Response Prevention

Understanding and Implementing Response Prevention Techniques

Guest CAAB Chatters:
Nancy William, MA, RVT, ACAAB and Dr. Peter L. Borchelt, CAAB

Our second CAAB Chat was a great success!  We had close to 100 people tune in and listen to the discussion about response prevention.  Here’s what some of the attendees had to say –

“WONDERFUL webinar!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!”  Caroline W.

“Dr. B and Nancy are terrific at explaining and conceptualizing, and I loved the case examples and videos.  Very good teachers.”  Joan E.

“This was very thought provoking and just excellent!!  I use some types/level of response prevention but this chat has made me rethink a few things.  It’s a way to more smoothly combine a couple of things I  already do.”  Cecile A.

“What I liked best about this Chat was that the variety of perspectives helps me understand the concepts, rather than hearing only a single perspective on a topic.”  Daniel A.

“Loved the seminar and hope that both speakers will be back for a part 2.”  Julie L.

Response prevention is frequently mis-understood.  It’s been confused with punishment and flooding, but in reality can produce behavior change relatively quickly without harm or adverse effects.  Response prevention must be discussed in context, which means this chat’s scope was broader than you might expect.  We touched on a variety of procedures, from flooding, desensitization, counter conditioning, classical conditioning, to “the four quadrants” and more.  You will undoubtedly come away from this chat realizing that behavior modification techniques are more inter-related than you ever imagined.

You’ll also see what response prevention tools Nancy and Dr. Borchelt frequently use, and how they use them, in a few video clips they shared.

We addressed a number of questions including:

  • What is response prevention?  The Chatters described real life examples from early research in learning labs, to flight simulators and golf trainings aids to the work we all do every day with pets and other animals.
  • Does response prevention fit into the quadrants of positive and negative punishment and reinforcement?  You’ll quickly discover that many things we do, and that happen in real life, don’t fit neatly into the quadrant model.
  • Why is response prevention useful to modify negatively reinforced behaviors (ones acquired through avoidance conditioning) that are quite resistant to extinction or other procedures?
  • Are flooding and desensitization completely separate entities or is it more helpful to think of a continuum of exposure to eliciting stimuli?

If you weren’t able to attend the live event you can catch up on the one hour and 45 minutes of great conversation by buying access to the replay.  There was so much information in this chat, we bet you will find something new every time you watch it.

AND we’ll also include the PDF file of the PPT slides – that includes the notes that were compiled LIVE in real time – for you to download.

Couldn’t make the live chat? No worries, you can purchase the replay now for only $15.00 through Paypal. You do not need a Paypal account – you can pay with a credit card.

BEST IDEA:  Join Behavior Education Network, where members have access to all CAABChat recordings and MUCH MORE!
Current  BEN Members – Access the replay from within BEN.

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