Chapter 7- Stimulus Control

Front 1

Antecedents

Back 1

-stimulus events that are present when the behaviour occurs or were present immediately before the behaviour

-as you're engaging in the behaviour, stimuli around you that then become associate with your behaviour and then over time becomes a discriminative stimulus

Front 2

Controlling stimulus (CS)

Back 2

- antecedent events that precede operant (or respondent) behaviour that affect the likelihood of occurrence

-a CS is said to alter the probability of an operant, in the sense that the response is more (or less) likely to occur when the stimulus is present

Front 3

Behaviour is under "stimulus control" when...

Back 3

- there is an increased probability that the behaviour will occur in the presence of a specific antecedent stimulus

or a stimulus from a specific stimulus class

Front 4

EG. of stimulus control (antecedent events)

Back 4

1. PHONE ringing- increases the likelihood that you will pick up the phone.

2. Jake asks his mom for money she says yes, asks his dad he says no. THEREFORE mom is an antecedent for Jake's behaviour of asking for money

3. Telling a rude joke only to your friends, not your parents. your FRIENDS being present is the antecedent

Front 5

to understand and modify behaviour...

1. Follow and

2. Precede

Back 5

- Operant behaviour is controlled by its consequences

- analyze events that follow the behaviour to understand why it is occurring and manipulate the consequences of behaviour to modify it.

Front 6

Analyze antecedents

Back 6

ALSO must analyze the antecedents that precede an operant response- when we analyze antecedents we have information on the circumstances in which the behaviour was reinforced- and the circumstances in which the behaviour was not reinforced or as punished

Front 7

Stimulus Discrimination (stimulus control develops through the process of discrimination)

Back 7

- Behaviour is reinforced in the presence of ONE STIMULUS (or class) but is NOT reinforced when other stimuli are present

-The antecedent stimulus that is present when a behaviour is reinforced is the SD- the process of reinforcing a behaviour ONLY when a specific antecedent stimulus is present is called stimulus discrimination training

Front 8

2 steps in Stimulus Discrimination Training

Back 8

1. when the SD is present the behaviour is reinforced

2. any OTHER antecedent stimuli except the SD are present, the behaviour is NOT reinforced (Sdelta)

Front 9

the Discriminative Stimulus (SD)

Back 9

-a controlling stimulus that sets the occasion for reinforcement

- it INCREASES the likelihood of evoking a behaviour because it was associated with reinforcement in the past S+

-it cues you that you will receive reinforcement because in the past you have received reinforcement after this stimulus

Front 10

NOTE* about the SD

Back 10

- the presence of an SD does not CAUSE the behaviour to occur, and it does not STRENGTHEN the behaviour.

- it INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD of the behaviour in the present situation because it was associated with reinforcement in the past

Front 11

S DELTA

Back 11

- a stimulus that sets the occasion for extinction of an operant (S-)

- the SDELTA is any antecedent stimulus that is present when the behaviour is NOT reinforced

EG. the presence of your parents, makes you NOT tell a joke, because they do not reinforce your joke telling behaviour- they do not laugh

Front 12

Three Term Contingency

Back 12

- the consequence (reinforcer or punisher) is contingent on the occurrence of the behaviour ONLY in the presence of the specific antecedent stimulus (the SD)

3 terms- the SD- the behaviour (R) and the consequence of the behaviour (SRreinforcer)

OR

SD-> R-> SP (punisher)

Front 13

Generalization is...

Back 13

takes place when a behaviour occurs in the presence of stimuli that are similar in some ways to the SD that was present during stimulus discrimination training

- the more similar another stimulus is to the SD, the more likely it is that the behaviour will occur in he presence of that stimuli

Front 14

Generalization

Back 14

-Behaviours respond similarly in different situations, among settings, people and stimuli

- Very hard to get good behaviour to generalize, but problem behaviour is EASILY generalized (adaptive behaviours hard to generalize)

Front 15

Behaviours do NOT..

Back 15

OCCUR randomly

- ALL behaviours are under stimulus control

- NO behaviour is random according to behaviour analysts- there is always a stimulus

Front 16

Conditional Discrimination Learning

Back 16

- the correct response is conditional (dependent) on other antecedent stimuli

- matching to sample: the conditional stimulus is referred to as the SAMPLE, and the choices we respond to are COMPARISON STIMULI (eg. multiple choice question)

- often follows "if-then" rule, if this occurs then that will occur

- EG. to a child Mom is usually SD for talking, but if they're at church then the church becomes the antecedent stimuli and mom is no longer and SD for talking to

Front 17

Concept Formation

Back 17

-Traditional cognitive psychology talks about the internal mental rules defining what things "go together" and why; they assert that the mental rule controls behaviour

- behaviour analysts refer to concepts as "sets of stimuli that occasion a common response"

-those "sets of stimuli" can be incredibly complex such as exemplars of "immoral conduct"

- the "common response" can also be complex

Front 18

1. Perceptual Class

2. Relational

3. Equivalence

Back 18

1. Stimuli in the set share some physical characteristics

2. stimuli in the set share some abstract relationship, such as examples of "bigger than"

3. stimuli do NOT share any physical characteristics. stimuli belong together just because society says so. eg. 1=one, spoken word "one"