While ABA research indicates that ABA has very high efficacy for treating autism, this efficacy only applies to autists with an IQ of 70 or above. Since IQ is used as a measure of efficacy in these research studies, nonverbal autistic children (specifically those considered lower functioning/untestable) are inherently excluded from these studies.

The Exclusion of Nonverbal Autists from ABA Research

Radical behaviorists believe that cognition does not matter in learning. 

Radical Behaviorism

Positive reinforcement refers to when a favorable stimulus is added to increase the chance of a desired behavior occurring. 

Positive Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, negative reinforcement is a method used to increase the likelihood of a behavior by removing an undesirable or aversive stimulus after the desired behavior is performed. The removal of the negative stimulus serves as a reward, strengthening the behavior that led to its removal.

Negative Reinforcement

Shaping is a technique in operant conditioning used to teach complex or chained behaviors that an organism is unlikely to perform spontaneously. It involves reinforcing successive approximations of a target behavior and is a common method used by animal trainers to teach animals new skills.

Shaping in Operant Conditioning

Positive punishment refers to when an unfavorable stimulus is added to decrease the chance of a behavior occurring. 

Positive Punishment

Negative punishment refers to when a favorable stimulus is taken away to decrease the chance of a behavior occurring. 

Negative Punishment

An example of operant conditioning through reinforcement is teaching a dog a new command, like 'sit'. When the dog performs the behavior, it is given a pleasant consequence, such as a treat. This process is often visualized by a dog attentively smelling a treat in its owner's hand. Over time, the dog learns to associate the behavior with the reward, making it more likely to repeat the action in the future.

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement Example

An example of operant conditioning through punishment is using an invisible electric fence to train a dog. If the dog exhibits the behavior of crossing a specific boundary, it receives an unpleasant consequence, such as a small shock. This punishment conditions the dog to avoid the behavior of crossing the fence in the future.

Operant Conditioning: Punishment Example

A clear example of operant conditioning is the training of Spirit, a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. The dolphin learns to associate the behavior of performing an aerial flip with a pleasant consequence. When the trainer blows a whistle, Spirit performs the flip and is rewarded with a fish, which reinforces the behavior and makes it more likely to be repeated.

Operant Conditioning Example: Dolphin Training

In the framework of operant conditioning, several common words carry specific, technical meanings that differ from their everyday usage. The terms 'positive' and 'negative' do not denote 'good' or 'bad'; instead, 'positive' signifies the addition of a stimulus, while 'negative' refers to the removal of a stimulus. Likewise, 'reinforcement' is any consequence that functions to increase a behavior, whereas 'punishment' is any consequence that serves to decrease a behavior.

Specialized Terminology in Operant Conditioning

A classic illustration of operant conditioning is how rats in a Skinner box learn to press a lever. The rats are rewarded with a food pellet, an obvious reinforcer for an animal, each time they perform the target behavior of pressing the lever. This consequence strengthens the association between the action and the reward, making the rat more likely to press the lever again.

Operant Conditioning Example: Rat Pressing a Lever

Behavior modification is a strategy, often used by parents and teachers, that applies the principles of operant conditioning to encourage socially acceptable behaviors while discouraging undesirable ones. The primary goal is to increase positive actions and reduce misbehavior by systematically reinforcing desired behaviors.

Behavior Modification

Extinction, within the framework of operant conditioning, is the process where a previously reinforced behavior diminishes and eventually ceases once the reinforcement is no longer provided. The rate at which this behavioral disappearance occurs is directly influenced by the specific reinforcement schedule that was previously in place.

Extinction in Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement schedules are the rules used to determine when a behavior will be rewarded. These schedules dictate whether reinforcement is delivered based on a set or variable period of time or number of responses.

Reinforcement Schedules

A dog learns that if it sits on command, it receives a treat. As a result, the dog becomes more likely to sit whenever the command is given. Which statement best analyzes the components of this learning process?

A dog trainer is trying to teach a dog to roll over. Every time the dog successfully completes the roll, the trainer gives it a small, tasty treat. After several training sessions, the dog begins to roll over more consistently and quickly when prompted. Based on the principles of how consequences influence voluntary actions, what is the most likely reason for the dog's behavioral change?

In the context of operant conditioning, the term positive does not mean good. Instead, it indicates that a stimulus is being added to the environment following a behavior.

Positive (Operant Conditioning)

In operant conditioning, the term negative does not imply bad. It specifically means that a stimulus is being taken away or removed following a behavior.

Negative (Operant Conditioning)

The teaching machine was an early forerunner of computer-assisted learning invented by Skinner. It applied operant conditioning principles to school subjects by testing students' knowledge and providing immediate positive reinforcement for correct answers. Incorrect answers received no reinforcement, which encouraged students to spend additional time studying the material to earn reinforcement on their next attempt.

