Differential Reinforcement – Basic Principles

Introduction

Alan is 11 years old and attends Ridgewood Middle School. Although he likes science, he has difficulty staying with his group and working on the lab assignments. In fact, Alan generally has a lot of difficulty interacting with his peers throughout the day. His individualized education plan (IEP) states “Alan needs to learn how to initiate and maintain conversation with his peers.”This lesson will demonstrate a possible strategy to support Alan in these interactions.

1. What is differential reinforcement?

A basic principle in understanding differential reinforcement and how we learn in most situations is the concept of discrimination. Basically, discrimination is a process for behaving one way in one situation and behaving in a completely different way in another situation. Like the example in Lesson 1 with Dana at East Middle School, discrimination involves understanding that certain things and events occur in some situations (Dana receives a coupon only when she is with her group) but do not occur in other situations (Dana does not receive a coupon when she is not with her group). Thus discrimination is the ability to tell the difference between environmental events (Alberto & Troutman, 1995).

Discrimination typically develops as a result of differential reinforcement. Most of the behaviors we demonstrate in our daily lives are the result of differential reinforcement. We stop our car at red lights and proceed through the intersection on green lights; we grab our umbrella before going outside in the rain; we answer the phone when it is ringing; we initiate conversation with those whom we wish to talk, and so on. Differential reinforcement is making the discrimination regarding when reinforcement will be obtained (i.e., proceeding safely through an intersection at a green light; remaining dry when we use an umbrella when its raining, etc.) and when reinforcement will not be obtained (i.e., having an accident in the intersection if we proceed through it on a red light, getting drenched if you forget your umbrella, etc.). Reinforcement for Dana was in the form of coupons when she was working with her group. She only received the coupons when she was working with her group..

In the example of Alan and his reluctance to engage his peer in conversation, we are going to use a differential reinforcement procedure. Unlike Dana who received her coupons simply for “working” with her peers (e.g., no specific behaviors were identified), Alan will receive reinforcement (he will receive checkmarks as it has already been determined they are important to him) only when he is engaged in specific conversation with his peers. That is, whenever Alan is talking with his peers about the science lesson, he will receive a checkmark from his teacher. When he is not in conversation with his peers (or the conversation is not about science), he will not receive a checkmark.

The purpose of this procedure is to teach Alan what behaviors are “appropriate” and what behaviors are not; that is, when he will receive his checkmark and when he will not. In the case of the science group, the IEP determined that talking with his peers during the lab assignment is an appropriate behavior. Thus, “talking with his peers during the lab assignment” has been targeted as a specific behavior that will receive reinforcement. Unlike in Dana’s situation where any behavior involving “working with her group” would receive reinforcement, in Alan’s case only the specific behavior of talking with his lab mates would receive reinforcement.

In both situations, reinforcement was provided only when certain behaviors were performed and not provided at other times when those behaviors were not performed. For example, whenever Dana was away from her group, she received no reinforcement. Whenever Alan was not talking with his lab mates, he received no checkmarks. Conversely, whenever Dana was with her peers and working together on the assignment, she received her coupon. When Alan was talking with his peers about the lab assignment, he received his checkmark.

The teachers in both classrooms had to set up a data collection system that monitored when each student received reinforcement. In the two examples, each time the teacher saw the student engaged in the desired behaviors, he would simply record on a piece of paper that the reinforcement was given. Similarly, whenever the students engaged in the undesired behaviors (walking away from the group or not engaging peers in conversation), the teacher would record this on the same piece of paper.

What could go wrong?

When using differential reinforcement, it is vitally important to understand some very fundamental things. First, it is important to have identified several reinforcers for the student (see earlier lesson on Determining Reinforcers). Second, it is important to have identified the behaviors you want to reinforce. In Alan’s situation, the behavior of “talking with his peers during a lab assignment” had already been identified in his IEP. For Dana, “working with her peers” was likewise defined earlier. In both cases, the teachers knew under what conditions reinforcement would be provided, and under what conditions it would not be provided. Third, it is important to identify how frequently the reinforcement will be provided. This is an important decision, since a too frequent use of reinforcement will result in the student getting tired of the reinforcement (satiation). In later lessons, we will explore the more complicated uses of differential reinforcement.