ABA All (94) Flashcards
Aversive Stimulus
Aversive stimulus refers to conditions whose termination functioned as reinforcement.
Example: a parent programs a mobile to automatically play music for a period of time. If the baby bats the mobile with hands or feet, the music immediately stops for a few seconds. If the baby bats the mobile more often when doing so terminates the music, negative reinforcement is at work, and the music can be called aversive.
Behavior (or Response)
(1) MOVEMENT OF the skeletal muscles (also called striped or striated),
(2) MOVEMENT OF the smooth muscles,
(3) secretion of glands, and
(4) electrical activity of the skin (called the galvanic skin response)
…in response to the environment.
Conditioned Reflex
Conditioned Stimulus
A Stimulus that elicits a CR due to its history of reliable and repeated pairings with a US.
Habituation
GRQ: “When repeated presentations of the US lead to a reduction of the UR.”
Gradual reduction in responding following repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus. (Our body is learning without our conscious involvement.)
Higher-order Conditioning
Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS).
(Also called secondary conditioning.)
Neutral Stimulus
A stimulus that does not elicit any response.
Ontogenetic Behavior
Operant Behavior
Learned behavior. Behavior acquired or modified during the individual’s
lifetime
Phylogenetic Behavior
Innate, genetically “programmed” behaviors common to all members of the species. Actions owing their origins to natural selection. Behaviors are unlearned.
(These behaviors increase the chance of survival in the stable ecological niche in which the species evolved. Natural selection has prepared humans to behavior in very specific ways when they encounter very specific stimuli.)
Example:
Morrow reflex (baby falling)
Palmar grasp reflex
Swimming reflex
(Notice that each of these reflexes is elicited by an antecedent stimulus.
Reflex (definition and examples (US & UR)
When an unconditioned stimulus (US) elicits an unconditioned response (UR)
• Generic Diagram: US (…) -> UR (…)
Diagram: US -> UR
– When it is specific, write something in parentheses after the US and the UR.
(Most of the diagrams I will give you will be specific, so don’t forget the specifics!)
Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response
1. light intensity increase pupil of the eye constricts
2. light intensity decrease pupil of the eye dilates
3. touch to eye or chemical irritant (smoke, onion fumes) lachrimal gland secretion (crying)
4. irritation to the nasal mucosa sneezing
5. irritation to the throat coughing
6. low temperature shivering, surface vasoconstriction
7. high temperature sweating, surface vasodilation
8. cold or “fright” hair erection on body
9. food in mouth salivation
10. bad food in stomach vomiting
11. Stimulus that is (1) painful, (2) very intense or (3) very unusual ACTIVATION SYNDROME: (“emotions”) heart rate increase, adrenaline secretion, liver release of sugar into the bloodstream, constriction of visceral blood vessels, galvanic skin response, etc.
Respondent Extinction
After Pavlovian learning is established, the CS is presented but the US does not follow. Gradually, the individual learns that the CS no longer …
– Signals a delay reduction to the US.
– Signals when the US is coming (CS provides no information at all).
– Signals which US is coming (nothing is coming).
This is a learning process (the individual does not forget):
– Spontaneous recovery
Respondent Behavior
Smooth muscles (including the cardiac muscle), gland secretion and changes in the electrical activity of the skin are usually involved in respondent behavioral relations and conditioning procedures. (controlled by ANS; skeletal muscles are not)
Respondent Conditioning
GRQ: “ A type of learning in which new stimuli acquire the ability to elicit respondents (i.e., respondent behaviors). “
Respondent conditioning occurs when an organism responds to an event based on a history of an association with a biologically important event (i.e. US). Thus, the
CS/CR relationship is a function of both phylogeny and ontogeny.
Process of pairing an NS with a US that elicits a particular UR until the NS becomes capable of eliciting a similar response.)
Respondent terminology: US, UR, NS, CS, CR
1. Unconditioned Stimulus (US) – Stimulus that elicits a response without prior conditioning.
2. Unconditioned Response (UR) – Response that is elicited by the US without
prior conditioning.
3. Neutral Stimulus (NS) - Stimulus that does not elicit any response.
4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - Stimulus that elicits a CR due to its history of reliable and repeated pairings with a US.
6. Conditioned Response (CR) – Response elicited by a CS.
This relationship is a function of phylogeny (i.e. the history of the species), rather than ontogeny (i.e. the history of the individual organism).
Response
A response (same as behavior) is movement of the skeletal muscles (also called striped or striated), movement of the smooth muscles, secretion of glands, and electrical activity of the skin (called the galvanic skin response), in response to the environment.
Stimulus/Stimuli
For the exam, I may give you examples of energy changes and ask if those energy changes are stimuli – you must know the definition of a stimulus to answer these sorts of questions!
An ENERGY CHANGE that affects the ORGANISM through its RECEPTORS (on exam)
(A) environmental events are classifed/defined from the perspective of the behaver, and
(B) the energy change MUST affect a receptor of the organism to be classified as a stimulus.
All of the following are stimuli:
– Unconditioned (US) and conditioned stimuli (CS) in respondent behavior relations; all types of consequences in operant behavioral relations (reinforcers, punishers); and SDs and S deltas in operant behavioral relations.
