CHAPTER 10: CHOICE AND
SELF-CONTROL
ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF REINFORCEMENT
 In the classroom there are multiple sources of reinforcement and
punishment to choose from…
 The instructor
 The content
 The slides
 Your classmates
 Doodling
 Texting
 Studying for a different class
The amount of behavior
directed toward an alternative is
often proportional to the
amount of reinforcement we
receive from the alternative
CHOICE AND MATCHING
 Concurrent Schedules
 A concurrent schedule of reinforcement consists of the
simultaneous presentation of two or more independent
schedules, each leading to a reinforcer.The organism thus has
a choice between responding on one schedule or the other.
VR 500
VI 1 hour
VR 1000
VI 2 hours
THE MATCHING LAW
 Matching law: proportion of responses
emitted on a schedule matches the proportion
of reinforcers on that schedule
 Ex 1: a person will emit approximately twice
as many responses on the VI 30-minute
schedule as on the VI 60-minute schedule
because the rate of reinforcement on the
former will be twice as great as on the latter
NOTE:
 Do NOT need to know the formula for the
Matching Law, Deviations from Matching, or
Matching and Melioration (p. 375-382)
SELF-CONTROL
 A person who behaves wisely and resists temptations is said to
have a lot of willpower, whereas a person who behaves poorly
and yields to temptations is said to have little willpower. So
what is “will power”?
SKINNER ON SELF-CONTROL
 Skinner didn’t view self-control as an issue of willpower, but as an issue of
conflicting outcomes.
 Ex: drinking alcohol can lead to both positive & negative outcomes.
 Skinner also proposed that managing this conflict involves two types of
responses: a controlling response which alters the frequency of a
controlled response. So, one impacts the other.
SKINNER ON SELF-CONTROL
 Skinner listed several types of controlling responses
 Physical Restraint- person physically manipulates the environment to
prevent the occurrence of a behavior (ex: leaving money at home so you will
spend less)
MEANS RESTRICTION AS SUICIDE PREVENTION
SKINNER ON SELF-CONTROL
 Skinner listed several types of controlling responses
 Depriving & Satiating- utilize the motivating operations of deprivation and
satiation to alter the strength of a reinforcer (ex: eat before going grocery
shopping)
 Doing Something Else- Performance of an alternate behavior (example:
smokers may depend on gum or sunflower seeds while trying to quit)
SKINNER ON SELF-CONTROL
 Skinner listed several types of controlling responses
 Self-Reinforcement & Self-Punishment- reinforce one’s
own behavior.
 People often don’t do this effectively – will provide
reinforcer even when behavior not completed; will fail to
provider punisher
SELF-CONTROL AS A TEMPORAL ISSUE
 From a temporal perspective,
lack of self-control arises from
the fact that our behavior is
more heavily influenced by
immediate consequences
than by delayed consequences
SELF-CONTROL AS A TEMPORAL ISSUE
 A person can have an affair
tonight (a relatively immediate
reward) or go home alone in the
hopes of maintaining their
relationship (a relatively delayed
reward).
 In a simple choice between having
a fun evening and a successful
marriage, they would choose the
marriage. But the affair is
immediately available (and
powerful), thus very tempting.
SELF-CONTROL
 Self-control: ability to inhibit one’s impulses, emotions,
and behaviors to achieve long-term goals
 Choice between a small, immediate reinforcer and a
larger, delayed reinforcer
AMBIVALENCE
Motivational Interviewing: A
counseling style for eliciting
behavior change by helping
clients to explore and resolve
ambivalence.
Immediate Consequence
(Certain)
Delayed Consequence
(Uncertain)
Stay in course
Anxiety, have to work hard
Might pass – graduate on time
Might fail – negatively impact GPA;
could impact job prospects; might
need to retake, delay graduation
Drop course
Reduce anxiety, can focus on other
things/classes
GPA stays the same
Need to figure out degree plan –
might delay graduate
Retake course – might F anyway
https://youtu.be/QX_oy9614HQ
MISCHEL’S DELAY OF GRATIFICATION
PARADIGM
 Delay of Gratification–choosing a larger later reward over smaller
sooner reward
 Impulsiveness–choosing smaller sooner over larger later reward
 Question: what sorts of strategies children might use to wait out the delay
period and obtain the larger reward?
 Ex: a common strategy was to avert their eyes or cover their eyes with their hands.
Also “doing something else,” like talking or singing to themselves. Thus, resistance to
temptation was enhanced by not attending to the reward.
 Follow-up evaluations found that the children who were better at this self control
could cope well with frustrations, were academically proficient, and got along well with
their peers.
THE AINSLIE–RACHLIN MODEL OF SELFCONTROL
 Ainslie-Rachlin model: the value of a
reward is a hyperbolic function of its
delay
 AKA
 The value of a reward increases more
and more as the attainment of the
reward becomes more imminent (or
as delay decreases)
THE AINSLIE–RACHLIN MODEL OF SELFCONTROL
 Ainslie–Rachlin Model of Self-Control- preference between
smaller sooner and larger later rewards can shift over time.
8:00 AM
11:30 AM
THE AINSLIE–RACHLIN MODEL OF SELFCONTROL
THE AINSLIE–RACHLIN MODEL OF SELFCONTROL
1.5 pts
later
0.5 pts
now
DELAY DISCOUNTING
 Delay discounting: The strength/value
of a reinforcer decreases as its delay
increases
 This is a restating of the Ainslie-Rachlin
model
 Behavioral economics
 Faster delay discounting for younger
people, smokers, drug/alcohol addiction,
pathological gamblers – people highly
disinhibited
THE AINSLIE–RACHLIN MODEL OF SELFCONTROL
https://youtu.be/1nBwfZZvjKo
SEVERAL VARIABLES CAN AFFECT THE SHAPE OF A
DELAY FUNCTION
 Innate differences in impulsivity across species
 Individual differences in impulsivity
 Less impulsivity when older
 Less impulsivity after experience
SEVERAL VARIABLES CAN AFFECT THE SHAPE OF A
DELAY FUNCTION
 Availability of other reinforcement reduces impulsiveness
 Lack of reinforcement (depression) = more impulsive decisions
 Maintain responding for distant goal by setting up explicit series
of subgoals
 If you wanted to start working out 4 days per week, what are sub-
goals you would set up?
Making a Commitment (Precommitment)
Response
Carried out at early point
in time
Serves either to eliminate
or greatly reduce the
value of upcoming
temptation
SMALL-BUT-CUMULATIVE EFFECTS MODEL
Each individual choice on self-control task has small but cumulative effect on our likelihood
of obtaining desired long-term outcome; helps explain why self-control is difficult
Example = “Hey, it’s been a tough day, so why not indulge just this once?”
To improve self-control:
Make salient that individual choices are not isolated events, but rather parts of a whole
Have a relapse prevention plan
Establish rules that clearly distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors