"Automatic reinforcement is reinforcement that is not mediated by the deliberate action of another person."

“自動強化是不受他人蓄意行為調(diào)節(jié)的強化。”

- Vaughan and Michael (1982, p. 219)

沃恩和邁克爾(1982，第219頁)

What is Automatic Reinforcement?

什么是自動強化？

Automatic reinforcement occurs when a person's behavior creates a favorable outcome without the involvement of another person (Cooper, Heron, & Howard, 2007).

當一個人的行為在沒有另一個人參與的情況下創(chuàng)造了有利的結(jié)果時，自動強化就發(fā)生了(Cooper，Heron，& hward，2007)。

You could say that a behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement is “non-social” (Patel, Carr, Kim, Robles, & Eastridge, 2000) or that automatic reinforcement is ‘a(chǎn) reinforcement contingency that exists independent of the social environment’ (Falcomata, Roane, Hovanetz, & Kettering, 2004, p.83).

你可以說由自動強化維持的行為是“非社會性的”(Patel，Carr，Kim，Robles，& Eastridge，2000) ，或者自動強化是“獨立于社會環(huán)境存在的后效增強”(Falcomata，Roane，Hovanetz，& 凱特林，2004，p. 83)。

Basically, if another person is?not?involved with the?function of the behavior?then this would be defined as “automatic reinforcement”. If another person is involved with the function of the behavior this would be defined as “social reinforcement” or “socially mediated reinforcement” (Cooper et al., 2007).

基本上，如果另一個人沒有參與這種行為的功能，那么這將被定義為“自動強化”。如果另一個人參與了這種行為的功能，這將被定義為“社會強化”或“社會媒介強化”(Cooper 等人，2007年)。

For example, if you turn on your television then this is automatic reinforcement because you did it yourself but if you asked your friend to turn on the television this would not be automatic reinforcement because another person was involved; asking your friend to do it would be social reinforcement.

例如，如果你打開電視，那么這是自動強化，因為是你自己打開的，但如果你讓你的朋友打開電視，這不會是自動強化，因為有另一個人參與; 讓你的朋友打開電視會是社會強化。

Automatic Positive and Negative Reinforcement

自動正負強化

There are two classes of automatic reinforcement. The first is automatic?positive reinforcement?which occurs when a person obtains something as a result of their own behavior.

有兩類自動強化。第一種是自動的正強化，當一個人通過自己的行為獲得某些東西時，這種強化就會發(fā)生。

The second is automatic?negative reinforcement?which occurs when a person gets away from something or avoids something as a result of their own behavior (Miltenberger, 2008).

第二種是自動的負強化，當一個人因為自己的行為而逃離某事或避免某事時就會發(fā)生(Miltenberger，2008)。

Automatic reinforcement can have a positive or negative form.

自動強化可以有積極或消極的形式。

Examples of automatic positive reinforcement include:

自動正面強化的例子包括:

Brushing your hair because you want it to be neat

梳理你的頭發(fā)，因為你希望它整潔

Dressing yourself?穿衣服

Putting salt on your own dinner to improve the taste of the food

在你自己的晚餐中加鹽可以改善食物的味道

Tying your shoelaces?系鞋帶

Watching a movie because you enjoy it

看電影是因為你喜歡它

Examples of automatic negative reinforcement include:

自動負強化的例子包括:

Washing your own hands to remove dirt

自己洗手去除污垢

Cutting your own finger nails to reduce their length

自己剪指甲以減少指甲的長度

Throwing out rubbish?扔垃圾

Turning on your car windscreen wipers to remove rain water

打開你的汽車擋風玻璃雨刷清除雨水

Rubbing your leg to sooth the pain after banging it off a table edge

摩擦你的腿，以緩解疼痛后，猛擊它離開桌子邊緣

Take note that if a person brushed their hair to create a certain style before going on a night out and they did this because they think they get more attention from the opposite sex when they do, then this behavior would be maintained by social reinforcement and not automatic reinforcement.

注意，如果一個人在晚上外出之前梳理頭發(fā)，創(chuàng)造出一種特定的發(fā)型，他們這樣做是因為他們認為這樣做會得到異性更多的關(guān)注，那么這種行為將由社會強化而不是自動強化來維持。

Self-Stimulation and Sensory Functions

自我刺激與感覺功能

Automatic reinforcement does not only occur when a person interacts with their environment; as is the case when someone turns on their TV or puts salt on their food.

自動強化不僅僅發(fā)生在人與環(huán)境互動的時候，就像有人打開電視或者在食物上放鹽一樣。

Any behavior that occurs without the involvement of another person and creates an internal state of pleasure or removes an internal state of displeasure (pain) can also be maintained by automatic reinforcement.

