Professor Brian Iwata, who has extensively studied functional behavior analysis, will conduct a two-day workshop entitled “Functional Analysis & Treatment of Severe Behavior Disorders” in Philadelphia (PA, US) on 28 – 29 September 2009. Psychologists may earn 11 CE credits, BCBAs & BCABAs 12 Type 2 CE credits. Walt Antonow, who manages these workshops, advised me that as of 2 Sep there were only 15 seats available, He has a brochure available.
Archive for the 'Increasing responding' Category
If it isn’t the most misunderstood concept in the analysis of behavior, “negative reinforcement” has got to be among the top two or three. (Suggest competitors in the comments!) People often misuse this term, employing it as a synonym for “punishment.”
For grins, I located a couple of examples illustrating this problem. They follow:
- In an article for the Daily Pennsylvania under the headline “Negative reinforcement aggravates excessive behavior in dogs, studies find,” Greg Rollman published these paragraphs:
An owner’s instinctual response to a dog’s aggressive behavior might be to act aggressively toward the dog, but a new study shows that this could actually exacerbate that behavior.
Meghan Herron, lead author and resident at the behavior clinic at the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital, surveyed 140 dog owners who sought treatment for their dogs at the clinic. She analyzed the owners’ disciplinary methods using different types of reinforcement – the owner’s positive, negative or neutral reaction to a dog’s behavior.
Negative reinforcement, such as growling, yelling or hitting, tended to cause aggression in a high percentage of dogs. Positive reinforcement or neutral techniques, on the other hand, caused a negligible increase in dogs’ aggressive behavior.
Mr. Rollman’s treatment is available here.
- In Men’s Fitness under the headline “Could you be insulted and belittled into getting fit? One outrageous Denver gym owner has built a thriving enterprise saying, ‘Yes, you can, chubby,’” Megan Michelson reported about the techniques employed by a fitness trainer:
“It’s not my job to kiss your [hindquarters],” says Anti-Gym owner Michael Karolchyk. “If you want positive reinforcement, go to Richard Simmons or Oprah. Both of them are fat and make millions of dollars by making fat people feel good about themselves.”
Karolchyk’s style of extreme negative reinforcement–complete with degrading insults, embarrassing nicknames and throwing toy fish at clients–has garnered both praise and criticism.
Ms. Michelson’s report is available here. Be sure to read what the “experts say.”
For the record: Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior results in the removal of a feature of the environment and that behavior increases (usually in frequency). There are lots of sources on the Internet that present it correctly.
Saul Axelrod, who has conducted lots of research about implementing and refining procedures for managing behavior in classrooms, presented a workshop on “Classroom Management Problems and Procedures for Solving Them” at the National Autism Conference in 2007. It’s available as free video.
This is good fundamental presentation. Download it. Watch it. Recommend it to others. Flash of the electrons to Regina at the PT site for reminding me of this. http://wpsu.org/ondemand/streams/Session_7108022.html
Over on CNN Linda Saether is a story about Rick Schroeder of Autism Partnership applying behavior analytic teaching principles to help Marissa Bilson and her family manage behavior problems. Marissa—an early adolescent who has Autism—screams while jumping up and down, bites herself, takes things that do not belong to her, and behaves ritualistically.
Although Ms. Saether does not report on the research basis for it and actually undercuts it’s effectiveness (ABA is “one kind of approach,” “there are a variety of programs out there,” etc.), the story illustrates the value of the clear rules that are consistently implemented. I’ll be using this one in class.
Here’s the link. Learn more about Autism Partnership. Note that Harold Doherty of Facing Autism in New Brunswick has covered this story, too.
Over on Precision Teaching Rick Kubina has added another podcast to his published collection: It’s an interview with Hank Pennypacker (from 31 January 2009). Professor Pennypacker has been teaching about the appropriate analysis of behavior for many years, influencing many folks in positive ways. When you take the opportunity to jump over to Precision Teaching and look at the list of interviews, you may want to snag others, too.
This year the week of 26-30 January is “No Name-Calling Week,” an annual week when participating educators employ activities designed to deter students from calling others names. In part it is an effort to eliminate bullying in their schools, but it is also an excellent chance for teachers to practice the skillful use of modeling and reinforcement.
Here are what I suggest as important features of an effort to reduce the use of derogatory comments about others:
Continue reading ‘No Name-Calling Week is coming’