Deceleration behavior therapy Lecture 4.pptx

Deceleration Behavior
Therapy
Lecture 4

Contents
Deceleration Behavior Therapy
Differential reinforcement
Punishment
Aversion therapy

Differential Reinforcement: Indirectly
Decelerating Undesirable Behaviors
The preferred strategy for decelerating an undesirable behavior is to reinforce
an acceleration target behavior that is an alternative to the deceleration
target behavior, a procedure called differential reinforcement.

Example
Consider the case of a young girl with severe mental
retardation who frequently hit herself. To reduce her self-
destructive behavior, she was reinforced for using her
hands to play with a puzzle.

Types
The four major types of differential reinforcement, in order of most to
least effective, are differential reinforcement of
(1) Incompatible behaviors,
(2) Competing behaviors,
(3) Any other behaviors, and
(4) A low frequency of the undesirable behavior.

Differentials Reinforcement Of
Incompatible Behaviors (DRI)
Incompatible means that the acceleration and deceleration target
behaviors cannot occur simultaneously. Thus, while a person is performing
the acceleration target behavior, it is impossible for the person to perform the
deceleration behavior.
In the case of self-injurious or aggressive behavior, it may be dangerous
to use such an intervention.

Rationale:Substitution
The focus is on replacing negative behaviors with positive behaviors. For
example, a student cannot at the same time,
Sit in a desk and wander around the room
Be verbally aggressive and compliment a peer

Example
Mrs. Clark is teaching a classroom with six students with autism. One of her students
has recently begun to pinch his arms. She takes data on the behavior and discovers that
it functions for attention. (When he pinches his arms, she or a teacher’s aid comes over
and tells him “no pinching.”) She decided to implement an intervention that utilizes
DRI. She teaches him how to sit with his hands intertwined on his desk. This is
an incompatible behavior with pinching because he is not able to pinch while
his hands are intertwined. She and the teacher’s aid reinforce him for
intertwining his hands (come over and tell him, “great job” or “I like how
you’re sitting”) and do not provide attention when he engages in arm pinching.

Differential reinforcement of Incompatible
Behavior (DRI): Activity 1
1. Biting one’s nails
2. Interrupting others during conversations
3. Sleeping in class
4. Making self-deprecating statements (such as “I’m just no good”)
5. Leaving clothes on the floor

Differential Reinforcement of Competing
Behaviors or Alternate Behaviors (DRA)
Engaging in a competing acceleration target behavior reduces, but does not eliminate, the
opportunity to simultaneously engage in the undesirable behavior.
Widely applicable for reducing maladaptive behavior.
Example
Notice that Jimmy could disrupt and ask the teacher for help at the same time. Therefore, these two
behaviors are not incompatible. However, the alternative behavior (asking for help) competes with
and reduces disruptive behavior.
Notice that in this case, the reinforcer for disrupting and for asking the teacher for help is
the same.

Example
Sarah engages in shouting out behavior after her teacher poses a question to the
class. Her teacher decides to use a DRA procedure in which Sarah is only
reinforced (ex. called on) for raising her hand to answer a question. This
behavior is an alternative to shouting out, but is not incompatible as both the
problem behavior and the alternative can occur at the same time. However,
raising her hand is a more socially acceptable alternative.

Differential Reinforcement of Other
Behaviors (DRO)
If a target behavior is seriously maladaptive, it may be necessary to
reinforce any other behavior to decrease the maladaptive behavior
quickly; this is known as differential reinforcement of other behaviors.

Applications
Differential reinforcement of other behaviors is employed primarily for
high-frequency behaviors that are either dangerous to others (such as hitting
people) or self-injurious (such as head banging).
In such cases, engaging in virtually any other behavior is preferable to engaging in the
deceleration target behavior.
For example, a child who frequently hurled objects at other people was
reinforced for throwing objects at anything but a person.

Differential Reinforcement of Low
Response Rates (DRL)
In such cases, the client can be reinforced for performing the deceleration
target behavior less often, which is called differential reinforcement of low
response rates.

Example
This strategy was used with an adolescent boy who frequently talked out
inappropriately in a special education class. The teacher told the boy that she
would spend extra time with him if he talked out inappropriately three or
fewer times during a class period. This contingency lowered the rate of the
boy’s talking out from an average of more than 30 times a class period to an
average of fewer than 3 times a period.

Applications
Differential reinforcement of low response rates can eliminate a behavior
completely if the criterion for reinforcement is gradually decreased to zero.
For example, first the client might be reinforced for 10 or fewer
responses, then for 5 or fewer, next for 2 or fewer, and finally, for no
responses.

