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

“自动强化是不受他人蓄意行为调节的强化。”

- Vaughan and Michael (1982, p. 219)

沃恩和迈克尔(1982，第219页)

What is Automatic Reinforcement?

什么是自动强化？

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

当一个人的行为在没有另一个人参与的情况下创造了有利的结果时，自动强化就发生了(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 reinforcement contingency that exists independent of the social environment’ (Falcomata, Roane, Hovanetz, & Kettering, 2004, p.83).

你可以说由自动强化维持的行为是“非社会性的”(Patel，Carr，Kim，Robles，& Eastridge，2000) ，或者自动强化是“独立于社会环境存在的后效增强”(Falcomata，Roane，Hovanetz，& 凯特林，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，如果另一个人没有参与这种行为的功能，那么这将被定义为“自动强化”。如果另一个人参与了这种行为的功能，这将被定义为“社会强化”或“社会媒介强化”(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，如果你打开电视，那么这是自动强化，因为是你自己打开的，但如果你让你的朋友打开电视，这不会是自动强化，因为有另一个人参与; 让你的朋友打开电视会是社会强化。

Automatic Positive and Negative Reinforcement

自动正负强化

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.

有两类自动强化。第一种是自动的正强化，当一个人通过自己的行为获得某些东西时，这种强化就会发生。

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).

第二种是自动的负强化，当一个人因为自己的行为而逃离某事或避免某事时就会发生(Miltenberger，2008)。

Automatic reinforcement can have a positive or negative form.

自动强化可以有积极或消极的形式。

Examples of automatic positive reinforcement include:

自动正面强化的例子包括:

Brushing your hair because you want it to be neat

梳理你的头发，因为你希望它整洁

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盐可以改善食物的味道

Tying your shoelaces 系鞋带

Watching a movie because you enjoy it

看电影是因为你喜欢它

Examples of automatic negative reinforcement include:

自动负强化的例子包括:

Washing your own hands to remove dirt

自己洗手去除污垢

Cutting your own finger nails to reduce their length

自己剪指甲以减少指甲的长度

Throwing out rubbish 扔垃圾

Turning on your car windscreen wipers to remove rain water

打开你的汽车挡风玻璃雨刷清除雨水

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

摩擦你的腿，以缓解疼痛后，猛击它离开桌子边缘

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，如果一个人在晚上外出之前梳理头发，创造出一种特定的发型，他们这样做是因为他们认为这样做会得到异性更多的关注，那么这种行为将由社会强化而不是自动强化来维持。

Self-Stimulation and Sensory Functions

自我刺激与感觉功能

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.

自动强化不仅仅发生在人与环境互动的时候，就像有人打开电视或者在食物上放盐一样。

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.

任何没有他人参与的行为，创造了一种内在的快乐状态或者消除了内在的不快(痛苦) ，也可以通过自动强化来维持。

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

由这些内在感觉维持的行为通常被描述为“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“唱歌给自己听以产生听觉刺激”(LeBlanc，Patel，& Carr，2000，p. 137)或者抓挠自己以消除瘙痒(Cooper et al，2007)

Automatic Reinforcement and Stereotypy

自动强化与刻板

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).

正如岩田等人(1994年)所描述的，一些作者使用“刻板”一词来指没有任何社会强化来维持的行为。本质上，这意味着他们被描述为发生的自动强化(自我刺激)的结果。

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，说所有的刻板行为都是通过自动强化来维持并不准确，因为刻板行为对于某些人来说可能是自我刺激，但对于其他人来说，它可能是通过其他人的行为来获得注意力、逃避需求或获得有形物品(见 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.

刻板这个术语只是描述了一种行为的形态，它并没有告诉你它的实际功能。

It has been said that when ‘a 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.

有人说，当“一种行为发生在没有其他个体的情况下，它被假定为通过自动强化来维持”(Rapp，Miltenberger，Galensky，Ellingson，& Long，1999，p. 329)。然而，情况可能并非总是如此，因为一种行为可能在没有人在场的情况下发生，但这种行为的作用将在以后阶段涉及一个人。

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.

以一个小男孩为例，他决定在卧室里画一幅画。在这里，画画的行为是在没有其他人在场的情况下发生的，所以它可能看起来是自动强化的结果，也就是说，他可能从画画中获得内在的快乐感，或者他想要一幅画挂在他的墙上，他自己也是这样做的。

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，如果这个男孩知道，当他的父母看到他的画时，他会得到赞扬和社会关注，这种行为可能是通过社会正面强化而不是自动强化来维持的。仅仅因为一种行为发生在没有其他人的情况下，并不意味着这种行为没有某种形式的社会强化来维持它。

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)将这种强化的”延迟”描述为”受规则控制的强化”，因为这种行为的后果不会在行为之后立即发生。