Applied behavior analysis

This article uses too much jargon, which needs explaining or simplifying. Please help improve the page to make it understandable for everybody, without removing the technical details. (February 2024)

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a type of psychotherapy. Its goal is to help people (or animals) change their behavior, according to the ideas of radical behaviorism.^[1]

ABA is often used to treat a developmental disability called autism spectrum disorder. ABA can help people without autism too. For example, ABA can be used to improve workplace safety. It can also help people with mental disorders and other developmental disabilities.^[2]

In ABA, a behavior is anything that a person or animal does. ABA's goal is behavior change. According to this approach, after a person changes their behavior, they should identify the things in their environment that led to this behavior change, and the things that resulted from it.

Applied behavior analysis is based on the scientific approach known as radical behaviorism. According to this approach, to figure out why a person does a particular behavior, it's important to consider what happened before the behavior. (This is called an antecedent.) It is also important to study what happened after the behavior (the consequence). According to this approach, it is not important to study a person's thoughts or feelings in order to understand a behavior.^[1]

Radical behaviorism says that thoughts and feelings are types of behavior called private events. Private events are things that happen in a person's mind or body that other people can't see. Because private events are a type of behavior, they can also be understood by studying what happens before and after the private event happens.^[3]

Scientific experiments and articles about ABA were first published in the Journal for Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA.) This journal was founded in 1968. In the first issue of JABA, three people wrote an article explaining what applied behavior analysis is.^[4]

Psychologists who study the way the environment influences behavior are called behaviorists. They study the external causes of behavior instead of a person's feelings. A person's feelings can't be seen by other people, so behaviorists think they cannot be studied scientifically.

Psychologist John B. Watson founded Behaviorism in 1913.^[5] He is viewed as one of the first psychologists to study the applied science of behavior.^[6] He thought that internal feelings should not be studied at all. He also thought that behavior is shaped by the environment over time due to the outcome of a person's actions.

Watson believed that all behavior is learned and can be changed. If a person gets something good as a result of doing a behavior, they are more likely to repeat that behavior. If something bad happens as a result of a behavior, a person is less likely to do that thing again. This is an idea that is used a lot in ABA.

One of the most famous behaviorists was the psychologist B.F. Skinner. Skinner first published his ideas about behaviorism in 1938. He wrote a lot about behaviorism throughout his career.^[7] He made some of the behavior principles that ABA uses.

ABA emerged when experimental behavior principles were applied to social behavior. There are various people that began the process of applying these principles to social behavior. One of the most famous was Ole Ivar Lovaas.

In the 1960s, Lovaas became one of the first people to use applied behavior analysis as a treatment for autism.^[8] His actions changed the way developmental disorders were treated. Lovaas also thought that treatments would be more successful if they are started early in a child's life. The idea of starting treatment with a child as soon as possible is called 'early intervention'. Early intervention is still thought to be very important in ABA.

One of the more recent developments in Applied Behavior Analysis is the founding of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB). The BACB is a non-profit corporation that was started in 1998. The BACB certifies behavior analysts. In order to become a behavior analyst, a person must go to a special school and then pass an exam.

Once the person passes this exam, they will be board-certified behavior analysts. The BACB sets standards to make sure board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) are good at their jobs. The BACB makes sure that the BCBAs are using ethical, legal, and professional practices when they work.^[9]

There are seven characteristics of ABA ^[4] A treatment that is based on ABA must have all of these things.

"Applied" in ABA means that the behavior being studied is socially important. Socially important behavior is behavior that happens in everyday life.

"Behavioral" indicates that ABA therapists focus on visible problem behaviors. Treatments measure rates of behavior, which are easily tracked over time. Because feelings are internal, they cannot be measured and they are generally not addressed in ABA.

"Analytic" indicates that ABA therapists have to take control of a behavior before it can be changed. This means they have to be able to make the behavior happen at certain times. Data (i.e. rates of behaviors) from before therapy started is called baseline data.

"Technological" describes the amount of explanation necessary for a treatment. If a behavioral intervention is not explained well, it is not technological.

"Conceptually systematic" means a treatment is related to known behavior principles. Using principles that are already known makes ABA more effective.

"Effective" means that behavioral therapy techniques must produce good results to be used in ABA. The purpose of applied interventions is to improve a socially important behavior.

"Generality" is used to show how meaningful a behavior change is. A behavior change has high generality if:

1. The change keeps happening for a long time after the intervention is over
2. The change happens in different environments
3. The change causes a change in other behaviors

The following terms and ideas are used in Applied Behavior Analysis. It is important to understand these ideas when using ABA based interventions.^[10]

In ABA, a behavior that is bad is called a problem behavior. Problem behavior is something that hurts the person doing it or hurts other people around them.

Operant behavior is the opposite of respondent behavior. Operant behavior is voluntary and can be changed. A person has control over their own operant behavior. They decide which behaviors they want to do. Respondent behavior cannot be controlled like operant behavior. ABA studies operant behavior more than respondent because it can be controlled. If a behavior can be controlled then it can be changed.

