Low Arousal Approach

Within the study of human behavior, the Low Arousal Approach was developed by Professor Andrew McDonnell in the 1990s, and is now an internationally recognized model of behavior support.

The Low Arousal approach emphasises a range of behaviour management strategies that focus on the reduction of stress, fear and frustration and seeks to prevent aggression and crisis situations. The low arousal approach seeks to understand the role of the ‘situation’ by identifying triggers and using low intensity strategies and solutions to avoid punitive consequences for distressed individuals.

The Low Arousal approach enables practitioners to avoid the use of punitive consequences, such as physical restraint, for individuals from a variety of settings through early identification and intervention using low intensity strategies and solutions right the way through to managing meltdowns. The essential core principle is that many people inadvertently trigger behaviours, therefore it is often our behaviour which needs to change.

The Low Arousal approach has evolved from its original definition (McDonnell, McEvoy & Dearden1994) to a cognitive re-conceptualisation (McDonnell, Waters & Jones 2002). In his recent book titled “Managing Aggressive Behaviour In Care Settings: Understanding And Applying Low Arousal Approaches,” the definition has been further redefined (McDonnell 2011).

Given that stress is an ever-present part of the lives of people with autism, how should we manage crisis situations where the individuals we support may be experiencing ‘meltdown’?

McDonnell (2010) identified four key components considered central to Low Arousal approaches, which include both cognitive and behavioural elements:

1. Decreasing staff demands and requests to reduce potential points of conflict around an individual.
2. Avoidance of potentially arousing triggers e.g., avoiding direct eye contact, touch and removing spectators to the incident.
3. Avoidance of non-verbal behaviours that may lead to conflict e.g., aggressive postures and stances.
4. Challenging staff beliefs about the short-term management of challenging behaviours.

These seemingly simple behaviour management strategies are often difficult to apply in practice, as they involve changing and moderating our own levels of arousal. This means that each practitioner must reflect on their own behaviour and how it may contribute towards instances of challenging behaviour in the people they support. If we are part of the solution, we can also be part of the problem.

In essence, the Low Arousal approach is not just a behaviour management strategy, but a holistic philosophy towards caring for vulnerable people which acknowledges that challenging behaviour is not a choice.

Prisons and Token Economies

An interesting piece on incarceration and the token economy,

Because prisons are, in a sense, enclosed environments they represent somewhat of a behavioural laboratory where contingencies can be altered and controlled on a large scale. Few other settings allow for such systemic control of influencing variables.

Within prisons, inmates need to maintain some income in order to obtain many necessities and comforts. Altering the economy to a Token Economy and making these necessities and comforts contingent on engagement in skills learning or good behaviour could vastly improve behaviour in a prison system.

Additionally, since these environments are so highly controlled that access to social and recreational contact all must pass through the system – engagement in these things might be used to motivate good behaviour as well.

~ From Behavioral Science in the 21st Century

Meaningful Growth Requires Challenge and Stress.

Six months of focus and hard work can put you 5 years ahead in life. 

Don’t underestimate the power of consistency and desire.

“Never say that you can't do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can't be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. 

We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware to this: absolutely anything in the world is possible.


Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. 

Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or ANY mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. 

Never be a victim of life; be it's conqueror.” ~ Mike Norton

Schedules of Reinforcement

1. Fixed ratio.
Buy 4 coffees, get your fifth one free.
In operant conditioning, a fixed-ratio schedule is a schedule of reinforcement where a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses.

> See earlier post on the Goal Gradient Effect




2. Variable ratio.
Fishing
In operant conditioning, a variable-ratio schedule is a schedule of reinforcement where a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a steady, high rate of responding.

 













3. Fixed interval.
Footballer signs contract whereby his salary increases are renegotiated every three years.
In operant conditioning, a fixed-interval schedule is a schedule of reinforcement where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed.

4. Variable interval.
Waiting for a taxi.
In operant conditioning, a variable-interval schedule is a schedule of reinforcement where a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed.

SIMPLES

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Properly used, positive reinforcement is extremely powerful ~ B. F. Skinner

G.E.T. A. C.A.B

A great infographic outlining the 7 dimensions of Applied Behaviour Analysis. Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is "the science in which tactics derived from the principles of behaviour are applied systematically to improve socially significant behaviour and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for behaviour change" (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, p. 20). The beginning of ABA can be traced back to 1968, when Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, and Todd Risley from University of Kansas published the seminal paper, "Some Current Dimension of Applied Behaviour Analysis." These founding fathers outlined 7 characteristics of ABA that have defined the field (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968).

