Learning/Conditioning

Pre-Exposure to the CS or US:

3.Pre-Exposure to the CS or US: Repeated exposure to the US or to the intended CS before the CS and US are paired slows down acquisition of the CR.

Interventions Based on Counterconditioning

A. Interventions Based on Counterconditioning Behavioral techniques utilizing counterconditioning eliminate a maladaptive behavior by pairing a stimulus (CS) associated with that behavior with a stimulus (US) that naturally elicits an incompatible behavior so that the maladaptive behavior is replaced by the incompatible behavior.

Reciprocal inhibition

Counterconditioning underlies Wolpe's technique of reciprocal inhibition, which he believed could be used to weaken and eliminate anxiety reactions. According to Wolpe ( 1958): "If a response antagonistic to anxiety can be made to occur in the presence of anxiety-evoking stimuli so that lt is accompanied by complete or partial suppression of the anxiety responses, the bond between these stimuli and the anxiety response will be weakened." Wolpe identified a number of incompatible responses that could be used to eliminate anxiety, including relaxation, assertiveness, and sexual arousal.

Covert Sensitization:

Covert Sensitization: When using covert sensitization to eliminate a maladaptive behavior, the client imagines engaging in the maladaptive behavior and then imagines (rather than actually confronts) an aversive stimulus. To reduce cigarette smoking, a therapist might instruct the client to imagine smoking a cigarette and then visualize becoming nauseated by the cigarette, throwing up on the floor and on hlm/herself, becoming embarrassed, etc. Subsequently, to help establish alternative behaviors, the therapist might have the client envision a "relief" scene, in which nonsmoking ls accompanied by pleasant sensations.

Delay Conditioning

Delay conditioning is a type of forward conditioning and involves presenting the CS so that it precedes and overlaps presentation of the US. When using this procedure, the optimal time interval between the onset of the CS and the US depends on the nature of the target response, but, generally, the most effective interval is about O.5 seconds. Delay conditioning is the most efficient procedure for establishing a conditioned response.

Evaluation: Aversion therapy

Evaluation: Aversion therapy has been found to be moderately effective initially for some patients and some problems (especially cigarette smoking), but it's associated with high relapse rates and limited generalizability. This intervention is most successful when the aversive stimulus or its consequence is similar to the target behavior. For instance, nausea-inducing drugs are more effective than electric shock for treating alcoholism, and stale cigarette smoke and rapid smoking are most useful for reducing cigarette smoking. Aversion therapy is also more effective when it's supplemented by "booster sessions" or is administered ln conjunction with other treatments.

Fading & Reinforcement:

Fading: The gradual removal of a prompt is referred to as fading.

In Vlvo Aversion Therapy (Covert Sensitization):

In vlvo aversion therapy is used to treat substance use disorders, paraphilias, and self-injurious behaviors. When using this technique, the target behavior is paired with an aversive stimulus such as electric shock, noxious odor, or emetic (nausea-inducing) drug. For example, to eliminate a sexual fetish, the fetish object (CS) might be paired with electric shock (US) so that, eventually, the fetish object is avoided because it produces an unpleasant sensation (CR) rather than sexual arousal.

Number of Conditioning Trials:

Number of Conditioning Trials: The greater the number of conditioning trials, the stronger and more persistent the CR. However, regardless of the number of trials, the CR is usually weaker in intensity or magnitude than the UR.

Prompts & Reinforcement:

Prompts: Verbal and/or physical prompts facilitate the acquisition of a new behavior. When a prompt signals that the behavior will be reinforced, it's acting as a positive discriminative stimulus. For instance, if a father reminds his child to clean her room and always praises the child after she has done so, the father's reminder is a discriminative stimulus that signals that praise will follow the behavior.

Schedule of Reinforcement:

Schedule of Reinforcement: Generally, 1. the establishment of a new behavior is most rapid when reinforcement is applied on a continuous schedule, 2. while maintenance of the behavior (resistance to extinction) is maximized when the behavior is reinforced on an intermittent schedule. Consequently, the best procedure is to begin with a continuous schedule of reinforcement and to change to an intermittent schedule once the behavior is well-established. The process of reducing the proportion of reinforcements is referred to as thinning.

Shaping & Reinforcement:

Shaping: When using reinforcement to increase a response, it's necessary to wait for the response to be emitted in order to reinforce it. Often, however, the target behavior is one that rarely or never occurs naturally. In this situation, shaping can be used. Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behavior; that is, providing reinforcement only for behaviors that come closer and closer to the desired one.

Simultaneous conditioning

Simultaneous conditioning is even less effective than trace conditioning and involves presenting and withdrawing the CS and US at the same time.

Systematic Desensitization:

Systematic Desensitization was originally developed by Wolpe as an application of reciprocal inhibition for eliminating anxiety responses. When using this technique, hierarchically-arranged anxiety-evoking events are paired with relaxation to eliminate anxiety.

Thinning

The process of reducing the proportion of reinforcements is referred to as thinning.

Trace conditioning

Trace conditioning type of forward conditioning presenting and terminating the CS prior to presenting the US. Trace conditioning produces a weaker CR than does delay conditioning.

Verbal Clarification & Reinforcement:

Verbal Clarification: The effectiveness of reinforcement is enhanced when the contingent relationship between a behavior and a reinforcer is verbally clarified.

chaining

chaining an operant conditioning technique in which a complex behavioral sequence is learned. Animals, both human and nonhuman, can be taught to perform relatively elaborate sequences of activities by this method, which makes primary reinforcement contingent on the final response in the series. In backward chaining, the final response is taught first. Once established, the stimulus for that response becomes a conditioned reinforcer that is used to reinforce the next-to-last response in the chain; this stimulus is then used to reinforce another response. The chain is thus taught backward, one response at a time. In forward chaining, the chain is taught by reinforcing the first step in the sequence, then the second, and so on until the entire sequence is learned. Also called behavior chaining.