Applied Behavior Analysis: Assignment

Katt Goodson
PS 360 Applied Behavior Analysis
Oct 7th, 2014
Professor Harla Frank
Unit 6 Assignment
Application of Behavior Analysis
Brenda is 17 years old and plays competitive tennis. In fact she hopes to get a scholarship to play in college. Brenda’s coach asked her to go see a sports psychologist who specializes in ABA because she is having difficulty with her serve. She does not have enough speed and accuracy to win matches. Her coach has tried every strategy he knows with no success. Based on her interview with Brenda and her review of videotapes of his serve, the behaviorist decides to use chaining to help. The behaviorist will break down Brenda’s serve into individual units of behavior such as the starting position; ball toss;
swing of the racket back; acceleration of the racket; contact with the ball; and follow –through.
“Whereas behavior chain connotes a particular sequence of responses ending in reinforcement, the term chaining refers to various methods for linking specific sequences of stimuli and responses to form new performances,” (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007).
In other words, chaining refers to the process of linking behaviors together to achieve a final result. A task analysis must first be conducted before starting this technique. It helps to determine the different components in the sequence. This means breaking the behavior down into small parts. The behaviorist can watch the behavior, do it themselves, or just write a list of components. In relation to Brenda’s case, forward chaining would contribute greatly to her success in serving. In forward chaining, behaviors are linked together beginning with the first behavior in the sequence. Brenda will do the first step, such as the starting position, independently. The behaviorist will help her in the following steps. Once this step is mastered, she will proceed to doing the second step on her own. This will continue until the entire chain is
mastered.
Primary and secondary reinforcement are both forms of positive reinforcement which would be great to use in Brenda’s situation. Primary reinforcement also known as unconditional reinforcement, will occur naturally and doesn’t require learning in order to work, however it often has an evolutionary basis in the aid of the survival of the species. Secondary reinforcement also known as conditioned reinforcement, this involves stimuli that have been rewarding for being paired with another reinforcement.
Since Brenda is having problems she was asked by her coach to go see a sports a psychologist who specializes in ABA because she is having difficulty with her serve. She does not have enough speed and accuracy to win matches. Her coach has tried every strategy he knows with no success. Based on her interview with Brenda and her review of videotapes of his serve, the behaviorist decides to use chaining to help. The behaviorist will break down Brenda’s serve into individual units of behavior such as the starting position; ball toss; swing of the racket back; acceleration of the racket, contact with the ball; and follow-through.
Brenda will at some point need to master the skills, and the two ways that mastery of a unit of behavior will assessed is the single- opportunity method and multiple- opportunity method.
In the single- opportunity method the behaviorist will assess Brenda’s ability to perform each behavior in the task analysis in correct order. (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). The assessment for Brenda will start here when the behaviorist asks Brenda to start with the starting position and as she is trying to be successful she will be getting assessed from the behaviorist. In this method Brenda is showing that she can become better in tennis, since the tasks have been getting better this behavior is done with the assessment being performed, as they move to steps three and four which are ball toss and swing of the racket, however the because she takes more than 30 seconds to respond to the fourth step the assessment is stopped, however she has earned that 100% accuracy on the first two steps. The multiple- opportunity method of task analysis assessment watches the person’s level of mastery from all the behaviors in the task. However the difference here is that since Brenda can’t seem to complete the steps swinging of the racket on her own is the behavior analysis will then complete the steps for her as she watches even though she has those steps correctly until this
step.
