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All about Positive and Negative Reinforcement
66 Plays11 months ago
This episode is what you need to know about Positive an Negative Reinforcement. How to recognize it and how to make sure it’s being used to support your child or student. Positive and negative reinforcement are highly misunderstood from my experience and I want to make sure every behavior change plan or positive behavior support plan includes the proper use of positive reinforcement. Believe it or not most Positive Behavior intervention plans only include punishment procedures or negative reinforcement. I want you to be able to recognize what positive reinforcement is and how it should be used to support behavior change!
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Transcript
Introduction to Behavior Analysis
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey there, I'm Crystal. I'm a behavior analyst and I'm here to help you uncomplicate the complicated world of behavior. We are going to get into all things behavior here. Strategies, interventions, support, data, assessments, the good, the frustrating, and especially the complicated. I'm a behavior analyst who loves to educate, be positive, and most importantly, be proactive.
00:00:40
Speaker
This podcast is your place to learn more about behavior analysis and the beautiful benefits that come with being positive and proactive.
Why Do Strategies Work?
00:00:48
Speaker
This is your uninterrupted time to talk behavior with your bestie. So grab your headphones, your walking shoes, or pull up that comfy chair and get ready to learn. This episode will go over the specific details on what positive reinforcement is and what it isn't.
00:01:08
Speaker
This episode will kick off a series on reinforcement that I have been dying to cover, but like I said before, I felt it was really important to go over the functions and I will probably mention them every episode because I want to make sure that that knowledge is cemented in your brains because I can't simply tell you what strategies to use.
Exploring Reinforcement and Punishment
00:01:27
Speaker
I need you to learn why the strategies are effective and what exactly is making it effective. Knowing that creates meaningful change for everyone.
00:01:36
Speaker
Throwing random strategies at behavior is like throwing darts in the dark. You may get lucky, and it works, or you may not. And when you're not lucky, that doesn't feel good for anyone. I'm saying this because emulating strategies can only work for a time. Because when the function of behavior changes or is no longer relevant, so then is that strategy that you've been using.
00:01:59
Speaker
Behavior analysis is about seeing behavior functionally to solve challenging behavior in a positive and meaningful way. So in this series, we will be going over both negative and positive reinforcement, negative and positive punishment, and most importantly, some of my favorite ways to use positive reinforcement and the different strategies that work well in homes and at school. But that would be a ton of information for one episode, so I'm breaking it up. So today, I'm just gonna cover some of the basics that you need to know
00:02:29
Speaker
I'm gonna go over strategies after negative and positive reinforcement and punishment because I know that you've listened to episodes two through four and you have some understanding of behavior functions and how to recognize antecedents, triggers, and setting events.
Daily Routine and Observations
00:02:45
Speaker
I decided to cover positive and negative reinforcement before anything else because everyone seems to want positive reinforcement or state that they're using positive reinforcement when they aren't.
00:02:58
Speaker
So my day in a nutshell includes waking up somewhere between four and 5am. It's a good habit and it's a bad habit. Sometimes I wish I could sleep in. I head downstairs and go straight to making my espresso. I've been making that oat milk brown sugar espresso from Starbucks and it is game changer. So delicious. I get that going. It's 4.30, 5am. And then I go straight over to review FBA's and behavior intervention plans because
00:03:25
Speaker
That's my life. I assess, I do functional behavior assessments for a living and part of that is reviewing the previous functional behavior assessments and their current behavior intervention plan. I always review these before my third observation and then again, right before I sit down to write my actual report. I can guarantee that somewhere under recommendations or strategies on those documents is listed positive reinforcement.
00:03:51
Speaker
And let's not forget to mention that some of these plans are actually specifically called positive behavior intervention supports. But the crazy thing is, is that when I observe or have observed, depending on where I'm at in my process, is that all I see is the use of punishment with a complete lack of positive reinforcement. I directly ask on the interview forms what positive systems of reinforcement are being used to support positive behavior.
00:04:20
Speaker
And I'm not kidding. The answer pretty frequently is a punishment procedure. Now don't get me wrong here. I'm not pointing blame. I am pointing this out because I see a need.
Clarifying Misconceptions
00:04:30
Speaker
I am saying that there needs to be a higher understanding of how to use positive reinforcement to change behavior. Because what I see often is that people are telling kids good job, positive praise, or using token economy systems.
