Identify and select one or more behaviors that are incompatible with the behavior to be eliminated. It is preferable to choose a behavior that is already in the subject's repertoire, that can be maintained in the usual environment and that is useful for the subject. If the alternative behaviors are not in the subject's repertoire, shaping or chaining will be used to implement them.
Select appropriate reinforcers for their contingent application to the emission of the incompatible behavior. Initially continuously and subsequently intermittently. Eliminate the reinforcement of the undesirable behavior, leaving it under extinction. Have the subject perform the alternative behavior in all habitual contexts.
Disadvantages:
- It takes time to get results (until the incompatible behavior reaches an adequate rate).
- Difficulties in selecting and defining incompatible behavior.
- For faster effects, the RDI must be combined with other procedures such as time-out, overcorrection, or punishment.
Competition reaction training (Azrin and Nunn), for the treatment of nervous habits (tics, nail biting, hair pulling, stuttering, etc.), is based on principles similar to the RDI, since it is about the subject making competing responses that prevent starting and maintaining the habit (in which they bite their nails, place gloves).
Appropriate characteristics of effective competing responses:
- They must prevent the conduct from being carried out before it is carried out.
- It should be possible to sustain the competing response for several minutes without making it appear odd to a potential viewer.
- The competing response must not interfere with normal activities.
- The competing response must make the subject aware of the absence of the inappropriate behavior.
- Subjects should perform the competition reaction as soon as they feel an impulse to engage in the competition. inappropriate behavior, provided they are in a situation that incites it or even when they have already started.
- It should be done for a period long enough for the momentum to subside. After this time, the subject has to reinforce himself for having carried out the incompatible and inappropriate behavior.
Schneider and Robin's turtle technique is an alternative response learning method to eliminate aggressive responses and tantrums in troubled children.
It consists of 4 phases:
- The child is told the story of the turtle.
- A practical session is carried out in which they are taught to imitate the response of the turtle.
- The teacher has the child practice the technique to various simulated situations that cause frustration.
- A daily record is kept and correct actions are positively reinforced.
Differences between RDI and RDO:
- RDO is easier to apply and produces faster effects. It has the disadvantage of reinforcing negative behaviors different from the target behavior (it will have to be combined with other procedures or RDI).
- If the incompatible behaviors are well established, the RDI produces better effects than the RDO, even receiving less reinforcement under this condition.
It is an effective technique that has been applied from children of one and a half years, to adults with mental retardation or psychotic disorders. Effective in tantrums, table fights, food stealing, destructive and aggressive behaviors, negativism and disobedience, relationship problems, tics, excessive alcohol consumption, etc.
APPLICATION RULES: Before applying, consider using other behavior reduction techniques (extinction, RDO or RDI). Ensure that the subject can perform an appropriate alternative behavior (if not, use shaping or modeling techniques). Use time out of reinforcement along with positive reinforcement of alternative behaviors. The application of time out should be contingent only on the objective behavior, not on other non previously specified (Its excessive use is unnecessarily aversive to the subject and confuses). Time-out has to be applied consistently, even if the person complains, resists, or promises to behave well. However, there is evidence that this technique can be effective applied intermittently, although it should not be this way from the beginning.
Arrange an area so that the subject can be isolated without the possibility of entertaining or performing other behaviors that are attractive to you, Modify the environment so that it facilitates the emission of behaviors appropriate. The isolation zone must be close enough to be able to apply the time-out immediately to the emission of the inappropriate behavior. Isolation is not always necessary.
Sulzer-Azaroff and Mayer: contingent observation procedure: When in a group of children who work together, one of them emits maladaptive behaviors, he is placed a few meters away. Another alternative: Put a necklace or ribbon on the child. Whenever procedures that do not involve isolation can be applied, they should be chosen. When this procedure is used with children, it should be of moderate duration (@ 4 minutes, no more than 1 minute for each year of the child). It should start for short periods, and gradually increase them.
The use of long periods from the beginning prevents that later periods of shorter duration can be used effectively. In addition, they prevent learning and the emission of appropriate behaviors. It is advisable to give prior notice to the application of time out, which should not be verbal (gesture or noise). If the child does not obey the warning, he must be taken to the place of the time out without paying attention to it. If it cannot be done immediately, the child's hand can be marked and given at recess time. Using a stopwatch is helpful to make sure you don't forget the end of the time out. However, if the subject is emitting maladaptive behaviors, leaving the time out could reinforce them (the subject has to behave well in the last 15 seconds).
If the subject has messed up or spoiled the room, he should tidy up and clean it as well as possible. Avoid applying time out if it serves to avoid aversive or unpleasant situations (if the child does not like the math class, he could use it to get rid of it). It is not convenient to place subjects who emit self-stimulating behaviors in time-out, as this would provide an opportunity for self-reinforcement. Disadvantages: It implies a negative contingency, so the agents that apply it can become in aversive conditioned stimuli, especially if they do not emit positive reinforcement by others behaviors.