This is Mrs. Riley. She has just been asked to take over a class of third graders who are very energetic and have tried the patience of many teachers. In fact, Mrs. Riley is the third teacher to take over the class this year and it is only November! These students are not only unruly but most of them did not earn passing marks on their most recent state administered exam of basic skills. Mrs. Riley thinks these poor scores were due to class time lost to constant disruption. The major behavior challenges in the class are, fighting, yelling out answers/questions, not staying seated during work time, and failure to complete in class assignments. Mrs. Riley contacted an ABA professional to design some effective behavior modification methods that would help the children settle down and be able to better focus on learning. The behaviorist recommended a token economy system in which Mrs. Riley would contract with the students on desired behaviors. Each student that makes it through the day without any behavior incidents will get a penny. Friday afternoons will be “store” time. The students will be able to trade their pennies in for different prizes. Some will be tangible items such as pieces of candy. Others will be privileges such as a week without homework. Students can “spend” their pennies each week or save up to buy bigger items like a day with early dismissal from school. Mrs. Riley has a hard group of kids which it is plan to see and she is needed to get help form a behavior analysis which recommend a token economy system which is a behavior change system consisting of three major components they are as follows a specified list of target behaviors, tokens or points that participants receive for emitting that the target behaviors also a menu of backup reinforce items- preferred items, activities or privileges- that participants obtain by exchanging tokens that have earned. A highly developed and researched behavior change system. The specialist tells Mrs. Riley that this has been successfully in virtually every instructional and therapeutic setting possible and certain this will work for her classroom.
The behavior analysis is helping Mrs. Riley to get her class forming a token economy and informs her to follow these steps Select tokens that will serve as a medium of exchange this could include points, stickers, or plastic chips. Then she needs to identify the target behaviors and rules. Select a menu of backup reinforces, establish a ratio of exchange, and write procedures to specify when and how tokens will be dispensed and exchanged and what will happen if the requirements to earn a token are not met. Will the system include a response cost procedure? Field- test the system before full- scale implementation. Per our text (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Mrs. Riley is starting step by step and the first step is selecting tokens since a token is a symbol that can be given immediately after a behavior and exchanged later for reinforcement things must be considered the token must be safe and not harmful to the learner in this case Mrs. Riley’s class. Also make sure that the learner is not able to bootleg the delivery of the token. The thing that needs to be remember is that the token needs to be issued right after the target behavior. As she moves to step two which is identifying target behaviors and rules. The one thing that she wants to do is select behaviors for a token these should be only measureable and observable, and start with small behaviors that are easy for the person to accomplish. This should be for each individual person maybe only the lowest students in the class. Since some are making progress it is time for selecting a menu of backup reinforces these tokens should be for occurring activities and events as backup reinforces this might include things like a classroom setting and then used to buy time with popular games or materials maybe things like favorite classroom room jobs or toys. Writing procedures to specify what happens if token requirements are not met these are usually for one reason or another. Example is if they didn’t complete assignment.
But keep telling them to do their best and it would be something like maybe tomorrow. Field testing the system is before putting a token system to filed- test it. This is for 3-5 days and then the token is delivered if the tally is the exact same. Since Mrs. Riley is new to the classroom and getting things under control token economy which as mentioned before token economy is a behavior change and all three major components a specified list of the target behaviors, tokens or points that participants receive for emitting the target behaviors and a menu of the backup reinforce items this is a symbol object or item called a token. The backup reinforcers is something that can be purchased with the token. The tokens that are received in which a client moves up or down is a hierarchy of levels on meeting the specific performance criteria. These both help to modify behavior because they are able to gain more privileges and show more signs of independence
In the case study of Mrs. Riley the students are unruly but most did not pass their most recent state administered exams of their basic skills she says that she thinks it is because of class time lost to constant disruption. The behaviors in her class are fighting, yelling, out answers/ questions, not staying seated during work time and failure to complete in class assignments. The tokens economy that is used in her class are each student that makes it through the day without any behavior incidents will get a penny. Friday afternoons will be “store” time. The students will be able to trade their pennies in for different prizes. Some will be tangible items such as pieces of candy. Others will be privileges such as a week without homework. Students can “spend” their pennies each week or save up to buy bigger items like a day with early dismissal from school.
As we have discovered behaviors can be many different types and sizes however behavior analysis are great for helping to solve these. These are also things that should not be taken lightly, however the with the proper guidance and respect and using the right tools we can be the best with the knowledge we have and we can get the behavior we wat from using the right reinforcers.
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Howard, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education