What is ABA and why is it useful?
- Applied Behaviour Analysis refers
to a scientific method of
predicting and changing human
behaviour. - If we know how people are likely
to behave under certain
conditions, we can decide whether
to provide or avoid such
conditions. - We must understand how human
behaviour works before we can
predict and change it. - Why train in ABA? It is inefficient to fail to arrange environmental conditions so that functional relations are established, or to allow such relations to be randomly established, or to assume that such relations have been established based only on common sense. This inefficiency has resulted in high levels of maladaptive behaviour in schools and sometimes frighteningly low levels of academic and pre-academic learning.
What are the (4) criteria for determining the usefulness of theories/explanations?
Theories should:
(1) be INCLUSIVE and explain most behaviours in order for predictions and systematic change to occur;
(2) VERIFIABLE and be able to perform a test to validate that the explanation truely does explain human behaviour;
(3) should have PREDICTIVE UTILITY and provides reliable predictions about what behaviour people will do under certain circumstances;
(4) should be PARSIMONIOUS, the simplest explanation for phenomena should be provided to remain as close to the truth as possible and avoid making biased interprestions of phenomena.
What are the (5) main types of theories/explanations? How useful are they?
Biophysical
Behaviour is controlled by the physical structure of the human body such as genetics, brain damage, or neurotransmitters.
(1) Poor inclusiveness because they can only fully explain a small percentage of behaviours; (2) Fair verifiability because chromosomal markers can be tested to see if a child has down syndrome but brain dysfunction cannot be easily tested; (3) Assuming a child engages in certain behaviours because they have a specific disorder has low predictive utility because it doesn’t tell us under what conditions the behaviour is likey to occur (or not occur); and (4) parsimony is low because it is often difficult to find biological explanations for behaviour and surpasses more simpler expalanations.
Biochemical
Behaviour is caused by excess or deficiencies of substances found within the human body. (1) Poor inclusiveness because they can only fully explain a small percentage of behaviours; (2) Fair verifiability because chromosomal markers can be tested to see if a child has down syndrome but brain dysfunction cannot be easily tested; (3) Assuming a child engages in certain behaviours because they have a specific disorder has low predictive utility because it doesn’t tell us under what conditions the behaviour is likely to occur (or not occur), and (4) parsimony is low because it is often difficult to find biological explanations for behaviour and surpasses simpler explanations.
Developmental
These theories believe reliable patterns of human behaviour (social, cognitive, emotional, and moral) occur across fixed/innate stages of development. These theories explain normal and abnormal child development.
Examples: sigmund frued’s psychoanalytic theory and jean pigaet’s stage theory of cognitive development.
(1) Good inclusivity because these theories can fully explain most behaviours (abnormal/normal); (2) Poor verifiability because highlighting that children tend to exhibit certain behaviours at different ages doesn’t prove that “atypical” transitioning through stages of development causes problem behaviours; (3) predictive utility is fair because it can make general predicts about on average child development that may not specifically apply to individual children due to natural variability (4) parsimony is low. These theories fail to consider environmental factors that effect behaviour or how teachers could adapt their instruction to help students transition between stages of development.
Cognitive
Combine developmental theories and Wrtheimer’s theory of human perceptions of reality. Gestalt theorists believe that learning depends on imposing one’s own meaningful patterns and insights on information and that rote learning is less useful; even if it provides correct solutions to problems. Teachers do not impart knowledge to students but merely reorganise the environment to enable them to make their own learning discoveries. (1) inclusiveness is good because most behaviour can be explained by imposing structure on environmental events and their perceived importance; (2) Verifiability is poor because cognitive processes are all internal; (3) predictive utility is poor because you do not know what students will discover and these teaching practices are less effective than direct instruction; (4) parsimony is low.
Biophysical, Biochemical, Psychoanalytical, Developmental, and Cognitive explanations of behaviour do not meet all four criteria of a useful explanation: inclusive, verifiability, predictive utility, and parsimony.
Behavioural
All beahviour is learnt through environmental consequences. It can be adaptive or maladaptive. (1) Inclusiveness is fair because it can explain most behaviours but is not perfect because not all behaviours are observable or measurable; (2) verifiability is good because hypothesis of behavioural functions are often tested through observation and experiments; (3) predictive utility is good because functional relations are established in order to change an individual’s behaviour; (4) Parsionmony is good because describing behaviour solely in terms of observable, verifiable, functional relations inc current environmental variables avoids the use of “explanatory fictions.”
