1. How is extinction applied to target behaviours?
2. What are some important considerations in applying extinction to target behaviours?
3. How can generalization and maintenance of extinction be promoted?
4. Under what conditions should extinction not be applied?
How can extinction be applied to reducing ___________ and aggressive behaviours?
(Magee & Ellis, 2000)
- Trey, an 8-year-old boy with moderate intellectual disability and profound hearing loss
- taking ADHD and antipsychotic ___________
- target behaviours:
• object ________ (putting inedible things into his mouth)
• object destruction (hitting, kicking, or throwing objects)
• aggression (hitting, kicking, or throwing objects at others)
- functional analysis conditions:
• alone: Trey was alone in a classroom, and was videotaped
• _________: therapist described each target behaviour after it occurred
• ____: therapist interacted with Trey, but stopped for 30 s after a target behaviour
• ______: therapist requested “Look at me” every 10 s, but left the room for 30 s after a target behaviour
- results: target behaviours occurred only in the attention condition
- behavioural treatment program:
• multiple-baseline across behaviour design, in which extinction (withdrawing social attention) was applied
- results:
• extinction eventually eliminated all three target behaviours
- this is an example of extinction of behaviour maintained by positive reinforcement
Extinction of Behavior Maintained by Negative Reinforcement
(Dawson et al., 2003)
- Mary, a 3-year-old admitted to hospital due to total food refusal
- she had a number of _______ issues including gastroesophageal reflux, delayed gastric emptying, gastrostomy tube dependence, and developmental delays
- when presented with a bite of food, she turned her head, pushed the spoon away, or covered her face with her hands or bib (escape behaviours)
- behavioural treatment program: ______ extinction
• therapist held spoon to Mary’s mouth until she took a bite
• if Mary expelled the bite, the food was re-presented until swallowed
• session ended after Mary took 12 bites of food
- results:
• Mary’s food acceptance increased from 0% in baseline to 100% compliance
Extinction of Behavior Maintained by Automatic Reinforcement
(Kennedy & Sousa, 1995)
- Geoff, a 19-year-old male with profound disabilities
- during periods of inactivity (e.g., after lunch, or waiting for the bus) he poked himself in the eyes
- behaviour had been going on for 12 years, and caused visual __________ in both eyes
- functional analysis revealed that eye poking served as sensory ___________ (automatic reinforcement), because it only occurred when Geoff was alone
- behavioural treatment program: _______ extinction
• Geoff was seated alone at a table
• wore transparent plastic safety _______
- results:
• eye poking decreased substantially
(contact between Geoff’s hand and the goggles was considered eye poking)
• reduced psychiatric patient’s frequency of visits to nurses’ office from 16/day to 2/day (Ayllon & Michael, 1959)
• stopped ________ behaviour by a 9-year-old girl with intellectual impairment and brain damage (Wolf et al., 1965)
• lessened disruptive or dawdling behaviour in first- and third-graders (Hall et al., 1968)
• decreased night __________ in 8- to 20-month-old infants (France & Hudson, 1990)
1. ______ problem behaviours and collect data
- define target behaviour
- collect baseline data
2. conduct a __________ assessment to identify reinforcement for the problem behaviour
Deaver et al. (2001):
- Tina, a 2-year-old girl, twirled her hair around her fingers
- sometimes her hair was so tightly wrapped around her finger, the hair had to be cut off; she also pulled her hair
- indirect and direct methods revealed that the behaviour occurred at _______
- functional analysis conducted when Tina was home, lying in bed:
• __________ attention: Tina’s mother provided social disapproval when Tina twirled her hair
• _____________ attention: Tina’s mother sat next to her and would rub her back and talk to her
• alone: Tina was alone in her room, and was videotaped
- results:
• attention was ___ reinforcing Tina’s behaviour
• likely that hair-twirling was a form of self-stimulation reinforcement
- behavioural treatment program:
• Tina wore thin cotton _______ that prevented hair-twirling
- results:
• Tina’s hair-pulling almost completely stopped
- implications:
• reinforcement may be counterintuitive
• __________ (removing attention) would not have had an effect
3. eliminate the _____________ for the problem behaviour
- Has the reinforcement been identified? (it may differ from person to person)
- Can the reinforcement be __________, and done consistently? (it may be under the control of others: family, friends, classmates, or workmates)
- Is it ____ to use extinction? (problem behaviours like aggression and self-injury that are destructive to property or harmful to people raise ethical issues)
- Are change agents able to ________ extinction burst, aggression, and spontaneous recovery?
Goh & Iwata (1994):
- Steve, a 40-year-old adult with developmental disability
- ______________ behaviours (SIBs): head banging (against hard surfaces), head hitting (hitting head and face with fist)
- functional analysis revealed target behaviours were maintained by negative reinforcement (______ from training sessions)
- behavioural treatment program applied escape extinction: when Steve exhibited SIBs, training continued with physical guidance
- also, correct responses during training were reinforced
- Steve became aggressive, slapping or kicking the trainer
- trainer blocked aggressive behaviours, but otherwise ignored them (__________)
- results: Steve’s target behaviours and aggression decreased over time
4. consider the ________ of reinforcement for the problem behaviour
Neisworth et al. (1985): Are behaviours maintained by intermittent reinforcement easier to extinguish if they are (temporarily) continuously reinforced before extinction?
- two 19-year-old students, Matthew and Stephen, with severe intellectual disabilities
- target behaviour: stereotypic hand flapping (Matthew), finger flicking (Stephen)
- baseline phase: measured percent of intervals containing target behaviour
- behavioural treatment program:
• CRF (__________ reinforcement) phase: reinforcer (applesauce or pretzels) delivered after every target behaviour
• EXT (__________) phase: reinforcer no longer delivered
- results were mixed:
- is it ethical to increase an unwanted behaviour?
5. reinforce ___________ behaviours
- differential reinforcement (see next lecture!)
6. promote generalization and maintenance
- ______________: target behaviour occurs across different situations that differ from the training situation
• use extinction in all relevant circumstances/settings
• have all change agents use extinction consistently
• if possible, provide ____________ about the new contingencies
- ___________: behaviour change persists over time after the b-mod program ends
• continue to use extinction whenever the problem behaviour occurs
Group settings and imitation
- behaviour placed on extinction typically causes an extinction burst and novel behaviours that may be ________ by others
- it can be difficult to manage extinction ______ and novel behaviours emitted by several people at once
Extreme behaviours
- some behaviours are harmful to people or destructive of property
- these should be modified with the most _____ procedures available
- due to its gradual nature, the use of extinction by itself is not recommended