Operant Behavior Change Program
Britney Beals
Psych 485: Behavioral Modification
Dr. Rebecca Brown
November 19, 2021
The target client is a 10-year-old child, Sophie. Sophie’s mother is wanting her child to
wash her plate after dinner more often because she is feeling frustrated that Sophie continues to
leave her dirty dishes in the sink, and she feels that Sophie is old enough to get in the habit of
doing it herself. She says she “won’t be around forever” to do them for Sophie, so Sophie stands
to benefit from learning this habit now, however Sophie’s mom is the one that is desiring the
change in Sophie’s behavior. Sophie knows she is supposed to be washing her dishes after
dinner, so washing dishes is already a behavior she performs sometimes that we would like to
increase, or a behavioral deficit. The goal of the program will be to increase the frequency of
Sophie washing dishes in a week to four times per week, on average.
For our purpose, the behavioral definition of “washing dishes” can be defined as
removing leftover food from dishes into the trash, rinsing the dishes in the sink with soap and
water, and placing the rinsed dishes into the dishwasher. Since Sophie eats her other meals at
school, we are only concerned with whether Sophie washes dishes after dinner; therefore, each
day provides opportunity for one instance of the behavior to occur.
To determine a baseline, Sophie will be observed over a period of 4 weeks, divided into
one-week intervals. The number of times Sophie washes her dishes after dinner during the oneweek interval will be recorded. To prevent reactivity, or Sophie’s behavior changing because she
is under observation, Sophie’s mother will be employed as the observer and Sophie will be
observed in a natural setting- her home. For increased accuracy, Sophie’s mom will be
performing direct assessment, or directly observing Sophie as the behavior occurs. She will be
trained to record the behavior immediately after its occurrence. Data will be recorded with a
paper and pencil on a chart like the one below, with “X” meaning that the behavior of washing
dishes was performed on that day.
Sample Data Chart
Week 1
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Week 2
Day 1
X
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
X
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 5
Day 6
X
Day 7
In order to increase the frequency of Sophie washing the dishes, we must use a reinforcer
that fits her as an individual as well as takes into consideration any establishing or abolishing
operations, or things that might make the reinforcer either stronger or weaker. Sophie’s mom
suggested using dessert as a reinforcer, but since Sophie would have just eaten dinner, in this
case satiation may be an abolishing operation that makes dessert not as tempting for Sophie in
the moment. Since Sophie loves cartoons and is normally limited on the amount of time she is
allowed to spend watching television, the reinforcer for Sophie will be an extra half-hour of
television time awarded that evening. The extra time spent watching television is contingent on
Sophie completing the dishes first and Sophie will be reward with the extra television time
immediately after completing the dishes, it should be a very effective reinforcer for Sophie.
Sophie’s mom will be the one to administer the reinforcement since she is also normally the one
that controls the amount of television Sophie is allowed to watch.
After determining a baseline, reinforcement will be given intermittently, using a variable
ratio schedule of VR 3. Instead of reinforcing Sophie every time she washes her dishes, Sophie
will be reinforced after an average of 3 instances of doing the dishes. Because the reinforcement
is not consistent, Sophie will never be able to guess when she will be receiving the extra TV
time; she just knows that it comes after doing the dishes. This results in strong, consistent
responding- which is what Sophie’s mom is looking for from Sophie with the behavior of doing
the dishes. Therefore, this will be the best reinforcement schedule to use in Sophie’s case.
Sophie’s mom will continue to observe and record Sophie’s instances of washing dishes
in a week as the “treatment” phase goes on. Data will be recorded for one month for the
“Treatment” phase, but Sophie’s mom knows that she must continue to provide intermittent
reinforcement to Sophie for washing the dishes otherwise Sophie will experience extinction of
the desired behavior.
Treatment
# of times disbes were washed
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Weeks
Baseline
Treatment
Above are the results from both the baseline and treatment phase. Using intermittent
reinforcement, Sophie and her mom were able to increase the number of times she washes dishes
in a week from 1.75 times a week on average to 6.25 times a week on average. The graph below
shows a visual improvement between Sophie’s baseline and treatment phases.