Deck 6: Decreasing a Behavior With Operant Extinction

Question 1

Is telling someone to stop eating candies and the person stops an example of operant extinction? Explain why or why not on the basis of the definition of operant extinction.

Answer 1

No.With extinction, a behavior decreases in frequency because instances of that behavior are no longer followed by a reinforcer.With candy eating, the reinforcer is the good taste.If the child ate the candy, the good taste would still be there.Thus, the behavior (eating candies)stopped because of being told to stop, not because the reinforcer was withheld following instances of the behavior.

Question 2

Is a parent ignoring a child's behavior an example of operant extinction? Explain why or why not on the basis of the definition of operant extinction.

Answer 2

It would be extinction only if the attention of the parent was the reinforcer that was maintaining the behavior that was being ignored.However, if the child's behavior was maintained by some other reinforcer, such as attention from another child, then ignoring the behavior by the parent would not be extinction.

Question 3

Describe a particular behavior you would like to decrease in a child with whom you have contact. Would your extinction program require a special setting?
Why or why not?

Answer 3

Any appropriate example is acceptable, provided that the student indicates whether or not a special setting would be required and the reason.For example: (a)Behavior to be decreased is using a spoon to throw (catapult)food around the room while sitting in a high chair.(b)To the extent that allowing the behavior to occur is not likely to be harmful to the child, a special setting would not be required.However to the extent that such behavior might be highly disruptive to others in the immediate vicinity, such as individuals in a restaurant who would likely interfere with the extinction program, a special setting would be required.

Question 4

Examine Table 6.1.Which one of those examples involved positive reinforcement for an alternative response? For those that do not, indicate how positive reinforcement for an alternative response might be introduced.

Question 5

What are the two parts to the principle of operant extinction?

Question 6

What is the effect of continuous versus intermittent reinforcement on the resistance to extinction of an operant behavior? Level 1/K]

Question 7

Suppose that, immediately after an instance of swearing, parents remove a portion of the child's weekly allowance and the result is that swearing decreases.Is this an example of operant extinction? Explain why or why not.

Question 8

Why did the mother's attempt to extinguish the child's cookie eating fail ?

Question 9

In a sentence for each, describe eight general factors influencing the effectiveness of operant extinction.[

Question 10

Describe two examples of operant extinction that you have encountered, one involving a desirable behavior and one involving an undesirable behavior.For each example, identify the situation, behavior, immediate consequence, and probable long-term effects as is done in Tables 6.1 and 6.2.(Your examples should not be from the text.)

Question 11

Define intermittent reinforcement and give an example that is not in this chapter.

Question 12

Operant extinction should not be applied to certain behaviors or in certain situations.What types of behaviors and situations would these be? Give an example of a behavior to which operant extinction should not be applied. Give an example of a situation in which operant extinction should not be applied.

Question 13

Why is it necessary to consider the setting as a factor influencing your operant extinction program?

Question 14

What is the difference between forgetting and operant extinction?

Question 15

Explain the difference, in terms of procedure and results, between the loss of value of a conditioned reinforcer (see Chapter 5)and the operant extinction of a positively reinforced behavior.

Question 16

Briefly describe an example of a pitfall of operant extinction. Which type of Pitfall does your example illustrate?

Question 17

What is spontaneous recovery? Describe an example.

Question 18

Define continuous reinforcement and give an example that is not in this chapter.

Question 19

If a behavior that was maintained by positive reinforcement is not reinforced at least once in a while, what will happen to the behavior?

Question 20

What is an extinction burst? Describe an example.

Question 21

What is bootleg reinforcement? Give an example.

Question 22

Describe how noncontingent reinforcement might be used to decrease challenging behavior. What is a potential limitation of this approach?

Question 23

What are three possible reasons for the failure of an operant extinction program?

Question 24

Discuss whether the operant extinction program with Louise decreased her "feelings" of pain.