they may be due to operant conditioning, but

• They often can be altered by operant conditioning procedures.

29(back to humans!)

SO18A: What was the reinforcer for her delusion that her head was falling off?

• Woman in a mental institution who believed her head was falling off.

• She seemed quite frightened when this was occurring and the staff immediately tried to calm her down.

• The delusion got worse - she began to hear “popping” noises right before her head was going to fall off.

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SO18A Cont.

Behavioral psychologists observed:• She had difficulty approaching staff and engaging

them in conversation.• She had poor social skills so when she did

approach them, the staff responded with annoyance.

• When her head was falling off or when she heard popping sounds prior to her head falling off, the staff paid attention to her and comforted her.

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SO18B: Intervention componentsSolution?• Taught her better social skills• Taught staff to reinforce her appropriate

(actually, better) social behaviors• Taught staff to extinguish any behavior related to

her head falling offResult?

“Her head remained firmly attached to her body.”

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(Very nice ethical procedure - next slide)

SO18C: Why is this such a nice example of an ethical intervention?

• Social interaction with staff was a powerful Sr for her (as evidenced by her delusional behaviors - popping sounds, head falling off)

• If they had only extinguished (not to mention punished) the delusional behavior, it would have deprived the woman of an important reinforcer for her - decreasing her “quality of life”

**Identified the powerful reinforcer for her, the one maintaining the inappropriate behavior, then arranged to have that same reinforcer provided for appropriate behavior, thus preserving her quality of life.

33(quality of life, enriched environment – number/quality of reinforcers for behaviorsNote, they did extinguish the delusional behaviors – “head following off”)

SO19: The Haggly Old Witch

• Patient was a young male “schizophrenic” in the psychiatric hospital

• Presenting problem: A haggly old witch kept following him around.

• Medication helped, but he continued to report that she was “dogging” him

• Intervention: Record the strength of his belief that the witch was really there on a 100-point rating scale. – 100 = Absolutely, positively certain– 0 = Witch is not there, it’s my imagination

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SO19

• Reinforced expressions of doubt• After 26 days, the patient consistently reported

that the witch was all in his imagination!• Think of the implications - the intervention

consisted of “simply” reinforcing the verbal behavior of the client, and it changed his reality.

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SO20

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But how do we know that the schizophrenic patient really believed that the witch was no longer following him?

How do we know that the patient simply wasn’ttelling the therapist what he knew the therapistwanted to hear?

SO20• The patient always took a certain tranquilizer when

he believed the haggly old witch was there• The therapist recorded the number of tranquilizers

the patient took, using an ABAB reversal design• Surely enough, during treatment, he did not take as

many tranquilizers, and at the end of treatment he wasn’t taking any.

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Markowitz Article: SDs and S∆s

• Definitions: SDs and S∆ (not for the exam)• My definition of an SD for this class (in SO23):

A stimulus that precedes a response and evokes that response because that particular response has been reinforced in its presence and not in its absence.

• Malott’s definition:A stimulus in the presence of which a response has been reinforced or punished.

• Pietras’ definition:An event that precedes an operant and sets the occasion for the behavior. They change the probability of behavior based on a history of differential reinforcement.

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SO24: Development and Testing of an SD

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Development/Training: dolphin to jump and back flipimmediately after seeing a hand signal but not in its absence

SD (hand signal): R (jump and back flip) --->SR (food)

S∆ (no hand signal): R (jump and back flip) --->Ext (no food)

Testing: After repeated SD and S∆ training above, will thedolphin jump and do a back flip ONLY after the hand signal?

SD (hand signal): R (jump and back flip)

S∆ (no hand signal): NO R (does not jump/back flip)

(both SD and S∆ training necessary; reinforcing behavior after SD; MO must be present both)

(no ext in s∆ testing)

SO24: SD/S∆ Another Example

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Training: How do you train a rat to press a lever immediately when a light is on and ONLY when the light is on.

Testing: After training, how do you test to make sureThe rat presses the lever ONLY after the light on?

SO24: Sample test question

• Sample test question is at the end of SO24• Answer is at the end of the study objectives

for this unit

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SO25: SDs precede responses, not other stimuli

• Traffic light: A yellow light is not an SD for a red light.

• Railroad crossing: The flashing red lights and bells are not an SD for the crossing gates coming down.