Teaching Machine

B. F. Skinner suggested that while positive punishment can be effective in certain cases, its use should always be weighed against the possible negative effects it may produce.

Skinner's View on Punishment

Today's psychologists and parenting experts generally favor reinforcement over punishment. They recommend catching a child demonstrating desired behavior and rewarding them for it, rather than punishing undesirable behavior.

Modern Expert Views on Reinforcement vs. Punishment

In operant conditioning, shaping is an approach in which successive approximations of a target behavior are rewarded, rather than rewarding only the final target behavior itself.

Shaping

Operant conditioning is a form of associative learning in which the motivation for a behavior occurs after the behavior is demonstrated. An organism learns to associate a voluntary action with its subsequent consequence, which can be either a reinforcer or a punisher. This consequence then modifies the likelihood of the behavior being repeated in the future.

Google

Hofstra University

University of Chicago

Michigan State University

Associative memory is the unconscious retrieval and storage of information through association with other information. Associative memory can be acquired through two different learning processes: 

- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning

Associative memory

Associative learning is a form of learning where connections or associations are made between events that occur together in the environment. Both classical conditioning and operant conditioning are classified as forms of associative learning.

Associative Learning

B. F. Skinner was a pivotal figure in the school of behaviorism, whose contributions to the understanding of the principles of operant conditioning are considered exceptionally significant within psychology.

B. F. Skinner

Applied behavior analysis is a subfield of psychology that emerged in the 1960s to apply the principles of the experimental analysis of behavior to practical, human-focused research. By utilizing single-subject research methodologies, this discipline seeks to develop and evaluate interventions for real-world issues. It plays a critical role in contemporary applied research across various domains, including the treatment of developmental disabilities, education, health, and organizational behavior.

Applied Behavior Analysis

- Camina, E., Güel, F. (2017). The Neuroanatomical, Neurophysiological and Psychological Basis of Memory: Current Models and Their Origins. Front. Pharmacol. 8:438. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2017.00438

- Kreitzer, A. C. (2009). Physiology and pharmacology of striatal neurons. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 32, 127–147. doi: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135422

- Spielman, R. M, et. al. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax.

- Mackintosh, J. N. (1999). Classical and instrumental conditioning. Encyclopedia Britannica.

- McLeod, S. A. (2018, August 21). Classical conditioning. Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

References for implicit memory

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Operant Conditioning

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning in which organisms learn to connect events that repeatedly happen together. Through this process, a reflexive response originally elicited by one stimulus can be mapped to a different stimulus by training an association between the two.

Classical Conditioning

Advertisers quickly cancel contracts with famous athletes following a scandal because the athlete is no longer associated with positive feelings. Consequently, the athlete can no longer serve as an unconditioned stimulus to condition the public to associate positive feelings (the unconditioned response) with the advertiser's product (the conditioned stimulus).

Classical Conditioning in Advertising: Athlete Scandals

Classical conditioning involves pairing one stimulus with a previously neutral stimulus, which causes a change in response to a neutral stimulus.

What are the 2 Forms of Associative Learning?

Advertising executives apply the principles of associative learning by pairing a product with a desirable stimulus. For example, by associating an attractive model with a car in a commercial, viewers may come to see the car itself as more desirable.

Associative Learning in Advertising

An operant conditioning chamber, commonly referred to as a Skinner box, is an enclosed apparatus used in scientific experiments to study animal behavior and learning. B. F. Skinner placed subjects, such as rats or pigeons, inside these chambers to carefully observe how they learn through operant conditioning.

Operant Conditioning Chamber

Controversy around ABA

Early behaviorism posited that a stimulus would prompt a response in a simple cause-and-effect manner; Skinner later argued that the stimulus directly following a behavior (the antecedent) is just as important, if not more important, than the stimulus that came before it. Using Skinner’s principles, ABA was first coined in the 1950s, with a 1959 journal article becoming the first official study on its effectiveness. Early ABA studies focused predominantly on reducing self-injurious behaviors in patients with schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders by providing positive and/or negative reinforcement* after the patient behaves in a way that the researcher wants to encourage. 

*Reinforcement refers to a stimulus that encourages a behavior. Negative reinforcement differs from positive or negative punishment in that it is supposed to encourage the behavior by taking away a dislikable stimulus.   

History of ABA

Applied behavior analysis principles drove educational practices. This ideology permeated all classroom interactions. The authors argue it harms both students and teachers.

Systemic Instruction Ideology

Often students with Severe Intellectual Disabilities are taught communication in the context of ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis. This type of therapy is focused on getting children to produce predetermined behavioral responses to certain stimuli in an attempt to correct "undesirable behaviors" that may be natural responses to the situation. This paradigm undermines the child's agency in the pursuit of performing normativity.

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