Variants of Differential Reinforcement
Both differential reinforcement of other behaviors and of low response rates
are often used to treat severely maladaptive behaviors.
Variants
Noncontingent reinforcement
functional communication training

Non-Contingent Reinforcement
With noncontingent reinforcement, the reinforcer identified as maintaining a problem
behavior is administered on a frequent fixed-interval reinforcement schedule (for
example, every 15 seconds), regardless of whether the client engages in the
deceleration target behavior.
The client still receives the reinforcer but usually not after performing the target behavior,
which means that the reinforcer is not contingent on the client’s performing the
behavior.
Noncontingent reinforcement can be thought of as partial differential reinforcement of
other behaviors

Rationale
The reductions in behavior following noncontingent reinforcement therapy are
believed to be related to satiation and extinction.
Because the reinforcer is administered frequently, the client becomes
satiated on it, which decreases its effectiveness.
Extinction involves withholding the reinforcer for the problem behavior,
which results in a decrease in the behavior.

Applications
An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that it can successfully
reduce aggressive, self-injurious, and disruptive behaviors, particularly when
social attention maintains them.

Functional Communication Training
Functional communication training teaches clients to use acceptable
ways of communicating their desire for a reinforcer rather than their
typical unacceptable means of communicating the same message.
For instance, Ari might be taught to say “break” or make the hand gesture for
“cut” (side of the hand across the throat) to communicate that he wants to
terminate a frustrating task.

Deceleration behavior therapy Lecture 4.pptx

Rationale
In contrast to standard differential reinforcement procedures, the alternative
behavior that is reinforced in functional communication training is
specifically taught to clients, which means that it does not have to
already be in their behavioral repertoires.
In addition, clients in functional communication training determine when the
alternative behavior will be reinforced by appropriately communicating their
need or desire for the reinforcer.

Steps
1. The first step in functional communication training is to identify the reinforcer
maintaining the problem behavior.
2. Next, the client is taught to use an appropriate communication behavior that will
result in the client’s obtaining the reinforcer. (for example, “Please watch me”) and
manual signs, gestures, and picture cards that indicate what the client wants.
3. Finally, the alternative, acceptable ways of communicating are reinforced by the client’s
obtaining the desired reinforcer for using them, and the reinforcer is withheld (extinction)
for unacceptable communication behaviors.
Thus, functional communication training is a specialized form of differential
reinforcement of competing behaviors because appropriate communication competes
with inappropriate communication.

Applications
Functional communication training has been used to treat aggressive, self
injurious, and disruptive behaviors of children and adults who have very limited
communication skills, such as people with developmental disabilities and
autistic disorders.

Deceleration Behavior therapy: Directly
Decelerating Undesirable Behaviors
First, sometimes it is difficult to find a suitable acceleration target
behavior. With substance abuse, for example, few alternative behaviors are as
immediately satisfying as the physical effects of drugs

Second, increasing the acceleration target behavior may only partially decrease
the deceleration target behavior. For instance, accelerating complimenting may not
result in an acceptable decrease in criticizing because a person can compliment and
criticize someone in the same breath, as with sarcasm.
Third, differential reinforcement typically decreases the deceleration target
behavior gradually, which may not be fast enough. This would be the case
with behaviors (1) that are potentially dangerous to the client (for instance,
self-mutilation) or to other people (such as physically aggressive acts) and (2)
that infringe on others’ rights (for example, destroying someone’s property)

Forms of Deceleration Behavior Therapy
Punishment
Aversion therapy

Punishment
1. A particular behavior occurs.
2. A consequence immediately follows the behavior.
3. As a result, the behavior is less likely to occur again in the future. (The
behavior is weakened.)

Example
Ed was riding his bike down the street and looking down at the ground as he
pedaled. All of a sudden he ran into the back of a parked car, flew off the bike,
and hit the roof of the car with his face.
In the process, he knocked his front teeth loose. In the future, Ed was much
less likely to look down at the ground when he rode his bike.

Punisher
A punisher (also called an aversive stimulus) is a consequence that makes a
particular behavior less likely to occur in the future.

Types of Punisher
• Painful stimuli or extreme levels of stimulation have biological
importance. Such stimuli are called unconditioned punishers.
• No prior conditioning is needed for an unconditioned
punisher to function as a punisher.
Unconditioned punisher
• Extreme heat or cold, extreme levels of auditory or visual stimulation, or
any painful stimulus (e.g., from electric shock, a sharp object, or a
forceful blow) naturally weakens the behavior that produces it.
Example

• Conditioned punishers are stimuli or events that function as punishers
only after being paired with unconditioned punishers or other
existing conditioned punishers. Any stimulus or event may become a
conditioned punisher if it is paired with an established punisher.
Conditioned Punisher
• For example, if a child reaches for an electrical outlet and the parent says
“no,” the child may be less likely to reach for the outlet in the future.
When the child spells a word incorrectly in the classroom and the teacher
says “no,” the child will be less likely to spell that word incorrectly in the
future
Example

On Terms: Punish Behavior, not People
It is correct to say that you punish a behavior (or a response). You are
weakening a behavior by punishing it. To say “The teacher punished Sarah’s
disruptive behavior with time out” is correct.
It is incorrect to say that you punish a person. You don’t weaken a person,
you weaken a person’s behavior. To say, “The teacher punished Sarah for
disruptive behavior” is not correct.