Three-term contingency is a concept for understanding operant behavior that was first used by B.F. Skinner. It is still used in ABA. The three-term contingency says that every behavior has an antecedent and a consequence. An antecedent is what happens right before the behavior. The antecedent can change the chance that a behavior will happen. Some antecedents make a behavior more likely to happen. Other antecedents make a behavior less likely to happen. The consequence is what happens after the behavior. It is the response to the behavior. ABC data can be used to find things that may be causing behavior. Then these causes can be tested using experimental variables.

An operational definition tells people exactly what a target behavior looks like. The target behavior is the behavior that is trying to be changed. The operational definition of the target behavior needs to be very good. People that have not seen the target behavior before should be able to tell when it happens based only on the operational definition. A good operational definition makes the study of behavior better.

When something increases the likelihood of a response happening again, it is called a reinforcement. A reinforcement is often thought of as a reward. A reward is anything that is given after a response happens. A reward can only be a reinforcement if it increases the rate of response in the future. If it does not increase the rate of response then it is not a reinforcement. All reinforcers do not work for all people. So it is important to try different types of reinforcers to find out what works best for a person.

Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that fill a biological need. The four primary reinforcers are food, water, warmth and sex.

Reinforcers that do not fill biological needs are called secondary reinforcers. Secondary reinforcers are not naturally reinforcing. A person needs to learn that they are reinforcing. They learn that they are reinforcing because they are paired with other things that are known to be reinforcing. They are also called conditioned reinforcers.

A discriminative stimulus (sD) is something that tells a person that if they do a certain behavior, they will get a reward. When a person sees an sD, they will usually do the behavior that will result in them getting a reward.

Positive reinforcement (SR+) is when something is added that makes a person engage in a certain behavior more often. ^[3]There are four different types of positive reinforcement:

First, tangible reinforcers are things that can be held, like toys or food. Tangible reinforcers can be expensive, so they are not always the first choice for positive reinforcement.

Social reinforcement is one of the best types of positive reinforcement, partly because it is not expensive. It is also easy to use. Social reinforcers are things that have social value or meaning. Examples of social reinforcers would be awards, praise, or compliments. Social reinforcement can be very effective.

Activity reinforcers are any events that a person can earn. Examples of some activities would be getting to play games, go to the movies, or earning a break. Activity reinforcers can work really well if the person really wants to earn the activity. But activity reinforcers may not be able to be earned right after the behavior happens. This would result in a delay of reinforcement. The reinforcer will be less effective if it is given a long time after the behavior happens.

Token reinforcers are any neutral stimulus that can be traded for an object or activity. The objects or activities they can trade tokens for are known as back-up reinforcers. The tokens do not have value by themselves. They are only valuable because the person knows that they can trade them for something they want.

Negative reinforcement (SR-) something that a person does not like is taken away, so the person does a certain behavior more often. In this case, the term "negative" does not mean bad. The stimulus that is removed from the environment is something aversive. This means that the person does not like it. People will want to do a behavior if they know that something they do not like will be taken away.

Reinforcements are given based on schedules of reinforcement. The schedule will explain the ways reinforcement is earned. Behavior analysts decide which reinforcement schedule is best. Different schedules are useful for different things. The schedule used depends on the person. It also depends on the behavior that is being reinforced.

Continuous reinforcement schedules (CRF) reinforce a person every time they do the target behavior. There are a few problems with CRF schedules though. The rates of behavior are not long-lasting. If the person stops being reinforced, they may stop doing the target behavior. Another issue is satiation. Satiation happens when a person gets a lot of reinforcer. If they get a reinforcer a lot, they will get bored of it, and they won't want it anymore. If a person is satiated, they probably won't do the behavior for a while.

These schedules of reinforcement only reinforce the target behavior sometimes. There are four most common types of reinforcement schedule.

Fixed-ratio schedules give reinforcement after a certain number of responses.

With variable-ratio schedules, the amount of responses needed for reinforcement changes. The number of responses needed for reinforcement will be different every time.

With fixed-interval schedules: Reinforcement is delivered for the first response that happens after a fixed amount of time passes.

Variable-interval schedules give reinforcement after an variable amount of time passes.

A discriminative stimulus (SD) is something that tells a person that reinforcement is available. When a person sees an sD, they should do a certain behavior. Differential reinforcement teaches a person the difference between a SD and a non-discriminative stimulus (S-delta). A SD signals that reinforcement is available. A S-delta tells the person that they will not get a reinforcer for doing a behavior. A S-delta is not likely to produce responses because reinforcement is not given.

Differential reinforcement is also used to decrease problem behavior. There are four types of differential reinforcement that can be used to decrease a problem behavior.

• DRL stands for differential reinforcement of a "low-rate" of response. DRL is helpful when trying to decrease a behavior but not get rid of it completely.
• DRO stands for differential reinforcement of "other" behavior. With DRO, a person gets a reinforcer if they do not do the problem behavior for a set amount of time.
• DRI stands for differential reinforcement of "incompatible" behavior. A DRI program reinforces behavior that they can't do at the same time as the problem behavior. An incompatible behavior would stop them from being able to do the problem behavior.
• DRA stands for differential reinforcement of "alternative" behavior. For a DRA program the person is taught an alternative behavior that they can do instead of the problem behavior.

