By Katy Munn

1. Behavioral
Analysis with
Lily the Beagle
Katy Munn
Final Fiesta
Fall 2017

2. Meet Lily!
● Beagle
● 12 years old!
● Favorite activities:
○ Eating
○ Sleeping
○ Watching TV
○ Getting good pats

3. Analysis
● There are many contingencies affecting
Lily’s behavior.
● Some behaviors I analyzed are:
○ Sitting
○ Moving after sitting
○ Begging for food
○ Panting
Lily in her natural habitat: under
the table looking for food

4. Let's Find an Effective Reinforcer
● We will need an effective reinforcer to maintain Lily’s behavior.
● She loves human food, it doesn't matter what kind.
● For clarity I will use the reinforcer of marshmallows.
A stimulus that increases the frequency of a response it follows.

5. Reinforcement Contingency: Sitting
● When Lily sits she
receives a marshmallow
to reinforce her
behavior
Before:
No marshmallow
Behavior:
Lily sits
After:
Marshmallow
The response-contingent presentation of a reinforcer resulting in an increased frequency of that response.
What a good sit,
time for a
marshmallow!

6. Differential Reinforcement: Sitting & StayingStopping reinforcement for an inappropriate response, while shifting that reinforcement to an appropriate response.
Before:
No marshmallow
Behavior:
Lily moves
immediately after
sitting
Behavior:
Lily does not move
after sitting
After:
Marshmallow
After:
No marshmallow
● Woops! Is not moving a
behavior? Let’s use the dead-
man test to double check.
● If Lily doesn’t move she will
get a marshmallow, if she
does move she will not get a
marshmallow.

7. Dead-Man Test
●The dead-man test states if a dead man can do it, it probably isn’t behavior.
●Not moving would fail the dead-man test because a dead man can be still i.e. not move. Let’s
roll the dead man over to find the behavior. The opposite of not moving would be moving, so to
increase the behavior of staying we will have to decrease the behavior of moving.

8. Punishment Contingency: Moving After Sitting
●We can’t reinforce not moving so we
must use the opposite which would be
moving immediately after sitting.
Before:
No spritz of
water and no
“no”
Behavior:
Lily moves
immediately
after sitting
After:
Spritz of water
and “no”
NO
The response-contingent presentation of an aversive condition resulting in a decreased frequency of that response.

9. Stimulus Discrimination: Begging/Panting
The occurrence of a response more frequently in the presence of one stimulus than in the presence of another, usually as a result of a discrimination procedure
SΔ:
In the presence
of Dad in the
kitchen
SD:
In the presence
of Katy in the
kitchen
Behavior:
Lily pants and
begs
After:
No bite of food
After:
Bite of food
Before:
No bite of food
● When I am in the kitchen Lily’s
panting and begging gets reinforced,
but when my dad is in the kitchen her
panting and begging does not get
reinforced.
Where’s Katy?
I want some
food!

10. Sick Social Cycle: Panting For FoodVictim’s escape model: in escaping the perpetrator’s aversive behavior, the victim unintentionally reinforces that aversive behavior.
● Lily’s panting is aversive to
me so I give her food to make
her stop.
Lily has no
bite of food
Lily has bite
of food
Lily pants
and begs
Katy hears
aversive panting
Katy gives
Lily a bite
of food
Katy doesn’t
hear aversive
panting
Katy doesn’t
hear aversive
panting
Katy gives
Lily a bite
of food
Katy hears
aversive
panting
Lily has no
bite of food

11. Extinction: Panting & Begging
●To decreases the
panting behavior, and
kick that sick social cycle,
we can use extinction.
Stopping the reinforcement or escape contingency for a previously reinforced response causes the response frequency to decrease.
Before:
No bite of food
Behavior:
Lily pants, and begs
After:
No bite of food
Wallowing
in sadness
because
she doesn't
get food
anymore
for panting.

12. The end!
Questions or Comments?