00:04:45
Speaker
and saying that they're using positive reinforcement. And while yes, token economy is a system of positive reinforcement and positive pre-statements are great, they aren't the only factors that need to be considered to make reinforcement effective.
00:05:02
Speaker
or the details or strategies that are listed in the positive behavior support plan are actually negative reinforcement and sometimes negative punishment. I often see that these terms get used interchangeably and that's a problem. The actual positive reinforcement that we want isn't actually present in the plan because our understanding of what we're doing is a little bit off. So I mentioned punishment, which I will get into on this next episode.
00:05:31
Speaker
because I feel that that word brings a lot of negative pairings and associations and I really want to be clear on what punishment both negative and positive is and what it looks like because I guarantee if you're a parent you have used a form of punishment procedure before so let's not judge punishment procedures before we know what they are and I'm not saying this to advocate that we should be using punishment in fact
00:05:57
Speaker
I keep it strictly positive and proactive with my recommendations, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't learn what punishment procedures are. I want to bring this to light so that you can see how much easier it is to implement positive procedures only and to recognize when yourself or others are using reinforcement systems incorrectly. With this knowledge, you'll better recognize positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment for what they are.
00:06:26
Speaker
I'm excited talking about this because it takes us another step closer to uncomplicating behavior and it empowers you so much to ask really meaningful questions when it comes to implementing reinforcement and being able to recognize when reinforcement is being used appropriately. Because like I said earlier, a lot of plans state that they're using positive reinforcement when it's punishment or they label strategies positive reinforcement when they're actually negative reinforcement.
00:06:55
Speaker
And this is a really important distinction, right? We have a child or student that's engaging in problematic behavior. We need to make sure positive reinforcement is in the picture. If not, we're like, we're losing the battle before we've given the gun. When this happens, I know there are no teams out there that are doing this intentionally. I always say we don't know what we don't know. And that's why I'm excited to get this information out here. So you as a parent, caregiver, or even as a practitioner,
00:07:22
Speaker
You can come to the meeting with some good questions and a solid understanding of what it means to use positive reinforcement. I want you to be able to question your behaviorist if needed, your IEP team, if needed, or whomever is telling you to use an intervention that isn't quite sitting right or isn't quite using positive reinforcement, how you understand it.
Understanding Reinforcement
00:07:43
Speaker
Understanding the use of reinforcement of positive and negative will give you that power.
00:07:49
Speaker
You will leave this episode with a higher understanding of what positive and negative reinforcement is, how it should be used, and most importantly, how to recognize proper and improper use. So let's dive in. First, let's start with reinforcement. We reinforce things to make them stronger. And that's a pretty general definition, right? There's nothing special. When we think about reinforcing, we think about making something stronger.
00:08:14
Speaker
Reinforcement in applied behavior analysis refers to consequences and reactions that strengthen behavior. So reinforcement on its own simply refers to whatever is strengthening or increasing the probability that that behavior will occur again. When I'm assessing or doing an observation, I'm looking for variables in the environment or the reactions of staff that may be reinforcing the behavior and therefore increasing the probability of any future occurrence.
00:08:43
Speaker
So what are we doing after the behavior occurs that may actually reinforce the behavior? Good or bad, right? These aren't always obvious either. They may be something super subtle like eye contact, proximity, or an unintentional removal or delay in task demand. They may be small, but they are there.
00:09:03
Speaker
So before we get ahead of ourselves or before I do, let's define positive reinforcement. What is it exactly? Positive reinforcement occurs when a response is followed by a stimulus and that presentation has resulted in that response occurring more frequently. So we are just looking at this in a very simple two-term contingency. The book of applied behavior analysis explains positive reinforcement as
00:09:30
Speaker
Positive reinforcement has occurred when the response is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus, and as a result, similar responses occur more frequently in the future. That stimulus that has resulted in an increase in that behavior, that is known as the positive reinforcer, or simply the reinforcer. For a stimulus to be considered a reinforcer, it has to have a proven history of changing behavior.
00:09:57
Speaker
If the presentation of a stimulus does not change a behavior, it is not a reinforcer. Or if it doesn't change a behavior anymore, it should no longer be considered a reinforcer. So there's some criteria there, right? This is where we get into the fidelity of using positive reinforcement or a positive reinforcer. I was conducting an assessment a while back, and I was told that the student doesn't connect well to reinforcement. And therefore, they couldn't really use any of my ABA stuff
00:10:26
Speaker
And while that was rude, especially considering they weren't using my ABA stuff correctly, I just thought like, but everybody responds to reinforcement. So my immediate first question was, what are you using as reinforcers? And they told me that the child preferred puzzles and time in the reading corner. Reading corner. Well, I don't know about you, but I would not be working hard for a puzzle. And this kid clearly wasn't having it either.
00:10:54
Speaker
And I enjoy puzzles, but I'm not going to work that hard for them. So another thing to think about is I'm not saying that using puzzles is wrong. I actually worked with an adult woman in a group home setting like years ago, back probably my early twenties, but she had just moved into a group home setting.
00:11:13
Speaker
And she loved puzzles. Puzzles were a powerful reinforcer for her, giving her access to varieties of puzzles, doing puzzles with her, earning money to buy puzzles, gluing her puzzles were the only motivation she needed to complete her chores independently and learn her own self care routines. So finding that reinforcer was actually amazing for her. And it opened her up to learning so many more skills that were needed.
00:11:42
Speaker
to be successful in living in that group home situation that she was in. And most importantly, they made her super happy. As you can tell, I really liked her and I enjoyed puzzling with her. So it was a great pairing, but I don't think puzzles were a high reinforcer for this child. I mean, obviously they weren't, they were having a really hard time getting him to engage in just kind of minimal school ready behaviors like transitioning, sitting in his seat,
00:12:10
Speaker
following the schedule, orienting his attention. Long story short, we cannot provide what we think is reinforcing and expect it to motivate someone else. I wouldn't work so hard for cupcakes or goldfish, even though I love those snacks. And also they're not very healthy, so I wouldn't want to be offering those anyways, but I would satiate off of those pretty quickly. I'd get full, I'd be done with those pretty quickly. I mean, how many goldfish could I eat? How many cupcakes can I eat?
00:12:38
Speaker
before that's not reinforcing or motivating to me anymore. So we have to look at how meaningful the reinforcer is to that individual, not what we perceive is meaningful.
Choosing Meaningful Reinforcers
00:12:51
Speaker
There are several classifications of reinforcers that include edible reinforcers, sensory-based activities, items, tangible reinforcers like games, technology, fidgets, activity reinforcers, and social reinforcers. There are also what we call primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers are items we need to survive, such as food, water, shelter, sleep, basically our essentials for living.
00:13:20
Speaker
Secondary reinforcers are those reinforcers that have been conditioned, such as money, tokens, toys, stickers, verbal praise, accessing preferred activities. Basically these items have a learned or perceived value. So I just wanted to make that distinction really clear because we have in school teams or in behavioral teams or just different groups that you may be working with. They may be using primary reinforcers
00:13:47
Speaker
while maybe the parents don't agree with that that much or they may be only using secondary reinforcers and they haven't found a meaningful one yet. So we want to understand the terminology so that we can bring that up as an option for discussion. So the reinforcers aren't really motivating behavior. What secondary reinforcers are you looking at or are you using primary reinforcers when a parent isn't really comfortable with that?
00:14:12
Speaker
So you want to make those distinctions really clear so that you can take those things to your team so that they can be an open and honest discussion. One of the first questions I ask, and you should ask too, is what reinforcers are being used to support behavior change and how are they determined?
00:14:32
Speaker
In ABA, we use preference assessments and reinforcer assessments. Preference assessments helps give us a hierarchy of what is most preferred and what is less preferred. So what do I like most out of these five items? What do I like less out of these five items? And that's important. Well, reinforcer assessments are used to identify how effective the reinforcer was in changing behavior. This is definitely something to bring up to your team or practitioner if you're worried that the reinforcer in place
00:15:01
Speaker
is not as effective as it should be. Or maybe you've seen a drop in motivation. There are simple and complex ways to do these preference assessments. There are four different types of preference assessments. And if you have never done one, don't know what they are. Ask your team or your practitioners how they are conducting these. And if you think an appropriate reinforcer isn't in place,
00:15:22
Speaker
that may be contributing to slow progress, no progress or worsening effects. This is definitely a question you want to come to your team with. This is especially true when adverse reactions are happening when your child has a behavior intervention plans in place. Things don't always have to get worse before they get better. So don't just say, okay, they're having a hard time right now. They may get better. This might be extinction.
