Psychology: Chaining

Chapter 11: Chaining

Behavioral chain--a complex behavior consisting of many component behaviors that occur together in a sequence

Ex. getting a piece of gum involves at least five behaviors such as reaching into pocket, pulling out pack of gum, pulling a single stick out, unwrapping, and putting into mouth

-you can engage in a particular behavior in the sequence only if the previous behavior in the sequence has been completed

Stimulus-response chain--each behavioral chain consists of a number of individual stimulus-response components that occur together in a sequence

-each behavior or response in the chain produces a stimulus change that acts as an SD for the second response in the sequence; 2nd response produces an SD for 3rd response and so on

-we can make the outcome of the chain more reinforcing by means of an establishing operation Ex. having a bad taste in mouth may want you to put hands in your pocket to unwrap gum

Task analysis-process of analyzing a behavioral chain by breaking it down into its individual stimulus-response components

-any time your goal is to teach a complex task involving two or more component responses (a behavioral chain) to a person, the first step is to identify all the behaviors that are necessary to perform the task and write them down in order. Next you identify the SD associated with each behavior in the task

-TA can be conducted in different ways

* Observe a competent person engage in task

* Ask an expert (person who performs task well) to explain all components in the task

* Perform the task yourself and record each of the component responses

-may revise initial TA by breaking down behaviors or combining them depending on learners' ability to master task

-only way to determine whether you have correct number of steps is to determine how well the TA works for a particular learner

Chaining procedures--strategies for teaching complex tasks; involves the systematic application of prompting and fading strategies to each stimulus-response component in the chain

-3 different chaining procedures

Backward chaining--intensive training procedures typically used with learners with limited abilities; use prompting and fading to teach the last behavior in the chain first

-prompting is when you tell the person how to do something while fading is allowing learner to perform action independently by giving less assistance

Forward chaining--you teach the first component then the second component, and so on: that is, you move from the front of the chain to the end.

-Because you provide a reinforcer after each response in the chain during training, the outcome of each response (the SD for the next response_ becomes a conditioned reinforcer. This is especially important with forward chaining because you do not get to the natural reinforcer at the end of the chain until you train the last component. As with backward chaining, once the learner exhibits all the behaviors in the chain, you eventually switch from a continuous reinforcement schedule to an intermittent reinforcemnt schedule to maintain the behavior. The ultimate goal is to have the behavior maintained by natural reinforcers.

Similarities

* Both are used to teach a chain of behaviors.

* To use both procedures, you first have to conduct a task analysis that breaks down the chain into stimulus-response components.

* Both teach one behavior (one component of the chain) at a time and chain the behaviors together.

* Both procedures use prompting and fading to