Question

Differential Reinforcement

This procedure combines two of the foundational procedures in ABA: reinforcement and extinction. Combining these two procedures can be very powerful when working on skill acquisition and behavior reduction skills.

Our book discusses a handful of differential reinforcement procedures, including:

Differential Reinforcement of Other behavior (DRO)

• Reinforcing the absence of a specific behavior targeted for reduction, sometimes using interval schedules - extinguishing the presence of the target behavior

Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA)

• Reinforcing the presence of a specific alternate behavior while extinguishing all other behaviors

Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI)

• Reinforcing a specific incompatible behavior with the target behavior
  • Think: hands in pockets instead of hitting, chewing gum instead of smoking, being silent instead of talking

For our discussion ~

Choose a procedure that you have either used or would use to assist in a behavior change program. Get creative! This may be with any type of client - from your puppy, to your 2 year old or even a dementia patient you care for on weekends.

Example ~

A student earns 10 minute breaks between work tasks in his cubby. While in cubby, he earns tokens for particpating in the lessons presented. To get him to go into cubby, we use a timer as a cue instead of him learning to tune out the teachers' voices. On occasion, he would hop like a frog over to cubby. If he did, no mind was paid attention to it - teaching began as soon as he sat down. However, if he walked in appropriately, he would earn a token toward getting out and be given verbal praise for walking appropriately.

This is an example of a DRA procedure: the student's walking behavior was reinforced (a specific alternate behavior) and the hopping like a frog was placed on extinction.

Answer 1

Reinforcement

Operant conditioning is the method of learning behavior through reinforcements and punishments Reinforcement is delivered to strengthen a behavior or to establish a pattern of behavior through rewards. Reinforcers can be positive or negative and it is the responses from the environment that increase the probability of the desired behavior.

Differential Reinforcement

Differential reinforcement is the method of reinforcing only the appropriate behavior we choose to increase in an individual and discontinuing the reinforcement of all other behaviors what has been reinforced earlier. This process of discontinuing all the earlier reinforced behavior is called extinction. In Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA ) differential reinforcement is reinforcing a specific class of behavior while withholding reinforcement of other exhibited behaviors.

The three commonly used differential reinforcement is

1.Differential Reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)

This type of reinforcement is delivered when the targeted problem behavior is not exhibited during a predetermined time . This is done to eliminate challenging or undesirable behavior.

2.Differential reinforcement of alternate behavior (DRA )

In DRA to eliminate problem behavior, that a feasible alternative to the problem behavior is reinforced at the same time but it will not be incompatible with the problem behavior while eliminating the problem behavior.

3. Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI)

DRI is used to eliminate problem behavior. So a behavior incompatible with the problem behavior is reinforced at the same time withholding reinforcement for the problem behavior. Here the reinforcing behavior is such behavior that cannot simultaneously exist with the problem behavior.

Examples

Shelly is continuously being absent in the class, The teacher MIss Matha studied about Shelly's performance and found that last year she was a smart student but now she is not interested in attending the class.and is being absent for fourteen days (not continuously, intermittent days )before two months that is in January. The last class test was in February and she had failed. The teacher wants to bring her back to the active state. So Miss Martha her teacher introduced a new plan in the month of March. In that month the days she declared in the class that, in all the days Shelly is presented, she will be the class leader. The teacher evaluated the result in July. In March Shelly attended the class on all working days , in April she was absent for one day, In May present on all days, in June absent for two days, and in the class test conducted in June she scored 60% of marks. Here the behavior of being absent in the class, undesirable behavior, of Shelly is eliminated or decreased by presenting the class, the desired behavior through reinforcement being the leader of the class.

This is an example of Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior. Presenting the class is incompatible with the behavior of being absent in the class. Shelly can exhibit only one behavior at a time. Here being the class leader works as a reinforcement to stop the undesired behavior of being absent in the class.

Another example

My parrot Tikku shows an unwillingness to enter the cage when called him after allowing him to play for two hours. So I started to reinforce him by giving a piece of dried fruit strawberry which he likes most when he enters the cage. If he shows any other behavior I will not give this reward. So after some days when he sees the strawberry in my hand, he will stop other activities and enter the cage.

This is an example of Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior. Entering into the cage is not a compatible behavior with playing inside the house. Tikku can exist various other behavior at the same time, but the parrot is learning to enter the cage through reinforcement of sweet (dried strawberry ) while eliminating all other behaviors when called by me.