Escape
Escape is a form of negative reinforcement in which a behavior ends or reduces an aversive stimulus that is already present, making that behavior more likely in the future.
In an escape contingency, the aversive stimulus is already there, and responding terminates it. Examples are leaving a room when a fire alarm is sounding, covering your ears to block a loud noise, or a client tearing up a worksheet and having the task removed. Because the behavior produces removal of the aversive stimulus, it is negatively reinforced and becomes more likely the next time the stimulus appears.
Escape is one of the most common functions of problem behavior. A behavior is said to have an escape function when it is maintained by removal of demands, tasks, people, noises or other situations. Clues include behavior that happens mostly when demands are placed and that results in the demand being delayed, reduced or removed. The supervisor confirms function through assessment.
Interventions for escape-maintained behavior may include teaching an appropriate way to request a break, adjusting how demands are presented, and escape extinction, in which problem behavior no longer results in the demand being removed. RBTs carry these out as written. Removing demands after problem behavior, even occasionally, can strengthen escape behavior.
Example and non-example
| Example | A teen starts crying during a hard reading task, and the teacher lets them stop reading; the next time reading is presented, crying occurs again quickly. |
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| Non-example | Before the noisy lunch crowd arrives, a client asks to leave the cafeteria and never contacts the noise. Preventing contact with the aversive stimulus is avoidance, not escape. |
Don't confuse it with
| Avoidance | Escape ends an aversive stimulus already present; avoidance prevents or postpones one before it occurs. |
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| Escape function | Escape is the reinforcement contingency; escape function describes problem behavior that is maintained by that contingency. |
Test yourself
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Question 1In the demand condition of a functional analysis, each instance of the client's hitting is followed by removal of the task. If hitting increases across sessions, which process is most likely involved?
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C: Negative reinforcement. When removing something (the task) after a behavior makes that behavior increase, the process is negative reinforcement.
- A: Positive reinforcement adds something after the behavior; here the task is taken away.
- B: Negative punishment removes something and makes behavior decrease.
- D: Extinction means the reinforcer is no longer delivered, which would make behavior decrease over time.
Task B.3 · 40-hour curriculum section D · Task C.1
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Question 2An adult client finds the bright overhead lights uncomfortable. The plan teaches the client to say "Lights down, please," and the RBT dims the lights each time the client asks. Requests increase over the next few weeks. Which procedure does this show?
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D: Negative reinforcement. The request is followed by the reduction of an uncomfortable stimulus (bright light), and the request increases. Removing or reducing a stimulus in a way that increases behavior is negative reinforcement.
- A: Positive reinforcement adds a stimulus; here the bright light is reduced.
- B: Positive punishment adds a stimulus and decreases behavior; requests increased.
- C: Negative punishment removes a stimulus and decreases behavior; requests increased.
Task C.1 · 40-hour curriculum section A
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Question 3A teen's phone alarm rings each morning and keeps ringing until the teen taps "Stop." Over the month, the teen taps "Stop" faster and faster after the alarm starts. Which statement best explains the change?
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A: Negative reinforcement, because tapping ends the ringing and tapping has increased. The ringing is already present, and tapping "Stop" ends it. Because the response terminates a stimulus and becomes faster and more likely, this is negative reinforcement (escape).
- B: Silence is the absence of the ringing; what the response does is remove the ringing, which makes this negative, not positive, reinforcement.
- C: Negative punishment would make tapping less likely, but tapping has become faster and more likely.
- D: The ringing comes before the tap, not after it, so it is not a consequence that punishes tapping.
Task C.1 · 40-hour curriculum section A
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On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task C.1 Positive and negative reinforcement in content area C, Behavior Acquisition, which is 19 of the 75 scored questions.