Behavior Intervention Plan

Marissa Weidner
SPU 328
September 9, 2013 - November 2, 2013

Method
The target behavior was begging. The operational definition of this target behavior was
placing his head on the dinner table or licking the side of the plate while we are eating at the
dinner table. A Functional Behavior Assessment was completed to determine the function of
Brunos target behavior. It is believed that Bruno engaged in the target behavior for attention and
food. The positive reinforcement of Bruno placing his head on the table and the parents giving
him food served to function as a salient reinforce to maintain the target behavior of begging.
A Differential Reinforcement of Alternative behaviors was implemented to increase other
attention-seeking behaviors while decreasing Brunos target behavior of begging. There are two
replacement behaviors that include, laying down on the floor instead of placing his head on the
table and sitting next to his food dish to show he wants food instead of licking the plates. Brunos
target behavior for the first five days of the intervention included using positive punishment, by
spraying water on his face when he begs. Unfortunately that did not work, so to stay consistent
with the DRA, Brunos target behavior was put on extinction by me.
This intervention was applied during dinner time everyday from 5:00P.M. to 6:00 P.M.
During this time, if Bruno engaged in either of the replacement behaviors, he was reinforced
with my attention and a small piece of food. This reinforcement occurred on a fixed ratio of one.
Every time that Bruno engaged in the replacement behaviors, his efforts were reinforced. This
reinforcement schedule was identified because of Brunos baseline performance. During
baseline, the target behavior of placing his head on the table occurred forty-nine times in 8 days.
The approximate rate was once every five minutes. Because the baseline was so high, it is

important to use positive reinforcement whenever Bruno uses a replacement behavior and
extinction when he engages in the target behavior.
Results
Baseline was conducted until the data was consistent. It occurred from 9/9/13 to 9/21/13,
after a total of seven days of observation. The intervention occurred from 9/30/13 to 11/2/13. The
following table graphs report the frequencies of Brunos target behavior and replacement
behaviors.
Table 1
Day

Target Behavior

Laying Down

9/9/13 (Baseline)
9/10/13 (Baseline)
9/13/13 (Baseline)
9/16/13 (Baseline)
9/19/13 (Baseline)
9/20/13 (Baseline)
9/21/13 (Baseline)
9/30/13
10/2/13
10/3/13
10/4/13
10/9/13
10/11/13
10/12/13
10/16/13
10/18/13
10/19/13
10/23/13
10/25/13

7
6
7
7
6
5
6
5
6
4
5
6
5
4
4
4
4
5
4

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
2
2
3
2
3
4
5

Sitting Next To Food

Dish
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
1
1
2
2
3
3
3
4

10/26/13
10/30/13
11/1/13
11/2/13

4
3
3
4

5
5
4
4

4
4
3
5

Discussion
The data suggest that the intervention was somewhat effective. This can be proven by the
slow decrease in the target behavior and the increase in the replacement behaviors. There are
some outlying datum points that need to be addressed. In the beginning of the intervention, there
was an increase in the target behavior. This occurred over days 10/2 and 10/9. This can be
interpreted as extinction burst because there was no reinforcement being presented to Bruno.
During this time, Bruno was constantly placing his head on the table and licking the sides of the
plates. My parents seemed to attend to Brunos target behavior (vocally), but my attention
seemed to be the more salient reinforcer.
An additional increase in the target behavior occurred on 10/23. This could be attributed
to the my involvement with my other dog. I regularly interacted with the other dog, but on the
day I interacted more with her than I did with Bruno. I was assisting her with her medication and
helping her get to her food dish and did not get the opportunity to reinforce Brunos engaging in
replacement behaviors. While I was not reinforcing his replacement behavior, he went back to
engaging in his target behavior to get food and attention from my parents.
An effective component of this intervention was the use of the replacement behaviors. It
appeared that both laying down and sitting next to his food dish functioned equally well for
recruiting my attention, provided that they were reinforced. With the exception of 10/23, I
consistently reinforced the replacement behaviors while ignoring the target behavior. The data
suggests that begging has been decreasing but was not completely extinguished.

There were several ineffective components of this intervention. There are times where
using extinction may be impractical to use for a target behavior that is maintained by attention.
While the data suggest that my attention was a more salient reinforcer, the attention of my
parents, siblings, and grandmother may have maintained the target behavior, somewhat. For
future attempts, maybe my familys attention can be instructed to ignore certain behaviors.
Another possible limitation could be that Bruno was engaged in other appropriate
behaviors that were not reinforced. Two replacement behaviors were identified, laying down and
sitting next to his food dish. However, Bruno also placed his paw on my leg and his head on my
lap and waited for recognition from me on a few occasions. These behaviors were outside the
operational definition of the replacement behaviors, so they were not reinforced. In the future,
maybe a Differential Reinforcement of Other behaviors could be used where any other
appropriate behavior, like placing his head or paw on my lap, would be reinforced.
A continual reinforcement schedule was implemented. A fixed interval could have had an
affect on the replacement behaviors. A fixed interval reinforcement schedule is when a certain
amount of time must pass after the target behavior is displayed for reinforcement to occur. Bruno
could have laid down and I would wait a certain amount of time before giving him attention e.g.
FI 15 seconds. The advantage of a fixed interval schedule is hat I could increase the time
between Bruno trying to get my attention and then me reinforcing it. This would help Bruno to
delay gratification. The intervals could be increased and the reinforcement thinned further with
intermittent reinforcement. With an intermittent reinforcement schedule, the participant of the
intervention does not know when the behavior will be reinforced. This would work well when a
participant has learned the target behavior and the reinforcer to maintain it. It can be considered

learned if the participant continues to engage in a programmed behavior on an intermittent

reinforcement schedule.
Another limitation was the the reinforcement schedule was not thinned. This means that
the participant could become more dependent on the reinforcement schedule due to failure to thin
a reinforcement schedule. Future attempts to think the reinforcement schedule could become
more successful during the intervention.
This intervention was programmed for generalization. Future attempts could implement
these same procedures in other environments Bruno might be in during dinner times with other
adults and even other animals. These efforts could promote Brunos display of appropriate
attention-seeking behaviors rather than inappropriate ones by providing different people to give
him reinforcement when he is engaging in appropriate behavior in other environments.
One question is, how could Bruno continue to engage in his replace behaviors over his
target behavior on his own? I have learned after observing his behavior that he does it because he
wants to do it. Maybe if Bruno received attention from my family members for engaging in
appropriate behavior, he might demonstrate the replacement behaviors independent of my praise.
For this to occur, it is important to set up Brunos environment for reinforcing success. Since
Bruno has a history of engaging in various appropriate and inappropriate behaviors to receive
attention, arrange his natural reinforce, through attention, his appropriate behavior. If Bruno is
able to recruit attention of myself and my familys attention through appropriate behaviors, he
will probably not engage in inappropriate ones. Also, if he can gain attention independently
without any arranged consequences, the behavior may be considered independent. This

intervention will need to continue to slowly see his target behavior extinguished, but it is
possible with a longer period of time.