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SOs 27 & 28: Markowtiz

• Markowitz was the behavior analyst who started behavioral enrichment in zoos

• It has taken almost 40 years for this to gain traction

• Altered the entire animal training field– Husbandry– Behavioral enrichment for health and exercise– Conservation

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SOs 27 & 28: Markowtiz

• Dept. of BiologySan Francisco State

• Behavioral Enrichment in Zoos (1982) – New: $2,430 from amazon.com– Launched global movement to

improve conditions of captive animals in zoos, aquariums, and biomedical facilities

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(Died 2012, 78 years old)

SOs 27 & 28: Review of Behavioral Chains

• Sequence of stimuli and responses:SD1: R1 Sr/SD2: R2 Sr/SD3: R3 Sr+/SR

• The stimulus that follows each R is an Sr for that response and an SD for the next response

SD1: R1 Sr/SD2: R2• Each stimulus-response-reinforcer “unit” is

called a link– The last link is called the terminal link

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Simple Chain with Rat

• Identify one link in this chain.• What is the terminal link in this chain?• What is the reinforcer for the lever press?• What is the SD for pulling the chain?• The buzzer is an Sr for what behavior?• The buzzer is an SD for what behavior?• The buzzer has also become a CS: For what

behavior? (last 5 questions the same ones I ask about the diana monkey chain in SO27)

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SD1 (light on): R1 (press lever) Sr/SD2 (buzzer): R2 (pull chain) SR (food)

Simple Chain with Rat

• What behavior is reinforced when SD1 is present?

• What is the reinforcer for pressing the lever?• Given the answer above, how would you

extinguish the lever press when the light is on?

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SD1 (light on): R1 (press lever) Sr/SD2 (buzzer): R2 (pull chain) SR (food)

(Now, I am going to ask the same questions I ask in SO28 re mandrill I wantto play game; how/why does the buzzer become an Sr?)

SO27: Diana Monkey Token Economy

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SO27: Diana Monkey Token Economy

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Top Platform

___________

SD1: Light on

R1: Pull chain SD1: Top light on

__________________

Middle Platform

Sr/SD2: Bottom light on

R2: Pull chain

Sr/SD3: Token delivered

Bottom Platform

R3: Put token in slot

SR: Food________________

(why light on middle platform as SD1? Two chain pulls: specify platform, questions on Sos?)

SO27: Diana Monkey Token Economy, Interesting Family Dynamics (NFE)

• Family group: 16-year old momma, Beulah; 8-year old dad, Rocky; adolescent and infant

• Beulah never learned how to exchange the tokens for food• Rocky would regularly share food with Beulah and would let her

sit on the platform with him when he exchanged tokens for food but….would “unceremoniously” knock the youngsters off the platform AHHH

• Beulah: to earn food she would “encourage” the others to work and would occasionally pull the chain that resulted in the token (after another one had pulled the top chain), but would always give the token to one of the others – however, then she would successfully “steal” the food most of time.

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SO27: Diana Monkey Token Economy, Interesting Family Dynamics (NFE)

• When the monkeys were learning, Rocky (the dad) was allowed to “take over” at his whim and completed the entire sequence without intrusion

• Once the task was mastered by Rocky and the youngsters, they would often pull chains for one another, and sit “patiently” watching other monkeys exchange the token for food.

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SO28: Mandrill Game

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SO28: Mandrill Reaction Time Game• Zoo patrons could push a “I want to play button” and then

insert a dime to start the game• The computer lit a “I want to play button” for the mandrills to

push on a random schedule if enough zoo patrons didn’t start the game, and the computer would play with the mandrills

• One of three square lights would randomly light on the monkey’s console and on the zoo patron’s console

• The contestant that touches the lighted square first, wins that round

• The contestant that wins three rounds is the victor• If the mandrill wins, the mandrill is reinforced with food; if the

human wins, they are rewarded by beating the monkey

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SO28: Mandrill Reaction Time Game• The mandrill beats the human more than 70% of the time• Reaction times of the mandrills due to play with computer is as

fast as .31 seconds!• Benefits to the zoo

– Popular exhibit with zoo patrons and the media– Received a lot of money to continue the behavioral enrichment work

• Benefits to the mandrills– The male mandrill has stopped constantly threatening and chasing his

female companions– All of the mandrills are more active; they are using more space in the

enclosure (interesting side effect, why?)– Stereotypic behaviors in the enclosure decreased (again, interesting,

why?)

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Recommended Reading

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Consequences are everywhere

Actions have consequences—and being able to learn from them revolutionized life on earth. It comes in quite handy for every day life as well.

Ten years in the making, The Science ofConsequences tells a tale ranging from genetics to neurotransmitters, from emotion to language,from parenting to politics. Taking an inclusivesystems approach, author Susan Schneider draws together research lines from many scientific fieldsto tell a tale that is epic in scope.

From the author’s web site:

And, it is an “easy read!”

THE END• Questions? • Instructional assistance hours:

– Monday, 9/22, 7:00-8:30 PM– Wood Hall First Floor Lounge

• Michael has the reins!

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