00:15:48
Speaker
We want to give them a little bit more time. If it's not going well, let's please ask these questions. What are the reinforcers that they're using? How are they determined? And how immediate are those reinforcers? Let's do some healthy question asking regarding the use of reinforcers. So I'm going to say them again. Which reinforcers are being used? How are those reinforcers chosen?
00:16:13
Speaker
And what is the immediacy of that reinforcer?
Timing and Contingencies
00:16:17
Speaker
The next thing we want to look at with positive reinforcement is the immediacy of the reinforcers. The book of applied behavior analysis states, emphasizing the importance of the immediacy of the reinforcement is essential. The direct effects of reinforcement involve temporal relations between behavior and its consequences that are on the order of a few seconds.
00:16:41
Speaker
So just a few seconds. That temporal relation is the relationship of time. Timing is everything here. A major reason for this is all the things that can happen in 30 seconds or a minute at home or even in, especially in a classroom, a lot can happen. And if we wait too long to reinforce the behavior, we risk accidentally reinforcing the wrong behavior.
00:17:07
Speaker
I have ran into this problem. Honestly, it happens most not when I'm consulting and able to step in, but mostly when I'm doing an observation and I'm not allowed to intervene or teach. So it honestly tells me to watch. So here's what happened. Recently I observed a child respond just beautifully to impromptu use this device to request an item. This is what we've been waiting for. The prompt happened. He used his,
00:17:33
Speaker
device to navigate the different screens and actually make that request. It was exactly what we wanted to see. Now, while the staff agreed to his request and they thanked him for using his device, which is great, they did not deliver the item. And while thanking the student and using positive pre statements is nice, it's not going to increase the future probability of his requesting behavior unless he actually gets the item. When the child waited,
00:18:03
Speaker
and things moved on and like a minute went by, which doesn't seem like a long time, but it actually is. When you've made a request, it was agreed upon and you haven't received it. The child pounded his fist on the desk, kind of made this like like a yell localization. And then the staff said, Oh yes, yes, that's right. You asked for this item. I'm going to go get it. And I thought, Oh my, they just reinforced the pounding on the table.
00:18:30
Speaker
rather than the beautiful request that was made on the device. Yikes, right? So what do you want to bet that pounding on the table to gain access to their tangible is repeated? I mean, it was reinforced, right? In a clinical setting, we want to reinforce the behavior within the seconds, one second preferably, but that can be difficult depending on the setting. So we want to make sure we are providing the reinforcement pretty quickly because a lot could happen in that 30 seconds
00:19:00
Speaker
to a minute, and we want to be sure we are increasing the probability of the correct behavior. I also run into the problem where staff or parents are so eager to use positive reinforcement. And let me tell you, their hearts are in the right place, but they forget that the behavior has to be admitted first. And the student or child gets delivered reinforcement for engaging in no behavior, literally sitting and breathing. We shouldn't reinforce the absence of a behavior because there's nothing to reinforce. Also,
00:19:31
Speaker
We don't want to use bribery. To your next problem for a token, we want to make sure that contingencies are set, expectations are understood, and the reinforcer follows the behavior in a timely fashion. So I did get a little off track there, but let's move on to negative reinforcement.
Negative Reinforcement Examples
00:19:48
Speaker
What it is and what does it look like? Positive and negative reinforcement have the same exact effect on behavior. So interesting, right?
00:19:58
Speaker
I remember learning that as a young college student and being like, no way, because I just had such a different opinion in my head. It was hard concept for me to grasp honestly when I was first learning this, but positive and negative reinforcement have the same exact effect on behavior. Both negative and positive reinforcement produce an increase in responding.
00:20:22
Speaker
The Book of Applied Behavior Analysis states a negative reinforcement contingency is one in which the occurrence of a response produces the removal, termination, reduction, or postponement of a stimulus, which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of that response. Simply put, when a response results in a delay, escape, or postponement, we have negative reinforcement.
00:20:49
Speaker
It's really important to remember that in behavior analysis, positive and negative are not associated with good or bad. Get that out of your head right now. There is no good or bad associated with positive and negative. They simply refer to stimulus changes. So when we're talking about negative reinforcement, we are just referring to a response that removes, delays, terminates the presentation of a stimulus.
00:21:17
Speaker
Here are some examples. When we leave early to avoid morning traffic, change our route to avoid congested freeways. Take aspirin to get rid of a headache. Kids clean their room to avoid their, you know, repetitive directives to do it for mom. And I'm sure most of us have been there. I know I have. Negative reinforcement relies on the presence of an aversive stimuli being presented and the response allows us to stop that experience.