Extinction
- When a previously reinforced
behaviour is no longer reinfroced
and its rate of occurance
decreases. Again, this is a
functional relationship between
the behaviour and its
consequence. - What happens is more important
about what they intended to
happen.
Antecedent Control
- Fill out an ABC form to identify
the antecedent that has control
over the behaviour due to the
conseuqence that follows it.The
stimulus that occurs immediately
before a behaviour is called a
discriminative stimulus and sets
the occassion for the behaviour.
The functional relationship
between the behaviour and the
antecedent stimulus is called
stimulus control. Consequences
are still needed for people to learn
this functional relationship. - Motivating operations are another
form of antecedent. These are
conditions which occurs prior to
(minutes, hours, or days) or
simaltaneously with a
discriminative stimulus (in the
same or different settings) and
they temporarily chanage the
value/effectiveness of the
consequence (reinforcer or
punishment). For example,
deprivation (hunger/thirst) or
satiation (full). - There are three types of setting
events: social, psychological, and
environmental (instructional,
physical, social, and
environmental changes). For
example, a noisy classroom
(environmental), an
uncomfortably warm classroom
(environmental), the presence of
disliked staff or peers (social), or a
headache (physiological).
Instructional materials that are
not age or gender appropriate.
Students culture acts as an
antecedent because people are
much more likely to engage with
learning materials they feel are
personally relevant to them.
Modelling
- Modelling refers to the
demonstration of a behaviour. - This applies to appropriate or
inappropriate behaviours.
Shaping
Shaping refers to the reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behaviour. For example, reinforcing when students sit in their seat but increasing the length of time they had to stay in their seat to be reinforced.
The Task of The Behaviourist
Skinner (1953) suggested that behaviourists are less concerned with explaining behaviour than with describing it. The emphasis, he states, is on which environmental factors increase, decrease, or maintain the rate of occurrence of specific behaviours. It is important to note that behaviourists do not deny the existence of physiological problems that may contribute to some behavioural problems. Nor do most behaviourists deny the effects of heredity (Mahoney, 1974) or even developmental stages (Ferster, Culbertson, & Boren, 1975). Their primary emphasis, however, is on present environmental conditions, both antecedent and consequent, maintaining behaviour and on establishing and verifying functional relations between such conditions and behaviour.
What are behavioural objectives derived from?
Behavioural objectives are derived from a set of educational goals that provide the framework for the academic year.
Educational goals (long-term objectives) are statements of annual program intent.
Behaviour objectives (short-term or instructional objectives) are statements of actual instructional intent, usually for a three- to four-month period (quarterly) for individuals with more severe disabilities and for the length of time of the school’s grading period for students with mild disabilities.
Behavioural objectives are not simply restatements of educational goals.
Behavioural objectives break goals into teachable components.
Does behaviour function vary?
Yes. The same topography behaviour can serve different functions for different students. Students will also vary in what stimuli they find reinforcing. What skills are functional to teach students to live more adaptively in their environment will also vary.
Criticisms about ABA:
Behaviour modification does not apply to all behaviour change strategies.
Unethical to apply operant conditioning onto humans and infringe their free will.
Too much work.
Threat to power structures in education.
Positive reinforcement lacks social validity.
Misconceptions about ABA
Behaviour modification being used to describe non-ABA behaviour change strategies.
People assume ABA focuses on punishment. Skinner was against punishment and thought it should only be used as a last resort.
A target behavior may be selected because it addresses?
A target behavior may be selected because it addresses a behavioral deficit (such as too few math skills) or a behavioral excess (such as too much screaming).
Thorndike’s two laws
- The Law of effect states that
behaviour followed by a pleasant
consequences is repeated and
behaviour followed by an unpleasant
stimulus stops. The relationship of the
Law of Effect with the principle of
positive reinforcement is obvious. - The law of exercise states that
connections between actions and new
outcomes are strengthened when
repeated. Thus, with practice the
antecedent elicits a quicker and
stronger behavioural response. The
Law of Exercise is similarly related to
the stimulus control principle
discussed earlier.
