Class notes on problem behaviours and choices

Introduction to Learning
Problem Behaviours & Choices
Therapies based on classical or operant conditioning have long been used
for a variet of behaviour problems:
 Fear and phobias
 Classroom and teaching in general
 Prison and secure institutions
 Child behaviour problems
 Learning disabilities and autism
 Psychiatric disorders
Treatment based on Classical Conditioning
Mary Cover Jones (1924)
 Little Peter – 34 months
 Naturally arising rabbit phobia
 Peter fed cookies while rabbit presented at different distances.
(counter-conditioning and modelling)
The steps involved in classically conditioning Little Peter and his reaction:
A. Rabbit anywhere in the room in a cage causes fear reactions.
B. Rabbit 12 feet away in cage tolerated.
C. Rabbit 4 feet away in cage tolerated.
D. Rabbit 3 feet away in cage tolerated.
E. Rabbit close in cage tolerated.
F. Rabbit free in room tolerated.
G. Rabbit touched when experimenter holds it.
H. Rabbit touched when free in room.
I. Rabbit allowed on tray of high chair.
J. Squats in defenceless position beside rabbit.
K. Helps experimenter to carry rabbit to its cage.
L. Holds rabbit on lap.
M. Stays alone in room with rabbit.
N. Allows rabbit in play pen with him.
O. Fondles rabbit affectionately.
P. Lets rabbit nibble his fingers.
(Jones M.C. (1924) A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter,
Pedagogical Seminary, 31:308-315)
Extinction – weakening of the conditioned response
 A CR can be weakened or eliminated when the CS is repeatedly
presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.
 Try and reduce the incidence of a conditioned stimulus occurring
with the unconditioned stimulus.

,  Counter-conditioning
o In counter-conditioning the response to a stimulus is
eliminated by evoking a new response to the same stimulus,
incompatible to the first one.
 Reciprocal inhibition
o Reciprocal inhibition in which certain responses are
incompatible with each other, and the occurrence of one
response necessarily inhibits the other.
 Systematic desensitisation
 Aversion therapy
Wolpe (1958): Systematic desensitisation
 Cats refused to enter chamber where they were previously shocked
 Fed cats in room very different from the chamber
 And then in rooms progressively closer to the chamber
 Until the cat eventually ate in the chamber room
 ARGUED:
o A new response (eating, pleasurable) became associated with
the stimulus
o This response was incompatible with the initially conditioned
response (fear)
o The stronger response (pleasure) determined behaviour
o Reciprocal inhibition? Certain responses are incompatible with
each other, and the occurrence of one response necessarily
inhibits the other.
 Could this approach be applied to the treatment of phobias?
 Wolpe proposed that fear reduction could be accomplished by
simultaneous presentation of:
o Anxiety provoking stimuli and
o Stimuli evoking a response antagonistic to anxiety
 But how to counter-condition an event cannot be generated
experimentally or in the clinic? (Thunder storm?)
Systematic desensitisation
 This is a treatment procedure for phobias that involves pairing
relaxation with a succession of stimuli that elicit increasing levels of
fear.
o Have person imagine the feared event.
o Have person associate that feared event with a different state
– e.g. relaxation.
o A person suffering from anxiety compiles a list of feared
situations from least to most frightening: ‘anxiety hierarchy’.
o Person imagines graded series of anxiety provoking situation
whilst relaxing.
o Relaxation inhibits anxiety: the two are INCOMPATIBLE