Time out impedes learning and the opportunity to practice appropriate behaviors. It is not the appropriate procedure when the objective is the immediate reduction of the behavior. Lutzker: "Face shield" method: Effective for behaviors self-injurious (When it was noticed that the child was engaging in this type of behavior, he was shouted "No" and a screen was placed covering his face and head for 3-5 seconds). Satiation It consists of the presentation of a reinforcer in such a massive way that it loses its value. It can be carried out in 2 WAYS:
- By making the subject emit the behavior to be massively reduced (response satiation, negative practice, or massive practice). Providing reinforcement that maintains the behavior in such a large quantity that it loses its rewarding value (stimulus satiation).
- The negative practice was developed by Dunlap: application in tics, stuttering, hoarding behaviors, or lighting matches in young children. To apply the technique, it is necessary to know the topography and frequency of the behavior, to design massive sessions in those in which the subject practices the behavior a large number of times, without rest, until the behavior has a value aversive. Stimulus satiation is designed to reduce the attractiveness of stimuli that promote the behaviors of watching, touching, or having those stimuli.
Ayllon: satiation program with a psychotic patient who accumulated towels in her room. The patient had up to 625 towels, which required her to spend all day folding and placing them. The techniques of fast smoking, retention of smoke, or satiation of taste, which have been developed for smoking, are based on this principle. To apply satiation, it is necessary to identify and control the reinforcer that maintains this behavior. It cannot be applied: If the behavior is controlled by multiple reinforcers, or these are of a social type. If the behavior to be reduced is dangerous (self-injurious or aggressive behaviors). It must be combined with the implementation or strengthening of alternative behaviors, since its application isolated, only leads to the elimination of behaviors, which if they are not replaced by others, can return to Appear. Overcorrection Developed by Foxx and Azrin. Central Idea: Overcompensating for the consequences of inappropriate behavior or overcorrecting.
It can be applied in TWO WAYS:
- Restorative overcorrection: Requires the subject to restore the damage that has been produced and over-correct or improve the original state prior to the act (the child who has been pee on the floor, you are asked to change clothes, take the dirty clothes to the washing machine, and clean the subject on a surface larger than the dirty).
- Positive practice overcorrection: Repeated emission of positive behavior. Some behaviors do not harm other people (tics, stereotypes, self-stimulation). Here, restitution is not possible, but the practice of a behavior that is desirable and physically incompatible with the undesirable is possible.
Foz and Azrin: They controlled the self-stimulatory rotation of a retarded girl by having her repeat 3 exercises, for 20 minutes, each time she performed the head movement.
APPLICATION RULES
Consider using other procedures first. Before applying overcorrection, try giving orders that include rejecting the undesirable behavior, writing down the wrong behavior, or setting a standard of conduct. When the subject initiates the undesirable behavior, give a verbal warning to cut the chain; If it continues, apply the overcorrection consistently and immediately (it contributes to extinction by not allowing time for subjects to be reinforced for the undesirable behavior).
Ensure that the duration of the overcorrection be moderate. The duration should be prolonged for a certain time after the environment is restored. Attention, praise, or approval should be avoided, keeping reinforcement to a minimum. Only verbal instructions and physical guidance are allowed. If possible, use a positive practice overcorrection to identify the educational aspect of the procedures. Combine treatment with a positive reinforcement program for appropriate behavior or alternative behaviors. Program overcorrection in different situations and with different educators, otherwise generalized effects cannot be expected.
Inform caregivers of the possible difficulties involved in the application of overcorrection and to engage in strategies to overcome these problems (prepare to endure shouting, protests, kicks). Check the indirect effects of overcorrection: increase or decrease of appropriate behaviors or inappropriate, elimination by modeling of similar undesirable behaviors in the classmates of the boy. Advantages: a) It minimizes the disadvantages of punishment, since it is less likely to produce aggression or excessive negative generalization. b) Teach the subject appropriate behaviors (time out, extinction, satiation or response cost).
Azrin he calls it "educational punishment." c) Positive practice serves as a model in vicarious learning for observers. According to Fox and Azrin, overcorrection should: a) Immediately follow the misconduct. b) Be carried out actively, so that work and effort act as a brake on inappropriate behavior. c) To be topographically related to the misconduct (so as not to lose the educational effect). Limitations: In practice, a lot of time is spent identifying the remedial activities of complex overcorrection procedures. Methods such as making each student who makes a spelling mistake write it 20 times correctly, serves to memorize it, it should be called "directed practice" to differentiate them from the overcorrection.
The technique requires use of time (it can cause the person who applies it to end up resigning or acting aggressively with the child). It is difficult to predict how long each exercise will take. But, overcorrection procedures, when effective, dramatically change customer behavior quickly. Efficacy of overcorrection: Rapid reduction of self-stimulatory behaviors in psychotic or retarded children, control of aggressiveness, rumination behaviors and other destructive behaviors. Less effective in: treatment of self-injurious behaviors. The effects are more permanent in children than in adults.
