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Shaping, or the differential reinforcement of successive approximations, is thought by many to be the most important tool in the behavior analyst’s toolbox. Shaping is usually thought of as something one human does to change the behavior of another living organism, most often to a human but also to a pet or a laboratory subject of the nonhuman persuasion. In such cases, the human is the agent of the shaping in that the human decides the conditions under which successive approximations do or do not merit reinforcement. 

“Reinforcement is a verbal operant. Our challenge is to identify which verbal operant it is at any given time.” Hank Schlinger Jr, PhD, BCBA-D

 Once upon a time, there were twins named Immedium and Procrastinium. As their names might suggest, the two approached tasks very differently. When a deadline was assigned, Procrastinium’s first reaction was to do something else, while Immedium started on it and soon got it done, PDQ, kazaam, what’s next?

Reinforcement and its law was a major contributor to the advances made by behavior analysis. However, there is so much more that should be learned regarding contingencies. A better understanding of environmental factors of behavior has aided analysts in analyzing behavior as well as creating treatments for their clients. Antecedent events are just as important as consequences because they directly relate.

“A lot of people get queasy when thinking about this; we’re considering an individual with an established set of preferences and related utility for reinforcers associated with those preferences, and then we want to start manipulating those preferences. Well, some people think that’s not a good idea—preferences are what preferences are.”

On today’s bonus episode of BOOST U! Maddie Duke and Corey Robertson answered some student questions about complex schedules of reinforcement and simple vs. conditional discriminations.

The behavior of punishing. When behavior is reinforced it becomes more likely the next time, and the next, often in an ever-escalating spiral.

“For a lot of the populations that we work with, it is difficult to extract very clear, very useful information on what sort of things might function as reinforcement for them.” Dr. Iser DeLeon, PhD, BCBA Abstract 

“Identifying reinforcers is absolutely essential when we are working on acquisition. In order to teach someone a new behavior, we need to be able to reinforce that behavior when it occurs.” Dr. Meagan Gregory, BCBA  Abstract 

No news is not good news. There is no improvement without feedback. Janis Allen, BA

Performance Management (PM) is an approach to producing organizational results by improving the performance of employees throughout an organization. Performance involves all of the different behaviors that employees engage in. Behaviors that contribute to increases in sales, higher customer satisfaction, and higher quality products and services are the building blocks of business results. PM focuses on increasing these critical behaviors by systematically arranging the workplace to maximize productivity.

Interdisciplinary teams devise and implement educational plans for children with special learning challenges. Sometimes, these involve a behavior analyst. Whether you are a behavior analyst thinking about working in schools, currently working in schools, or working alongside a school’s behavior analyst, you know schools have teams of several people who contribute to each child’s education plan.

In Organizational Behavior Management (OBM), one specialty area of practice is leadership and culture development. Leadership can be defined as the behavior of managers, supervisors, and decision-makers who influence the behavior of employees. Culture is a pattern of behavior throughout the organization. Effective leadership produces a culture of reinforcement where leaders and employees bring out the best performance in each other.

 When it comes to reinforcement, it is difficult to say.

Bad or Possibly Redeemable Label?A procedure in which each target response postpones a scheduled reinforcer most often is described in both the basic and applied research and practice literature as a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior