OK, OK, so I am a little behind on the blogging. You will forgive me, I hope?
I had a boss who once gave me a behavioral blessing: “May all your chains be concurrent.”
Huh?
The University of South Florida online behavioral dictionary (I believe based upon Verplank’s classic) defines concurrent chains as:
Two or more chain schedules that are simultaneously available. See also chain schedule and concurrent schedules of reinforcement.
OK, we will. Here’s chained schedules:
A chain schedule of reinforcement involves two or more simple schedules (CRF, Fl, VI, FR, or VR), each of which is presented sequentially and signaled by an SD. Only the final or terminal link of the chain results in primary reinforcement. See also homogeneous and heterogeneous chain schedules.
Let’s now delve into concurrent schedules:
Two or more schedules independently arranged but operating at the same time, reinforcements being set up by both.
So what did this gentleman mean?
What he means is that, in behavioral terms, we rarely work on simple schedules. Usually, our behavior is being reinforced on several different schedules at once. If all of those schedules are nice and rich, reinforcement is abundant. Life is good. If one of them is punishing, well, maybe there are enough other concurrent schedules to balance things out. Sometimes, one schedule triggers another one to go into effect. And, believe it or not, there are schedules of punishment just like there are schedules of reinforcement. So, when you feel like there is a domino effect going on, well, maybe there is.
And they say that behaviorism is parsimonious.
Why do I bring this all up? Well, I was planning on writing this post from the ABA Autism conference, to tell you all about some really cool intervention that I learned about for the first time. While that didn’t happen, to say that the conference wasn’t a fruitful learning experience would be an untruth. I learned that you can have someone reinforce and punish your behavior at the same time.
I find it fascinating to watch academics at work, maybe because I’m trying to figure out the scene. Often, I teach my students to give feedback using the “praise sandwich” – a little of what you liked, something to change, and end with something to keep. I also tell people to not give and take things personally. Although I try to practice what I preach, I admittedly do better in some ways and not so well in others. The way that the praise sandwich works in academia is very interesting to me. There’s room for all of us here in this big chasm that is ABA. The Lovaas people. The VB people. The PRT/NLP people. Non-autism people. Etc… Different viewpoints promote discourse, and lead to rich concurrent chains (of reinforcement, one would hope).
So can you dislike someone, or even someone’s work, and still say that they influenced your career? In my mind, absolutely.
What does this have to do with behaviorism?
I was talking with someone at the conference about exclusion training. While the procedure is quite complicated, the idea is relatively simple…teaching both exemplars and nonexemplars allows for discrimination and class formation. So, I form two classes “what I like”, and “what I don’t like”. The more adept I become at class formation, I can refine them. Soon, I can like an idea but not its presentation, or a messenger but not the message. I can take some ideas and leave others. Reinforced, incidentally, by concurrent schedules (whoa! and sometimes concurrent chains!). What I like is as omnipresent as what I don’t like, and I receive reinforcement or punishment for how I express these private events. It’s the same reason that I tell my students there is no such thing as a bad placement. At the very least, exclusion training is happening, and you learn what NOT to do.
Confused? So am I sometimes. It all boils down to: life is complicated, the three term contingency rarely happens in isolation, and that behaviorism is just as complicated as life itself. That’s what I love about it.
Incidentally, if you get all jazzed up about this like I do, check out the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science http://www.contextualpsychology.org/. I wasn’t able to attend the conference (two weeks away from work was too much), but they are doing some really cool things that I think a lot of autism people should be paying attention to.
My hope is that I got you interested and thinking, but didn’t make your eyeballs bleed. Next post will be a blatant commercial….