Chapter 8 Antecedents: Stimulus Control ~Antecedents affect ...
Chapter 8 Antecedents: Stimulus Control ~Antecedents affect behaviour and vary in the degree to which they are effective Setting the occasion for behavior Antecedents-cues that precede and set the occasion for behaviour-they lead us to do,think,or feel something eg. You are thirsty and see a water fountain set you for using the fountain to get the drink ~we learn cues that tell us when and where to perform or not perform responses by lining the cues with the behaviour and its consequences Types of Antecedents In a context that arouses behaviour is a stimulus; we can use any stimulus as an antecedent eg. Teacher ask question sets occasion for students to raise their hands ~antecedents involve any of our sense and differ from one person to the next Overt and covert antecedents Overt antecedents-observable through our sense eg. Seeing a dog Covert antecedents-internal eg. Feeling tired Immediate and Distant antecedents Immediate antecedents-present shortly before the behaviour occurs eg. Hear someone yell ‘fire’ and you exit away or immediately stopping on a red traffic light ~training can help people learn the cues they fail to learn on their own ~antecedents can be ongoing, not just discrete as the above examples eg. Elderly communicated more frequently as staff rearranged the furniture Distant antecedents-antecedents precede the behaviour over a time period; continue to affect behavior for a long time after the occurrence of the actual antecedent because they have strong emotional/covert components eg. Abused women influenced by the frequent thoughts about that event ~analyzing to design an intervention need to seek behaviors existing antecedents Overt and immediate antecedents are easy to identify because they are observable before the target behavior occurs Covert and distant antecedents are difficult to identify since not observable
Antecedent Functions Motivational function-affects the effectiveness of a consequence for a behavior eg. If thirsty, water is more likely to be a reinforce for the behavior you make-using the fountain Discriminative function- a stimulus you can distinguish from many other objects eg. Learned that water fountain leads to a particular type of consequence aside from other objects: water is a reinforcement Discriminative Stimuli Discriminative stimulus (SD), a cue that sets the occasion for a particular response and signals that the response will be followed by a particular type of consequence eg. Silhouettes, tell people that both genders may use the washroom ~in the presence of SD, the behavior is likely to continue or increase if it was reinforced in the past or to occur less frequently if it was punished eg. Hear a dial tone and could dial the number you want because in the past learned that phone works (reinforced) only if the dial tone sounds ~Many cases, the discriminative function of an antecedent is the main determinant of its effect on behavior ~Discriminative and motivational functions of antecedents have two features in common: exist before the target behavior occurs and increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur ~Making a response depends strongly on people’s motivation; analysts may try to increase that motivation by establishing operations Establishing Operations Establishing Operations-procedure that increases the effectiveness of a particular consequencea reinforce or punisher-on a performance of a target behavior, which enhances the motivational function of the antecedent conditions; determines what an individual wants or needs as a reinforce at a given time eg. Person hungry so food effective reinforce than it was soon after a meal
Deprivation-presenting the SD when the person has been without a specific reinforcer,eg. Food,for a period of time
Learning antecedents ~to respond to different requests, individual must have learned to distinguish among Stimulus discrimination Discrimination training-teaching procedure in which a consequence is administered for a particular behavior when a specific stimulus is present but not when another stimulus is present;teaches people to distinguish btw diff stimulus conditions and respond diff toward them
eg. Seeing items being asked of each ‘what is this’ constituted antecedents for our behaviour as we learned to discriminate ~mands-request for items we want ~proceed smoothly and quickly if the diff SD are clearly distinctive eg. Teacher making them visually diff Antecedent stimuli of two types:
SD-discriminative stimulus;training teaches that antecedent leads to a particular type of consequence eg.a close friend who has lent you money, you’ve paid back (friend likely reinforce to give you money) SΔ- stimulus associated with not being reinforced for making a given response is; becomes a cue for not performing that particular behavior eg. Strangers won’t necessarily give you money if you request
~the effect of antecedent on behavior depends on the consequences they have been associated with in the past Stimulus generalization and Equivalence Stimulus generalization-we learn to make a particular response to a specific SD ;learn to respond in the same way to other stimuli that are similar to the SD learned; the more similar the other stimuli are to SD we learned, the more likely we are to make the response to those stimuli.
Discriminative stimulus for punishment- SDp –a behavior that receives punishment when a particular antecedent is present will tend to decrease,and perhaps stop entirely,in the future when the SDp is present; after discrimination learning is carried out for punishment,the response is less likely to be performed when the SDp is present
Stimulus equivalence-two+ physically different stimuli come to serve the same purposes and be used interchangeably ~stimulus generalization and equivalence involve learning processes that allow us to connect a variety of antecedent stimuli to a single response without actual training for each stimulus.
Generalization gradient- graph showing response strengths produced by stimuli of varying degrees of similarity to the SD
Concept formation Concept-cognitive category by which we group noticeably different objects,events,or ideas on the basis of their concrete or abstract commonalities.