00:21:44
Speaker
So when we know there's a traffic jam, we take an alternate route to avoid or terminate the unpleasant feeling of being in traffic. With negative reinforcement, we have added something to the environment to reduce delay or terminate stimulus or situation.
00:22:00
Speaker
When we see reactive measures that remove stimulus for engaging in preferred behaviors, that's negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement occurs when something non-preferred, uncomfortable, or unpleasant is removed or taken away to increase the probability of a target behavior. A really good example of this and something that I've done in my own house is when we remove tasks from a child's to-do list because they have done a good job with something.
00:22:29
Speaker
Here's an example of that that I have done in my own house. Hey, you have kept up with your homework and done it all week without complaining. So I'm going to take away your chore list this weekend, no chores this weekend, or you get the weekend off from doing any type of homework. So we're saying you did such a good job with doing this. I'm going to take away this aversive stimuli, you having to do chores on the weekend because you did such a great job doing your homework and we're so responsible all week.
00:23:00
Speaker
That's negative reinforcement when it's done right. But negative reinforcement can also be used inappropriately, which may result in the unfavorable behavior patterns. Listen in here. Because this happens a lot in schools and at home,
00:23:16
Speaker
And I want you to be able to recognize this again so you can come to the table with some good questions and bring some realization to the team. When the child is presented with math work and begins to shout and cry or runs away, the staff member removes the stimulus to calm the student. And with the chaos and the ever-changing dynamic of the school day, they never got back to finish that math worksheet. What behavior was reinforced there?
00:23:42
Speaker
So let's walk through that contingency again. Child screams and runs away when presented with the math worksheet, which results in the delay and the ultimate termination of the task. So by not going back to complete the task, staff have negatively reinforced the behavior of yelling and elopement. We will most likely see the elopement and screaming behavior increase based on the escape it provided from that aversive task or that perceived aversive task.
00:24:11
Speaker
This is really important to recognize when you receive that phone call from a caregiver or school saying that certain behavior situations continue to occur.
Importance of Positive Reinforcement
00:24:20
Speaker
My guess is that the behavior is getting negatively reinforced. Student screams with the presentation of a difficult task. Demand is removed. So screaming has been negatively reinforced. Screaming was added. Task was taken away. When we are looking to change a behavior, we want to make sure a couple of things
00:24:42
Speaker
Number one, that there is an abundance of opportunities for positive reinforcement. The chosen reinforcers are effective, motivating, and most importantly, have a history of positively changing behavior. We also want to look at how often they are being provided reinforcement.
00:25:03
Speaker
What is the immediacy of reinforcement? Positive and negative reinforcement works to change behavior and seeks to increase behaviors, but we have to do it right. If we want to see the results, we have to get our terminology straight, and we want to make sure that positive reinforcement is being implemented first and foremost, and that it's being used correctly. Mixing up negative and positive reinforcement with punishment is where plans go wrong. Too often, behavior plans
00:25:33
Speaker
rely on the use of punishment, so removal, and seek to stop behaviors from occurring rather than focusing on teaching the new skill and using positive reinforcement effectively.
Preview of Punishment Discussion
00:25:46
Speaker
So next week I'm covering negative and positive punishment. I'm excited to share these because the word punishment and negative reinforcement get used interchangeably and that is not right. And in addition, the use of punishment procedures are not what you think they are.
00:26:02
Speaker
Understanding what punishment both negative and positive are will help you recognize their use and their misuse, which in my opinion is most important as it affects behavior change procedures that your team could be using. Learning what they are will help you discuss fidelity with your team and your practitioners.
Engagement and Resources
00:26:20
Speaker
The more you know, the more you can support your home and school team in having an effective positive interventions in place. Head over to my website and grab the cheat sheets from this week's topic
00:26:32
Speaker
on negative and positive reinforcement if you think you need them. And I will see you next time.
00:26:37
Speaker
Well, you did it! Another step closer to uncomplicating behavior. I'm so proud of you for taking the time to learn more about behavior analysis. Still interested in learning more? Or have a question or topic that you'd love some answers to? Head over to uncomplicatebehaviorpodcast.com for today's show notes, submit a question or topic you would love to hear about, and subscribe to my email and podcast so you never miss a new episode.
00:27:02
Speaker
I created this podcast for you and I want it to serve you well, so don't be afraid to reach out to me directly.