(The designing authors are listed at the bottom of the image).

 

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91–97.



Writer's Block - Empirical Investigation

While in the midst of writing up the dissertation for my Master's degree, I'd envy a paper of this length right about now. Getting it published in JABA wouldn't be too bad either I guess.

So many questions, but I can't seem to find the words...

Applied Behaviour Analysis

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is an effective behavioural treatment programme widely used with children with autism to improve socially significant behaviours.

 

ABA makes meaningful changes in people's lives through the use of procedures that have been demonstrated to work. The goal of an ABA teaching environment is to build socially significant behaviours in a meaningful way and to a meaningful degree. Generalisation, spontaneity and fun are essential components of successful intervention.

  

A few years ago, Ireland was in the fortunate position of having 12 ABA schools that had been set up and staffed in a way that made possible comprehensive programmes for children with autism (Leslie, 2013). However, the changes implemented from 2010 mean this is far from being the case now. Members of the Division of Behaviour Analysis are either in or in close touch with these schools. They are now termed special schools and, because of the rules they operate under none of them can meet the specifications for an ABA school.

ABA aspires to help with serious behavioural problems. A serious behavioural problem is one that impairs the quality of life of the person to a significant degree, impacts negatively on the lives of others, is persistent (thus rarely goes away of its own accord), and is not readily removed by some simple or brief treatment or intervention.

Some of the problems of many children with autism meet these criteria. If help is not provided or not adequate, their behavioural problems may leave them trailing far behind their peers of the same age in personal, social and educational development.

 

For more information see the following links:

 

AutismIreland.ie

RainChild.ie

AbaSupport.ie

ABA Schools in Ireland & UK

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''If they can't learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn''  ~   O. Ivar Lovaas

Learned Helplessness and Depression

One cognitive account of depression is the Learned Helplessness Theory (Seligman, 1975). It argues, that depression occurs when people expect that bad events will occur and that there is nothing they can do to prevent them, or cope with them.

Learned Helplessness Theory emerged through Martin Seligman's work with laboratory dogs. He designed an experiment which consisted of three individual dogs, all restrained by harnesses. Dog group (a) was the control group, receiving no electric shock. Dog groups (b) were paired up. One dog in a pair was administered with a mild electric shock and at any time the dog could cease the electric shock by stepping their paw upon a lever. Dog group (c) were too paired up, however one of the dogs was a wired up to a dog in group b and the shocks they received were in congruence with that of group (b). The idea of this was that the group (c) dog would receive a shock that was erratic in timing, unavoidable and inescapable. The tests resulted in groups (a) and (b) recovering quite promptly from the experience. As predicted however, group (c) dogs were left meek and subdued; portraying symptoms similar to those of clinical depression and thus conforming to Seligman’s predictions: that helplessness can be learned. 

Learned helplessness results from being trained to be locked into a system. It can involve a state of apathy or passive behaviour induced by negative conditioning. People may believe that their personal 'defects' will render them helpless to avoid negative events in the future, and their sense of hopelessness places them at significantly greater risk for depression.

Although Seligman theorized that learned helplessness and depression had similar origins, the theory was widely criticized and he has since revised his ideas in his 'Explanatory Style'. This proposes that depression is linked to how we attribute causalities of certain events in our life or traits of our existence (i.e. whether we attribute events to internal, stable or global aspects) (Yen, 1998). Therefore, it is interesting to ask whether learned helplessness is in fact a cause of depression or a correlated side effect of becoming depressed.

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"Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as on the pessimist, but the optimist weathers them better" ~ Martin Seligman

Establishing Operations

The application of behavioural theory is regularly used in consumer settings such as bars and restaurants.

 

For example, publicans cannot control the behaviour of their customer’s drinking rate, however they can introduce items like free salty snacks to make drinking alcohol more reinforcing (Vargas, 2009).

 

An establishing operation is a procedure that increases the effectiveness of an objects reinforcement, and the most commonly used establishing operation in behavioural science is a deprivation of primary reinforcement (Pierce & Cheney, 2013).

 

Although bar owners cannot force the consumer to drink more, they make use of value-altering establishing operations (the salty foods) to make drinking liquids more reinforcing.

So drink up you lab rats...there's no manipulation to see here!  