~the processes of stimulus generalization and discrimination are both involved in forming a concept; given that the grouped items are noticeably differ can clearly distinguish them from one another ~stimulus generalization is involved in forming a concept because the commonalities among the items in the group make them similar in appearance and function; some are concrete eg chair, or abstract eg love ~~to teach people a concept, we need to make sure they can discriminate among relevant items and identify critical commonalities that the items share Stimulus control What is stimulus control ~after we learned to associate a response with an SD as an antecedent, this cue came to exert stimulus control over the behavior. Stimulus control-extent which antecedent can influence performance of a specific behavior; cue have high degree of stimulus control ~many behaviors for which antecedents have high degree of stimulus control are habitual and automatic eg. Writing the last letters of a common word
Contextual control-stimulus control where antecedent for an overall context rather than a collection of stimuli
~used effectively in treating people with insomnia Promoting stimulus control Paying attention to the stimuli training as SD Training stimulus is easily noticed, different form other stimuli Task straightforward so person make few errors Contingencies are stated in words the person can understand
Antecedent Functions Motivational function-affects the effectiveness of a consequence for a behavior eg. If thirsty, water is more likely to be a reinforce for the behavior you make-using the fountain Discriminative function- a stimulus you can distinguish from many other objects eg. Learned that water fountain leads to a particular type of consequence aside from other objects: water is a reinforcement Discriminative Stimuli Discriminative stimulus (SD), a cue that sets the occasion for a particular response and signals that the response will be followed by a particular type of consequence eg. Silhouettes, tell people that both genders may use the washroom ~in the presence of SD, the behavior is likely to continue or increase if it was reinforced in the past or to occur less frequently if it was punished eg. Hear a dial tone and could dial the number you want because in the past learned that phone works (reinforced) only if the dial tone sounds ~Many cases, the discriminative function of an antecedent is the main determinant of its effect on behavior ~Discriminative and motivational functions of antecedents have two features in common: exist before the target behavior occurs and increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur ~Making a response depends strongly on people’s motivation; analysts may try to increase that motivation by establishing operations Establishing Operations Establishing Operations-procedure that increases the effectiveness of a particular consequencea reinforce or punisher-on a performance of a target behavior, which enhances the motivational function of the antecedent conditions; determines what an individual wants or needs as a reinforce at a given time eg. Person hungry so food effective reinforce than it was soon after a meal
Deprivation-presenting the SD when the person has been without a specific reinforcer,eg. Food,for a period of time
Learning antecedents ~to respond to different requests, individual must have learned to distinguish among Stimulus discrimination Discrimination training-teaching procedure in which a consequence is administered for a particular behavior when a specific stimulus is present but not when another stimulus is present;teaches people to distinguish btw diff stimulus conditions and respond diff toward them
eg. Seeing items being asked of each ‘what is this’ constituted antecedents for our behaviour as we learned to discriminate ~mands-request for items we want ~proceed smoothly and quickly if the diff SD are clearly distinctive eg. Teacher making them visually diff Antecedent stimuli of two types:
SD-discriminative stimulus;training teaches that antecedent leads to a particular type of consequence eg.a close friend who has lent you money, you’ve paid back (friend likely reinforce to give you money) SΔ- stimulus associated with not being reinforced for making a given response is; becomes a cue for not performing that particular behavior eg. Strangers won’t necessarily give you money if you request
~the effect of antecedent on behavior depends on the consequences they have been associated with in the past Stimulus generalization and Equivalence Stimulus generalization-we learn to make a particular response to a specific SD ;learn to respond in the same way to other stimuli that are similar to the SD learned; the more similar the other stimuli are to SD we learned, the more likely we are to make the response to those stimuli.
Discriminative stimulus for punishment- SDp –a behavior that receives punishment when a particular antecedent is present will tend to decrease,and perhaps stop entirely,in the future when the SDp is present; after discrimination learning is carried out for punishment,the response is less likely to be performed when the SDp is present
Stimulus equivalence-two+ physically different stimuli come to serve the same purposes and be used interchangeably ~stimulus generalization and equivalence involve learning processes that allow us to connect a variety of antecedent stimuli to a single response without actual training for each stimulus.
Generalization gradient- graph showing response strengths produced by stimuli of varying degrees of similarity to the SD
Concept formation Concept-cognitive category by which we group noticeably different objects,events,or ideas on the basis of their concrete or abstract commonalities.
~the processes of stimulus generalization and discrimination are both involved in forming a concept; given that the grouped items are noticeably differ can clearly distinguish them from one another ~stimulus generalization is involved in forming a concept because the commonalities among the items in the group make them similar in appearance and function; some are concrete eg chair, or abstract eg love ~~to teach people a concept, we need to make sure they can discriminate among relevant items and identify critical commonalities that the items share Stimulus control What is stimulus control ~after we learned to associate a response with an SD as an antecedent, this cue came to exert stimulus control over the behavior. Stimulus control-extent which antecedent can influence performance of a specific behavior; cue have high degree of stimulus control ~many behaviors for which antecedents have high degree of stimulus control are habitual and automatic eg. Writing the last letters of a common word
Contextual control-stimulus control where antecedent for an overall context rather than a collection of stimuli
~used effectively in treating people with insomnia Promoting stimulus control Paying attention to the stimuli training as SD Training stimulus is easily noticed, different form other stimuli Task straightforward so person make few errors Contingencies are stated in words the person can understand
