Prompting and Transfer of Stimulus Control

Prompting and Transfer of Stimulus Control • • • • Behavioral Acquisition ○ Development of new behavior through reinforcement § Some learners acquire behavior by □ Being told how □ Being shown how □ Or with physical assistance ® Example § Prompting is an acquisition strategy When is Prompting used ○ To develop a variety of new behaviors § Teaching a child to bounce a ball § Teaching an adult with an intellectual disability to give others their personal space § Learning new material for a class ○ To develop stimulus control § Get the right behavior at the right time □ When contextually appropriate § When is a behavior under stimulus control? □ When the behavior only occurs in the presence of a particular discriminative stimulus (SD) What is Prompt? ○ An antecedent stimulus or event that controls a response § Used by teachers, coaches, parents, trainers § Gets the behavior to occur in the correct situation § Allows learner to access to reinforcers □ Antecedent-->Behavior-->Consequence ○ Example § Teaching language, such as the word “Dog” Types of Prompts ○ Response prompts § Prompts that involve the BX of another person Prompts that involve the BX of another person □ Teacher saying, “Say ‘DOG’” § Types of response prompts □ Behavior: Playing with Elmo ® SD: “Let’s play with Elmo” □ Verbal prompt ® Verbal behavior of another person ® Instructions, rules, hints, reminders, questions ◊ “Hit the button to play with Elmo” □ Gestural prompt ® Any physical movement of another person ® Pointing, gesturing, nodding ◊ Point to the button □ Modeling prompt ® Demo of correct behavior by another person ® Teacher models, learner imitates in presence of SD ® “Watch me, you push like this” (push the button) □ Physical prompt ® Another person physically helps the learner engage in the correct behavior ® Physical guidance ® Used when other prompts ineffective ◊ Use physical assistance to push button Stimulus prompts § Involves some change in the stimulus or addition/removal of a stimulus to make a correct response more likely § Can involve some change in the stimulus □ Within-stimulus prompt ® Changing salience of SD or SΔ ◊ Make SD more noticeable than the SΔ ◊ Change some dimension (size, shape, color, or intensity) } Example of intensity: Teaching to swing a bat, a slow easy pitch is a withinstimulus prompt } Example of size: “Point to cat” } Example of color: “What do you eat soup with? Or addition/removal of a stimulus § § ○ § • • • Or addition/removal of a stimulus □ Extra-stimulus prompt ® Examples: alarms, tactile prompts, textual prompts, plastic cover on an outlet, answer on the back of a flashcard, writing on your hand, post it notes, picture prompts in instructions, picture schedules § Makes correct response more likely in presence of SD □ Does NOT involve behavior of another person □ Modifications to the antecedent stimulus Transfer of Stimulus Control ○ Once prompts have established responding the goal is to get the BX to occur in the presence of the Sd without prompts (assistance) ○ Children and adults can become prompt dependent § e.g., Child may turn on Elmo toy only when Mom is there ○ To avoid this we fade out prompting § Teaching not complete until all prompts are faded (help removed) and behavior is under control of natural SDs ○ Called Transfer of Stimulus Control § Fading § Prompt delay Fading across response prompts ○ Prompt hierarchy to get BX to occur, then fade prompts § Type od prompt • Level of intrusion □ Verbal ○ Least (weakest) □ Gestural ○ Moderately low □ Modeling ○ Moderately high □ Physical ○ Most (strongest) § Least to most prompting: least intrusive first □ Allows for potential independent responding; however, frequent errors, prompt dependence § Most to least prompting: most intrusive first, fade when successfully executing behavior □ Fewer errors, more rapid learning, but intrusive (may be aversive) Fading within prompts ○ Gradual removal of a prompt while the response occurs in the presence of the SD ○ Fading Within a Response Prompt- Gradually removing the response prompt Coach provides less and less physical assistance to Trevor to hit the ball (physical prompt fading) § Teacher gives a word as a verbal prompt, then part of the word, then first letter, then no part of word (verbal prompt fading) □ Cat, Ca-, C-, no prompt § Fading Within a Stimulus Prompt- Gradually removing the stimulus prompt □ Extra-Stimulus: Students look at the answers on flash cards less and less as they learn the answers to multiplication problems ® “Where is the fruit?” ® Textual Activity Schedules □ Within-Stimulus: Larger stimulus is made smaller and smaller to be the same size as other stimuli ® “Which one is green?” Prompt delay ○ Present the SD, wait X number of seconds, then present the prompt (if needed) § Time delay can be constant or progressive ○ Examples: § The teacher shows the word to Natasha and waits 4 s □ If Natasha does not say the word, the teacher says the word as a prompt § Coach gives child 10s to try to hit a baseball off a tee before he provides assistance Prompt dependence ○ Unsuccessful transfer of stimulus control to naturally occurring stimuli § Behavior occurs only when prompted (e.g., verbally) § May occur when ineffective fading procedures are used ○ Correcting prompt dependence § Focusing on relevant environmental cues □ What stimulus should ultimately evoke the response after training? § Differential reinforcement □ Provide differential consequences for prompted and unprompted responses □ Important for preventing as well as eliminating prompt dependence § • •