Extinction is a way to decrease rates of problem behavior. A DRA program should be used at the same time as an extinction program. This will make the extinction program more effective.

Reinforcement is always the first thing that is tried when trying to change a behavior. Reinforcement produces long-lasting results and is better for the person. However reinforcement does not always reduce problem behavior. If reinforcement does not work, it may be necessary to try punishment. Punishment is effective but it can have bad consequences. It can cause emotional harm if it is not used correctly.

Punishment is any response to a behavior that makes a behavior less likely to happen in the future. Punishment of a problem behavior should be used with reinforcement of the appropriate behavior. Appropriate behavior should always be reinforced even when using punishment for problem behavior.

Just like reinforcement, punishment can be both positive and negative. Positive punishment happens when something a person doesn't like is added after a person does a target behavior, and it makes the behavior less likely to happen in the future. The thing that is added is aversive. Negative punishment is when something the person likes is taken away, so the person is less likely to do the behavior in the future. The stimulus that is removed is something that the person likes.

Prompting increases the likelihood that a behavior will be done the right way. Lists or pictures that help the learner remember the correct response is one example of stimulus prompts.

Using prompts often makes the learning process easier and quicker. Someone that is teaching a new behavior can use prompts to help the person that is learning the behavior. The two broad categories of prompts are stimulus and response.

Response prompts do not involve a change in the antecedent. There are three types of response prompts.

1. The first type is verbal prompts.
2. The second type of response prompt is a gestural prompt. The most common gestural prompt is pointing to the correct response.
3. The third type of response prompt is a physical prompt. A physical prompt is when the teacher touches the learner in order to help them perform the correct behavior. Physical prompts are often used when teaching new skills that involve movement of the body.

Fading prompts is a way to increase the independence of the learner. Once the learner can do the behavior on their own they will not need the help of the teacher. However, if a teacher stops using prompts quickly it may confuse the learner. So prompts should be decreased slowly. The process of gradually decreasing prompting is called 'fading'.

Shaping is a way to teach new behaviors or improve behaviors that have already been taught. It involves reinforcing steps towards a target behavior.

Complex behaviors are made up of smaller simple behaviors. This is what the concept of behavior chains is based on. A behavior chain is when smaller behaviors are combined to form a complex behavior. These smaller behaviors are done in a certain order. Each of the smaller behaviors is a step in the behavior chain. Each step in a behavior chain is a response on its own. There are three different ways to teach a behavior chain.

Forward chaining is the most common way to teach a behavior chain. The chain is taught starting with the first step. Once the learners can do the first step they move on to the second step. This continues until they have completed all of the steps.

Backward chaining is the opposite of forward chaining. With backward chaining the last step is taught to the learners first. Once they can do the last step they move on to the second to last step. This continues until they make it to the first step.

Total task presentation is the third way to teach a behavior chain. With forward and backward chaining, only one step in the behavior chain is taught at one time. But with total task the learner completes every step in the chain every time they do the program. They should complete every step in the correct order. Total task requires the learner know how to do all of the steps in the chain before they start the program.

ABA relies on data to make decisions about behavior. Behavior analysts are always collecting data about a person's behavior.

Direct observation is when behavior is watched and recorded.^[11] Indirect measures compare one person's behavior to other people's behavior. An example would be an intelligence test. One person's score is compared to the scores that other people got.

There are three common methods of data collection. They are frequency, interval, and time sampling.^[12] These methods are used for direct observation.

Frequency is how often a behavior happens. Frequency recording simply counts the number of times a behavior happens.

Interval recording breaks the observation time into smaller pieces. The total time is divided into smaller intervals. If the behavior happens at any time during one of the smaller intervals it is recorded.

Time sampling methods are a little different from frequency and interval methods. The observer will only look to see if the behavior is happening every once in a while. If the behavior is happening when the observers looks it gets recorded. But if the behavior happens any other time it does not get recorded. So the behavior is only recorded sometimes.

A functional analysis is done to find the reason for problem behavior. This information is needed before a behavioral intervention can be done.

Behavior analysts came up with the idea of a functional analysis in 1982.^[13] Since then, it has become an important part of ABA. The behavior analyst tries to find the situations that cause the highest rates of problem behavior. This can tell the behavior analyst the reason for the behavior. Once the reasons for problem behavior are known, treatment can begin.

Treatments based on the results of a FA are more effective than without a FA.^[14]

Applied behavior analysis is commonly associated with autism. This is because ABA is the only treatment for autism that has been scientifically proven to be effective.^[15]

ABA has been criticized for a variety of reasons.^[16][17][18] For example, long-term effects of ABA have not been studied in detail.

Sandoval-Norton and Shkedy (2019) wrote that children who are getting ABA therapy may be at risk for:^[18]

• Learned helplessness
• Obsession with rewards or food
• Becoming dependent on prompts
• Reduced intrinsic motivation
• Low self-esteem
• Reduced confidence
• Anxiety
• Reduced autonomy
• Reduced social skills