Aggressive Behavior In Dogs by James O'Heare

Author:James O'Heare
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dogwise Publishing
Published: 2017-11-07T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 8. Stylized graph depicting the establishment of a baseline for a target behavior.

The technologist continues the data collection process throughout the entire training project, including well into the maintenance phase, so that the baseline level (or the initial level when the training started) can be compared with the maintenance level. This process will provide empirical feedback on exactly how the behavior is changing. It will indicate whether it is increasing and how the strength of the behavior is responding to the intervention. This kind of objective accountability is a cornerstone of the behaviorological approach. This feedback can prompt corrective measures and provide reinforcement for current effective practices.

Figure 9 provides a stylized example of what the graph might look like throughout the entire case. In this example, the preclusion option was not adopted and the behavior was allowed to freely occur. Target behaviors triggered extinction and replacement behaviors triggered reinforcement. Though this is not a common approach, as it does not utilize an errorless approach, it illustrates the effects of extinction well. The rate of responding was deemed in steady-state at day seven and an extinction intervention was instated at that time. A functional analysis was not necessary in this case (or you might consider the extinction trial a functional analysis experiment, which is covered below). The data shows a characteristic extinction burst during days 8 through 11, after which the rate of the behavior declined and the behavior became extinct. At day 21, the rate of responding was deemed to be in steady-state and the maintenance condition was instated. The behavior was tracked through maintenance and for several days afterward and the data shows that the rate of responding remained in a steady-state, demonstrating that the intervention generated durable changes in behavior, at which point data collection was discontinued and the client instructed to advise the technologist on any resurgence in the behavior.

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