任何沒有他人參與的行為，創(chuàng)造了一種內(nèi)在的快樂狀態(tài)或者消除了內(nèi)在的不快(痛苦) ，也可以通過自動強化來維持。

Behaviors maintained by these internal feelings are more commonly described as “self-stimulating” or “self-stimulatory (O’Neill, et al, 1997).

由這些內(nèi)在感覺維持的行為通常被描述為“自我刺激”或“自我刺激”(o’neill，等人，1997)。

Examples could include ‘singing to yourself to produce auditory stimulation’ (LeBlanc, Patel, & Carr, 2000, p. 137) or scratching yourself to remove at itch (Cooper et al, 2007)

比如“唱歌給自己聽以產(chǎn)生聽覺刺激”(LeBlanc，Patel，& Carr，2000，p. 137)或者抓撓自己以消除瘙癢(Cooper et al，2007)

Automatic Reinforcement and Stereotypy

自動強化與刻板

As described by Iwata et al (1994), some authors have used the term “stereotypy” to refer to behaviors that are not maintained by any social reinforcement. In essence this means that they were being described as occurring as a result of automatic reinforcement (self-stimulation).

正如巖田等人(1994年)所描述的，一些作者使用“刻板”一詞來指沒有任何社會強化來維持的行為。本質(zhì)上，這意味著他們被描述為發(fā)生的自動強化(自我刺激)的結(jié)果。

However, to say that all stereotypic behaviors are maintained by automatic reinforcement is not accurate because stereotypy?may?function as self-stimulation for some people but for others it may function to obtain attention, to escape demands or obtain tangible items through the actions of other people (see Cunningham & Schreibman, 2008; Iwata et al, 1994; Kennedy, Meyer, Knowles, & Shukla, 2000 for discussions).

然而，說所有的刻板行為都是通過自動強化來維持并不準確，因為刻板行為對于某些人來說可能是自我刺激，但對于其他人來說，它可能是通過其他人的行為來獲得注意力、逃避需求或獲得有形物品(見 Cunningham & Schreibman，2008; Iwata et al，1994; Kennedy，Meyer，Knowles，& Shukla，2000 for discussion)。

The term stereotypy is only describing the?topography of a behavior?and it tells you nothing about its actual function.

刻板這個術(shù)語只是描述了一種行為的形態(tài)，它并沒有告訴你它的實際功能。

It has been said that when ‘a(chǎn) behaviour occurs in the absence of other individuals, it is assumed to be maintained by automatic reinforcement’ (Rapp, Miltenberger, Galensky, Ellingson, & Long, 1999, p. 329). However, this may not always be the case because a behaviour can occur without a person present within the environment but the function of the behaviour will involve a person at a later stage.

有人說，當“一種行為發(fā)生在沒有其他個體的情況下，它被假定為通過自動強化來維持”(Rapp，Miltenberger，Galensky，Ellingson，& Long，1999，p. 329)。然而，情況可能并非總是如此，因為一種行為可能在沒有人在場的情況下發(fā)生，但這種行為的作用將在以后階段涉及一個人。

Take a young boy who decides to draw a picture in his bedroom. Here the behaviour of drawing is occurring without another person present so it may appear to be occurring as a result of automatic reinforcement i.e. he could be getting an internal sense of pleasure from drawing or he wants a picture to put on his wall so does it himself.

以一個小男孩為例，他決定在臥室里畫一幅畫。在這里，畫畫的行為是在沒有其他人在場的情況下發(fā)生的，所以它可能看起來是自動強化的結(jié)果，也就是說，他可能從畫畫中獲得內(nèi)在的快樂感，或者他想要一幅畫掛在他的墻上，他自己也是這樣做的。

But if this boy knows that he gets praise and social attention from his parents when they see his drawings this behavior may be being maintained by social positive reinforcement and not automatic reinforcement. Just because a behavior occurs in the absence of other people does not mean the behaviour does not have some form of social reinforcement maintaining it.

但是，如果這個男孩知道，當他的父母看到他的畫時，他會得到贊揚和社會關(guān)注，這種行為可能是通過社會正面強化而不是自動強化來維持的。僅僅因為一種行為發(fā)生在沒有其他人的情況下，并不意味著這種行為沒有某種形式的社會強化來維持它。

This “delay” in receiving reinforcement is described by Malott (2007) as an “analogue to reinforcement” because the consequence of the behavior does not occur immediately after the behavior.

Malott (2007年)將這種強化的”延遲”描述為”受規(guī)則控制的強化”，因為這種行為的后果不會在行為之后立即發(fā)生。