Four-term Contingency

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Section 1: The Four-Term Contingency of Behavior Created by Shane Alan Community Integrated Work Program

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Section 1: The Four-Term Contingency of Behavior Created by Shane Alan Community Integrated Work Program

Overview : 

Overview Contingencies Motivating Operations Antecedents Behaviors Consequences Interventions Ecological Antecedent based Behavior based Consequence based Review 1

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A behavioral contingency is anything upon which a behavior is dependent. This is, the behavior does not occur without the contingency. For example, if someone only stops at an intersection in the presence of a stop signal, the stop signal would be a contingency of the behavior of stopping. There are four categories of behavioral contingency: Motivating Operations Antecedents Behaviors Consequences. 2

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A Motivating Operation is made up of all of the things that come before the current situation that change the reinforcing power of certain outcomes. For example, a hot day might be a motivating operation for a glass of ice water. That is, a glass of ice water might be more reinforcing to someone on a hot day than on a cold day. Motivating Operations are sometime broken down to Establishing Operations, which increase the reinforcing power of an outcome, and Abolishing Operations, which decrease the reinforcing power of an outcome. 3

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An Antecedent is the stimulus that occurs just before the behavior. A stimulus is any change in the environment. These changes can be: external changes, such as a request to do something, or internal changes, such as developing a headache Most behaviors have predictable antecedents that can be discovered by documenting the events surrounding the behavior and reviewing the documentation often. 4

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The Behavior is the individual’s response to the antecedent. We are only concerned with behaviors that are: Specific: we have to be able to describe the behavior; Observable: we have to be able to see the behavior; and Measurable: we have to be able to count the behavior. An example of a behavior could be: “James bit his hand twice and hit the table once”. The target behavior is the specific behavior we want to decrease or eliminate. 5

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The Consequence is the event that comes after the behavior. A consequence is aversive if it makes the behavior less likely to occur in the future. This is often called punishment. A consequence is reinforcing if it makes the behavior more likely to occur in the future. 6

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Consequences can be either natural, meaning that they are not controlled by others, or artificial, meaning that they are controlled by others. For example, if someone touches a hot stove, a natural consequence could be getting burnt and an artificial consequence could be being kept out of the kitchen. Many oppositional behaviors have been shaped through natural reinforcement (such as when a person screams and others naturally get up and leave the area, so the person begins to scream when they want to be alone). We will use artificial consequences to help re-shape the behavior into something more appropriate. 7

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Every behavior is the result of these contingencies. Example: Screaming (behavior) has always led to alone time (consequence) for someone. A headache increases the reinforcing power of alone time for this this person (establishing operation). Therefore, when they have a headache and another person is around (antecedent), they are likely going to begin screaming in order to gain alone time. 8

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While every behavior is shaped by all four contingencies, there are interventions that focus on each individual contingency. Most Behavioral Intervention Plans will include a combination of these interventions. Each intervention should be individualized for each learner based on their history, their goals, and their functioning levels. 9

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Interventions based on motivating operations are usually referred to as ecological interventions. Every Behavioral Intervention Plan should begin with ecological interventions because they usually have the biggest impact. For example, if a learner is engaging in a behavior to escape from an activity, we should first seek to make that activity more reinforcing for the learner. This will decrease the reinforcing power of escaping the activity. 10

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Common ecological interventions include: Creating structured and functional activity schedules that are based on the learner’s individual goals. Balancing challenging activities with easy activities so that the learner’s day is productive without being aversive (unpleasant). Helping the learner to understand his or her schedule by explaining it to them in a way that they will understand. Sometime this means using picture schedules or other adaptive techniques. 11

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The first step in antecedent-based intervention is to know the common antecedents of your learner’s target behavior. (remember that this is done through documenting the events surrounding the behavior.) Once we know the common antecedents we can use avoiding strategies and coping strategies. 12

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Avoiding strategies involve altering the environment to reduce the frequency and intensity of the antecedent. For example, if James tends to hit himself when around loud noises (the antecedent), we can try to avoid loud areas. Coping strategies involve reducing the aversive effects of the antecedent. For example, by pairing loud noises with positive experiences we can reduce a learner’s dislike of loud noises. Coping strategies can be challenging and should only be used as part of a formal Behavioral Intervention Plan. 13

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Behavior-based interventions involve training the learner on new behaviors that can replace the target behavior. To do this we must first find the function of the behavior. That is, why the behavior occurs. This is 0ften done by looking at what happens after the behavior (the consequence). For example, if every time a learner screams people leave the area, it is likely that the function of the behavior is to get people to leave. 14

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If a learner is screaming in order to get time alone, the behavior-based intervention will be to train the learner on how to use a replacement behavior to communicate that he wants space. For example, we can teach the learner to hand his Coach an “I need a break” card and reinforce the use of this card by giving the learner alone time. This is called functional communication training. 15

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When using consequence based interventions, it is important to remember that consequences are not always bad things. In fact, almost all consequence based interventions involve reinforcing a behavior that we want to see increase. The three consequence based interventions we will discuss are Reinforcement Punishment Extinction 16

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Reinforcement involves providing a desired stimulus or removing an undesired stimulus after a behavior . Desired stimuli can include Praise Tangible items Favored activities Tokens Reinforcement will be discussed at length in the 2nd part of this training. 17

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Punishment involves adding an undesired stimulus or removing a desired stimulus after a behavior. Punishment is limited in its power because it does not promote an alternative behavior and it usually results in undesired side effects. As such, punishment should be used rarely and only as part of a formal Behavioral Intervention Plan. 18

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Extinction involves removing a preexisting reinforcer that has been maintaining the behavior. For example, if a learner’s behavior is being maintained by receiving attention from others, extinction would involve planned ignoring of the behavior. As another example, if a learner’s behavior is being maintained by escape from a task, extinction would involve continued requesting for the learner to complete the task. 19

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Extinction often results in a temporary increase in the behavior as the individual attempts to get the reinforcement. This is called an extinction burst and is a normal part of intervention. 20

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Extinction often results in a temporary increase in the behavior as the individual attempts to get the reinforcement. This is called an extinction burst and is a normal part of intervention. 20

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Extinction often results in a temporary increase in the behavior as the individual attempts to get the reinforcement. This is called an extinction burst and is a normal part of intervention. During an extinction burst it is important that the increased behavior is not reinforced. Doing so will only teach the learner to increase the behavior in the future. 20

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Extinction often results in a temporary increase in the behavior as the individual attempts to get the reinforcement. This is called an extinction burst and is a normal part of intervention. During an extinction burst it is important that the increased behavior is not reinforced. Doing so will only teach the learner to increase the behavior in the future. 20

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Contingency: something upon which a behavior is dependent Motivating Operations: the stimuli that determine what is reinforcing to someone at a particular time Antecedent: the stimulus that elicits the behavior Behavior: the specific, observable, and measurable response to the antecedent Consequence: what comes after the behavior, either natural or artificial, and either punishing or reinforcing. 21

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Interventions: Ecological: alter the environment to decrease the reinforcing power of target behaviors Antecedent based: avoid antecedents or make them less aversive Behavior based: teach new behaviors to replace the target behavior Consequence based: reinforce behaviors we want to increase and extinguish behaviors we want to see decrease Behavioral Intervention Plans should include a combination of these interventions 22

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The End