Types of Punishment
Negative punishment
Positive Punishment
Negative punishment is defined as follows.
1. The occurrence of a behavior
2. is followed by the removal of a reinforcing stimulus,
3. and as a result, the behavior is less likely to occur in the future.
Positive punishment is defined as follows.
1. The occurrence of a behavior
2. is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus,
3. and as a result, the behavior is less likely to occur in the future.
With negative punishment, a pleasant or desirable consequence is
removed, which makes it unconducive for the client to continue
performing the deceleration target behavior.
In which an unpleasant or undesirable consequence, a punisher, is
introduced, which also makes it unconducive for the client to
engage in the behavior.
Procedures
In practice, this is done by eliminating reinforcement for the
target behavior, as in extinction and time out from positive
reinforcement.
Procedures
In practice, positive punishment involves administering an
unpleasant or undesirable consequence,
as in response cost, overcorrection, and physically aversive
consequences.

Activity Time
Self assessment
Chapter 6, table 6.1 (Miltenberger, 2016)

Procedures of Negative Punishment
• Extinction occurs when
1. A behavior that has been previously reinforced
2. No longer results in the reinforcing
consequences
3. And, therefore, the behavior stops occurring
in the future
Extinction

Example
In one of the earliest studies reporting the use of extinction to decrease a
problem behavior, Williams (1959) illustrated the effectiveness of extinction in
decreasing the nighttime tantrums of a young child.
Because Williams had determined that the child’s tantrum behavior was being
reinforced by the parents’ attention, the extinction procedure called for the
parents to refrain from providing attention when the child engaged in tantrum
behaviors at night.

Activity Time
Read Case 7.1
Speigler and Geuvremont (2010)

Rationale
For extinction to work, the reinforcer that is maintaining the deceleration
target behavior must be identified AND WITHHOLD.
Example
Consider the example of a 9-year-old boy who regularly stole money from his mother’s purse.
The boy’s mother decided to ignore her son when she saw him take money from her purse. She
believed she was using extinction. However, her son’s stealing continued because the behavior
was reinforced by the money rather than by social attention. Thus, she was not using extinction
because she was not withholding the reinforcer that was maintaining the behavior.

Application
Extinction can be effective as the sole treatment.
Generally, however, it is more effective when it is combined with other
therapies, such as differential reinforcement.

Problems with Extinction
First, in some (but certainly not all) cases, extinction may work relatively
slowly. This is a problem with target behaviors that must be decelerated
rapidly, such as self-injurious behaviors.
Second, in one of every four cases, extinction results in an extinction burst,
an initial intensification of the target behavior before it begins to
decrease.

• When a behavior is no longer reinforced, three
things may happen.
■ The behavior may briefly increase in frequency,
duration, or intensity.
■ Novel behaviors may occur.
■ Emotional responses or aggressive behavior may
occur.
• Extinction bursts are reduced when extinction
is combined with other deceleration
procedures,such as differential reinforcement.
Extinction
Burst

Problems with Extinction
Third, the effects of extinction may not transfer from the specific circumstances
in which the extinction was carried out. This may have occurred in Case 7-1. The
boy had not cried for a week and a half with his parents, who had administered the
extinction procedure. However, when his aunt put his to bed, the circumstances
changed and he cried.
The fourth potential problem with extinction is that the target behavior may
recur temporarily after it has been eliminated, which is known as spontaneous
recovery. Spontaneous recovery is not an indication that extinction has been
ineffective.

Spontaneous Recovery
Spontaneous recovery is the natural tendency for the behavior to occur again in
situations that are similar to those in which it occurred and was reinforced before extinction.
Rationale with Example
If extinction is still in place when spontaneous recovery occurs—that is, if there is no
reinforcement—the behavior will not continue for long. Once in while, Amanda may cry at night long after
extinction, but if she gets no attention for the crying, it will not occur often or for very long. However, if
spontaneous recovery occurs and the behavior is now reinforced, the effect of extinction will be lost.