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Well now, I was in a bar in Dublin, and it had one of those coasters. And it said, "Drink Canada Dry," so I thought I'd give it a shot. ~ Brendan Behan; on why he visited Canada.

 

Fear Conditioning

One form of learning that plays a prominent role in consumer’s behaviour is fear conditioning.

In Watson and Rayner’s seminal experiment with “Little Albert” (1920), they showed how fear can become a conditioned emotional reaction. Marketers may also be incorporating some of Watson and Rayner’s behavioural theories to influence their consumer’s behaviour.

People often learn by information and instruction which situations to fear (Rachman, 1977). Mowrer (1939) argued that fear “may effectively motivate human beings” and that the curtailment of fear “may serve powerfully to reinforce behaviour that brings about such a state of relief or security”.

Accordingly, companies that market their products often use forms of fear conditioning in an attempt to increase their revenue.

Clearasil, a skin care product for the treatment of acne, ran television advertisements portraying spotty teenagers looking glum and downbeat; but joyful and surrounded by attractive women once the product had been discovered. Similar advertising themes exist with Lynx body spray. The product is advertised as a potent solution for men to acquire more attention from women, a “spray more - get more” mantra of fear conditioning.  

Both advertisements suggest an attempt at fear conditioning to promote their product to possibly insecure adolescent males. The fear can be conditioned by frequent repetition of the association between the new conditioned stimulus and the fear. Therefore, individuals (consumers) are driven to purchase these products in an attempt to avoid negative outcomes and successfully reduce their fear (Rachman, 1977). It can be further argued that avoidance conditioning is employed in these advertisements; as the consumer learns a response (buy product) and thus avoid an aversive stimulus (e.g. not being attractive).

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"...because then you're watching television, you're watching the news, you're being pumped full of fear, there's floods, there's AIDS, there's murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath they're not going to talk to you, if you have pimples, the girl's not going to fuck you, and it's just this campaign of fear, and consumption, and that's what I think it's all based on, the whole idea of keep everyone afraid, and they'll consume." ~ Marilyn Manson (Bowling for Columbine, 2002).

Chinese Room Argument

The Chinese room argument is a thought experiment. It was first proposed by the US philosopher John Searle (pictured) in the journal Behavioural and Brain Sciences in 1980 , in which many people feel he thoroughly disproved the notion that any computer program could acquire true intelligence. It is one of the best known and widely credited counters to claims of artificial intelligence (AI) - that is, to claims that computers do or at least can (someday might) think.

It was written to demonstrate a simple point - intelligent behaviour does not equate to intelligence. This doesn't mean AI design is impossible, but that a behavioural-based model for intelligence is flawed.

Imagine yourself a monolingual English speaker, ''locked in a room, and given a large batch of Chinese writing'' plus ''a second batch of Chinese script” and ''a set of rules'' in English ''for correlating the second batch with the first batch.'' As Searle explains how it works: ''Suppose that unknown to you the symbols passed into the room are called 'questions' by the people outside the room, and the symbols you pass back out of the room are called 'answers to the questions' ''. Just by looking at your answers, nobody can tell you ''don't speak a word of Chinese.''

The point he makes is that you may hand out the appropriate and even accurate answers and that those responses may serve to connect with the expectations of those asking the questions.  However, it does not indicate that any real understanding has taken place or that any sort of meaning is actually attached to the question and answer process that is taking place.

 

It should be conceded that Searle's argument is effective in showing that certain kinds of machines - even machines that pass the Turing Test - are not necessarily intelligent and do not necessarily "understand" the words that they speak. This is because a computer sitting on a desk with no sensory apparatus and no means of causally interacting with objects in the world will be incapable of understanding a language. Such a machine might be capable of manipulating linguistic symbols, even to the point of producing output that will fool human speakers and thus pass the Turing Test. However, the words produced by such a machine would lack one crucial ingredient: The words would fail to express any meaningful content and thus would fail to be "about" anything.

What's the point?

It doesn't matter how perfectly a computer is designed to simulate the intelligence of a human being - because its behaviour is a result of aimlessly executing instructions, not understanding. In this case, the means defines the end. You're reading this sentence, and understanding it without demonstrating behaviour of any kind. A system's behaviour doesn’t indicate intelligence or understanding, and a system that behaves intelligently is not necessarily ''intelligent.''
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Before we work on artificial intelligence why don't we do something about natural stupidity