PSYB45H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Record Producer, Intellectual Disability, Reinforcement
Document Summary
Extinction is a basic principle of behavior in which eliminating the reinforcing consequence for a behavior results in a decrease in the frequency of the behavior. For example, one child"s aggressive behavior might be reinforced by the parent"s attentions, whereas another child"s aggressive behavior might be reinforced by getting toys from siblings. Sometimes, the same behavior exhibited by a particular person in different situations might be maintained by different reinforcers. For example, a young child cries when she has trouble tying her shoes and the crying is reinforced when the parents help tie her shoes. When a problem behavior is reinforced on an intermittent schedule, it might be beneficial to implement a continuous schedule of reinforcement for a brief period before using extinction. The effects of extinction would then be more rapid. In addition, the consistent reinforcement of an alternative behavior that is functionally equivalent to the problem behavior promotes generalization and maintenance.