Procedural Variations of Extinction
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement
Extinction of a negatively reinforced behavior
therefore involves eliminating the escape or avoidance that
was reinforcing the
behavior.
Extinction of a positively reinforced behavior involves
withholding the consequence that was previously
delivered after the behavior.
The aversive stimulus is no longer removed after the
behavior
The positive reinforcer is no longer delivered after the
behavior

Factors That Influence Extinction
When a behavior is continuously reinforced, it decreases rapidly once the
reinforcement is terminated.
When a behavior is intermittently reinforced, it often decreases more gradually once
the reinforcement is terminated
If reinforcement occurs in the course of extinction, it takes longer for the behavior
to decrease

Time out
For example
When parents have their child stand in a
corner for several minutes following a socially
inappropriate behavior, they are using time
out.
Time out from positive reinforcement (or
time out, for short) involves temporarily
withdrawing a client’s access to generalized
reinforcers immediately after the client
performs the deceleration target behavior.
Technically, the term time out from positive
reinforcement is a misnomer, and the
procedure should be called time out from
generalized reinforcers

Practical Considerations
.1
The client should be aware of the reason for time out and its duration.
.2
For instance, “For speaking disrespectfully, you have a 3-minute time
out.”
2. The duration of time out should be brief. Usually, 5 minutes or less is
sufficient. For children up to age 5, a rule of thumb is 1 minute for each
year of the child’s age. Relatively short periods are effective, and lengthening the time
period does not necessarily increase the effectiveness of time out.

3. No reinforcers should be present or introduced during the time-out period.
Adults should not give children attention when they are in time out
(as by answering their questions), and the time-out area should not contain generalized
reinforcers (which makes most children’s bedrooms inappropriate for time out).
4. Time out should be terminated only when the specified time has elapsed. If
the child is removed from time out beforehand, the time out may be less effective in
the future.

5. Time out should be terminated only when the child is behaving appropriately, which means
the child is not engaging in any undesirable behaviors. This provision ensures that an
undesirable behavior, such as screaming, is not inadvertently negatively reinforced by termination of
time out or positively reinforced by once again gaining access to generalized reinforcers.
6. Time out should not allow clients to escape or avoid situations they find
unpleasant.
If a child dislikes schoolwork, for example, then removing the student from the classroom for time
out allows the child to avoid schoolwork.In such instances, time out serves as a negative reinforcer
for the deceleration target behavior.

Applications
Target behaviors have included self-injurious behaviors of children with autistic
disorder, inappropriate table manners and eating habits of institutionalized
children with mental retardation, verbal and physical aggression of children and
adolescents, disruptive social behaviors of adults with psychiatric disorders,42
and alcoholconsumption by clients with a history of substance abuse

Difference Between Extinction And
Timeout
In part, time out is timelimited extinction.
However, in contrast to extinction, the actual reinforce for the deceleration
target behavior is not identified. In fact, what is temporarily denied is
access to a range of generalized reinforcers.

Procedures of Positive Punishment
Response Cost
Over Correction
Physically Aversive consequences

Response Cost
The undesirable consequence in response cost is the removal of a valued
item or privilege that the client possesses or is entitled to.
For example
Fines (such as for illegal parking and failure to return library books), the loss of points for turning in
school assignments late, and the loss of TV time or a favorite dessert for misbehavior.
In the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, loss of token reinforcers (response cost) was
more effective than access to token reinforcers in improving accuracy on an arithmetic task

Over correction
Overcorrection decelerates maladaptive behaviors by having clients correct the
undesirable effects of their actions and then intensively practice an appropriate
alternative behavior.
Applications: Overcorrection also is used for behaviors that have negative
consequences primarily for the client, including self-injurious behaviors,
bedwetting, excessive and stereotypic behaviors (such as walking in circles), and
persistent eating of nonnutritive substances, such as dirt, paper, and buttons.

Phases in Over Correction
• In which the client makes amends for the damage
done.
Restitution
• Positive practice, in which the client repeatedly performs an
appropriate adaptive behavior in an exaggerated fashion.
• Sometimes only one phase of overcorrection is employed. When
restitution alone is used, it may involve an exaggerated or
augmented form of making amends.
Positive practice

Activity Time
Case 7.2 Page 159, chapter 7, (Spiegler, 2016)

Applications
Overcorrection is appropriate primarily for behaviors that have
correctable adverse effects.
Under these conditions, overcorrection procedures have been demonstrated to
be effective in decelerating a variety of maladaptive behaviors, especially when
both phases are employed.

Physically Aversive Consequences
Physically aversive consequences are stimuli that result in unpleasant
physical sensations, including pain.
Examples
Parents spanking a child
Electric shock

Potential Negative Side Effects of
Physically Aversive Consequences
Avoidance
Emotional responses
Perpetuation effect
Negatively reinforcing for the person using punishment, and thus may result in the misuse or
overuse of punishment.
When punishment is used, its use is modeled, and observers or people whose behavior is
punished may be more likely to use punishment themselves in the future.
Finally, punishment is associated with a number of ethical issues and issues
of acceptability.

Guidelines for the effective use of
Punishment
Self-Study Task
Chapter 7, Pg167,
Spiegler and Guevremont (2010)

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