1 - Foundational Knowledge: Easy Flashcards
Applied Behavior Analysis
A scientific approach for discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behaviors and for developing a technology of behavior change that is practical and applicable.
•ABA is an evidence based APPLIED science
Science
A systematic approach for seeking and organizing knowledge about the natural world.
•Science is based on determinism.
Purpose of Science
To achieve a thorough understanding of the phenomena under study.
•In ABA, the phenomena under study are socially significant behaviors.
3 Levels of Scientific Understanding
- Description
- Prediction (Correlation; Covariation)
- Control (Causation)
Description
(First level of scientific understanding.)
Systematic observations that can be quantified and classified. Not causal explanations.
Prediction
(Second level of scientific understanding.)
Two events may regularly occur at the same time. This does not necessarily mean one causes the other.
•correlation; covariation
Control
(Third level of scientific understanding.)
Functional relation.
Experimental demonstration that manipulating the independent variable results in a change in the dependent variable.
•causation
6 Attitudes of Science/Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior
DEERPP
- Determinism
- Empiricism
- Experimentation
- Replication
- Parsimony
- Philosophical doubt
Determinism
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
The universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all phenomena occur as the result of other events and not at random.
Empiricism
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
The practice of objective observation of the phenomena of interest.
- facts
- experimental, data-based scientific approach, drawing upon observation and experience
- requires objective quantification and detailed description of events
Experimentation
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
Manipulating variables to see the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
•it is an assessment for causation
Replication
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
Providing enough and sufficient details and instructions so the experiment can be conducted by someone else with the same results.
•Used to determine the reliability and usefulness of findings.
Parsimony
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
All simple and logical explanations must be ruled out before considering more complex explanations.
•The simplest explanation is the one that must be accepted.
Philosophical Doubt
(One of 6 attitudes of science.)
Having healthy skepticism and a critical eye about the results of studies of others and your own work.
7 Dimensions of ABA
GAABTEC
- Generality: Extends behavior change across, time, settings, or other behaviors.
- Applied: ABA improves socially signficant behaviors, the overall life of the client, and signficant others.
- Analytical: A functional relationship is demonstrated between the manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of the targeted behavior.
- Behavioral: Observable events that must be measurable and in need of improvement.
- Technological: defines procedures clearly and in detail so that they are replicable.
- Effective: Improves behavior in a practical manner, not simply making a change that is statistically significant, but making a change that is clinically significant.
- Conceptually Systematic: All procedures used should be tied to the basic principles of behavior analysis from which they were derived
Mentalism
An approach to explaining behavior that assumes an inner dimension exists and causes behavior; traditional psychology.
Dominated by:
- hypothetical constructs
- explanatory fictions
- circular reasoning
Hypothetical Constructs
(Imaginary Constructs)
Presumed but unobserved entities.
e.g. free will, information processing, unobservable storage and retrieval mechanisms for memory, readiness
Explanatory Fictions
Fictitious variables that are another name for the observed behavior and contribute nothing to the understanding of the variables that maintain the behavior.
Circular reasoning
Reasoning that infers both the cause and effect from the same information.
Behaviorism
The philosophy of the science of behavior.
Emerged in the early 1900s.
Environmental explanation of behavior (not mentalistic).
4 Branches of Behavior Analysis
- Conceptual Analysis of Behavior (Behaviorism)
- ABA
- Behavior Service Delivery (people in various fields implementing ABA)
- Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)
History of Behaviorism
- 1850’s - 1900s: Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
- 1900’s: Mentalism
- 1913: Watson and Methodological Behaviorism (Stimulus-Response Behaviorism; S-R Psychology; Watsonian Behaviorism)
- 1938-1990’s: Skinner and Radical Behaviorism
Methodological Behaviorism
(Stimulus-Response Behaviorism; S-R Psychology; Watsonian Behaviorism)
John Watson
The study of behavior through direct observation of the relationship between environment stimuli (S) and the responses (R) they bring about.
- only looks at publicly observable events and is not concerned with private events
- 1920 Little Albert Experiment
Radical Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner in 1938
Included private events into the understanding of behavior.
Influenced by:
- Darwinian Selectionism (selectionism by consequences)
- Pragmatism
Darwinian Selectionism
Evolution as a result of selection with respect to function.
•behaviors that result in the best outcomes are selected and survive leading to more adaptive repertoires
Pragmatism
The meaning of an idea or proposition lies in its observable practical consequences.
2 Primary Types of Behavior
- Respondent Behavior
- Operant Behavior
Respondent Behavior
(Reflex; Reflexive Relations; Unconditioned Stimulus-Unconditioned Response; US-UR)
Involuntary behavior that is elicited by antecedent stimuli.
•unlearned
•reflexive
•genetic
Habituation
In respondent conditioning: when the eliciting stimulus is presented repeatedly over a short time, leading to a decrease in the strength of the respondent behavior.
Phylogeny
Behavior that is inherited genetically.
Respondent behavior is due to phylogenic history.
Respondent Conditioning
(Classical Conditioning; Pavlovian Conditioning)
When new stimuli acquire the ability to elicit respondents.
Operant Behavior
Emit/evoke; Voluntary
Any behavior whose probability of occurrence is determined primarily by its history of consequences
Operants are defined in terms of their relationship to controlling variables (function, not topography).
Operants are due to ontogenic history.
Adaptation
In operant conditioning: reductions in responding evoked by an antecedent stimulus over repeated or prolonged presentations.
e.g. no longer laughing after the third time you hear the same joke
Ontogeny
Learning that results from an organism’s interaction with their environment.
Operant Contingency
(3 Term Contingency)
The occasion for a response (SD), the response, and the outcome of the response.
The dependency of a particular consequence on the occurrence of a behavior.
Primary Unit of Analysis in ABA
3 Term Contingency
A - B - C
Contiguity
(Temporal Contiguity)
When two stimuli occur close together in time, resulting in an association of those two stimuli.
In respondent conditioning: affects the pairing of the CS and US
In operant conditioning: affects the paring of the behavior and consequence
Superstitious Behavior
When the temporal contiguity between a specific response and consequence creates a contingency that does not exist.
Respondent-Operant Interactions
An experience that includes both respondent and operant conditioning simultaneously.
e.g. heating food in the microwave
Dead Man’s Test
If a dead man can do it, it is not behavior. If a dead man cannot do it, it is behavior.
3 Principles of Behavior
Scientifically derived rules of nature that describe the predictable relation between a biological organism’s responses and objects and events that can influence behavior.
All ABA strategies are derived from these 3 principles.
- Reinforcement
- Punishment
- Extinction
Operant
An item of behavior that is initially spontaneous, rather than a response to a prior stimulus, but whose consequences may reinforce or inhibit recurrence of that behavior.
Response-Consequence relationship. Similar behaviors that are strengthened or weakened collectively as a result of operant conditioning.
