Negative Reinforcement

Negative

reinforcement can be defined as: Stimulus _______________, contingent

upon a response, which _______________ the future probability of that

response.

• Presented, increases

• Presented, decreases

• Removed, increases

• Removed, decreases

Which of the following is an example of a negative reinforcement contingency?

• Jo is sitting near a window at Starbucks having a cup of coffee. The sun is streaming in the window, and it is too warm for Jo-she is beginning to perspire. Jo moves to another chair away from the window, where it is shady. The next time Jo goes to Starbucks, she sees the sun shining in the window again and sits in the chair in the shade instead.

• Frank often goes to Starbucks for coffee as well. After receiving his coffee, he sits down in his seat. It is 9:00 am, and Starbucks is very busy. Most of the tables are full. As a result, a smart woman approaches Frank and asks if she can share his table. Frank agrees, and the woman sits down and has coffee with Frank. Frank decides he will come to Starbucks at 9:00 am for coffee more often in the future.

• Cheryl loves coffee. She orders a coffee at Starbucks but burns her mouth on it because it is too hot. After a couple of occurrences of this, Cheryl stops coming to Starbucks for coffee.

• Sam was walking to Starbucks for coffee. On his way, he lost his wallet to a pickpocket. Sam no longer walks to that Starbucks for coffee.

Mary Jo decides to implement a negative reinforcement intervention with one of her students, Anjali, to increase the amount of work Anjali completes. Mary Jo tells Anjali, if you complete 15 math problems today (Monday), you don't have to do your math worksheet on Friday. What is one problem that might arise with this intervention?

• Reinforcement is available for a competing behavior.

• There is little difference in the stimulus conditions before the response (completing work) occurs and after the response occurs.

• The stimulus change following the occurrence of target behavior is not immediate.

• Mary Jo is being inconsistent in her delivery of reinforcement.

Unlike

assessments for identifying positive reinforcers, assessments for

negative reinforcers must place equal emphasis on _______________ as

well as the consequence events for target behavior.

• The EO or antecedent event

• The future occurrence of the target behavior

• The stimulus

• Punishment

The key difference between an escape contingency and an avoidance contingency is:

• In an escape contingency the future probability of the target behavior increases, while the future probability of the target behavior decreases with an avoidance contingency.

• In an escape contingency the EO is present prior to the occurrence of the target behavior, while in an avoidance contingency, the EO is not present prior to the occurrence of the target behavior.

• In an escape contingency the EO is not present prior to the occurrence of the target behavior, while in an avoidance contingency, the EO is present prior to the occurrence of the target behavior.

• In an escape contingency, there is a warning stimulus that signals an aversive stimulus is imminent, while in an avoidance contingency there is no such warning stimulus.

Which of the following is an example of free-operant avoidance?

• Jackie crosses the street when she sees Donna come around the corner on the next block so that she doesn't have to talk to her.

• Lavonda puts on a bicycle helmet when she rides her bike so that she doesn't hurt her head in the event that she falls off her bike.

• Nathaniel puts down the hurricane shutters on his Florida home when he hears that a tropical storm is approaching so that his windows do not get broken.

• All of these

Which of the following behaviors could be maintained by negative reinforcement?

• Completing school work.

• Cleaning a bedroom

• Tantrums

• All of these

An unconditioned negative reinforcer:

• Is one that began as a neutral stimulus.

• Acquired its aversive qualities by being paired with another aversive stimulus.

• Is one that strengthens behavior in the absence of prior learning.

• Can be thought of as an inherited negative reinforcer.

• Both third and fourth choices.

The textbook describes a study by Ahearn and colleagues (1996), in which negative reinforcement was used to increase food acceptance in children. In this example, during baseline, bite acceptances produced access to toys and bite refusals produced removal of the spoon (negative reinforcement). During the intervention, bite refusals no longer produced removal of the spoon. Instead, the spoon was only removed if a bite was accepted. As soon as a bite was accepted and every time a bite was accepted, the spoon was briefly removed. Which factors that are important to consider for effectively changing behavior with negative reinforcement are illustrated in this example?

• The stimulus change following the occurrence of the target behavior was immediate.

• The difference in stimulation prior to and after the response occurred was large.

• The occurrence of the target response consistently produced escape.

• Reinforcement was unavailable for competing responses.

• All of these

The study by Rodgers and Iwata (1991) that analyzed the effects of positive reinforcement, error correction procedures, and an avoidance procedure

demonstrated that:

• Error correction procedures may produce learning, at least in part, due to an avoidance contingency.

• Positive reinforcement was the most effective procedure for producing correct performance.

• Error correction procedures and avoidance procedures produced the most correct responding.

• All of these

• None of these