– Respondent: USs and CSs
– Operant: SDs, S∆s, all consequences
• Some types of stimuli for humans (NFE)
– Visual: electromagnetic wavelengths, photons (photo)
– Auditory (hearing): vibration of molecules (phono)
– Gustatory (taste): chemical changes molecules (chemo)
– Olfactory (smell) - chemical changes (chemo)
– Tactile (touch) - surface and deep nerve endings
Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing
Unconditioned Punisher
Unconditioned Reinforcer
Unconditioned Stimulus
A stimulus that elicits a response without prior conditioning.
Response Class
A “response class” is a group of responses with the same function (that is, each response in the group produces the same effect on the environment). For example, asking or stealing might both be ways for an individual to get access to an item they want, so they would be members of the same “response class.”
Operant
A response within a response class.
(Basically, an operant is a behavior affected by operant conditioning)
Repertoire
All the behaviors that a person can do.
(NFE) - A set or collection of knowledge and skills a person has learned that are relevant to particular settings or tasks.
Environment
Everything except the moving parts of the organism involved in behavior.
2 implications: (1) Only real physical events are included. (2) Other parts of the organism (i.e., the environment is outside and inside the body)
Stimulus Class
Any group of stimuli sharing a predetermined set of common elements in one or more of these dimensions: Physical, Temporal, or Functional (i.e., their effect on behavior)
Dimensions of Stimuli
PHYSICAL
– Size, color, intensity, weight, and spatial position relative to other objects
TEMPORAL
– Antecedent (i.e., stimuli that exist or occur prior to the behavior of interest) or Consequence (i.e., stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest)
• FUNCTIONAL
– An increasing or decreasing effect on the frequency of behavior either now or in the future (simplified version)
Diagramming Respondent Relations
Respondent: S -> R (Stimulus elicits/causes the Response).
When analyzing the behavior of a particular individual, environmental events are always classified from the perspective of the behaver.
1. US (light increase) -> UR (pupil of eye constricts)
2. US (light decrease) -> UR (pupil of eye dilates)
3. US (touch to eye/chemical irritant) -> UR (lachrimal gland secretion)
4. US (irritation to nasal mucosa) -> UR (sneezing)
5. US (irritation to throat) -> UR (cough)
Example:
Dr. Baker sees the light switch on the wall and turns it on. This causes Dawn’s pupil to
constrict. Diagram the respondent relation of Dawn’s pupils constricting.
• Hint: it will involve S (….) -> R (….)
If an energy change does not affect the receptors of an organism, then the energy
change cannot be called stimulus for that particular organism, even though it may be a stimulus for another organism or person.
A. Dog whistles
Phonoreceptors of dogs can detect faster vibrations of molecules than can the
phonorecptors of humans. High tones can be stimuli for dogs but not for humans.
B. Hunter’s phonoreceptors damaged due to firing rifles close to his/her ear so low
tones do not affect his/her receptors (problem for veterans). Low tones can be a stimulus for others, but not for this hunter.
Respondent relations
Phylogenic behaviors - the behaviors are unlearned.
– Therefore, when talking about any phylogenic responses, we would use the term unconditioned.
Terminology
– NS = Neutral Stimulus
– US = Unconditioned Stimulus
– CS = Conditioned Stimulus
– UR = Unconditioned Response
– CR = Conditioned Response
Ontogenic Behavior
The behaviors are learned. We would use the term conditioned
Elicit
(1) Elicit is only used in respondent relations. (2) ONLY USs and CSs elicit responses:
Organisms do NOT. (3) Only responses can be elicited.
Simple Rule:
USs elicit URs,
CSs elicit CRs
Respondent Acquisition
Procedure of repeated pairings of NS and US over trials.
Learned behavior
- Habituation: Modifying our reflexes
- Pavlovian learning: Learning about stimuli that are predictive of phylogenetically
important events - Operant learning: Learning about the consequences of our behavior
Three Things Learned in Pavlovian Conditioning
- The CS signals a delay reduction to the US. (“The US is coming! The US is coming”)
- The CS signals WHEN the US is coming. (2 minutes until…)
- The CS signals which US is coming. (pigeons: beak opened or closed)
Intertrial Interval (ITI)
The delay between US events
Four Principles of Effective Pavlovian Conditioning
- Use a CS that signals a LARGE DELAY REDUCTION to the US. The larger the delay-reduction, the faster Pavlovian learning occurs. (i.e., CS -> US interval = 10 seconds; means the US is coming 10x faster))
- Use an IMPORTANT: The more phylogenetically important the US, the more effective is Pavlovian conditioning. (i.e., food when hungry).
- Use a SALIENT CS: Conditioning will proceed more quickly if the CS (which starts out as a neutral stimulus) is salient; that is, something noticeable.
- Make sure the CS is not REDUNDANT. A stimulus will acquire CS function more quickly and will evoke the CR more reliably if it uniquely signals the delay reduction to the US. If another CS already signals this delay reduction, then the new stimulus is redundant and is unlikely to acquire CS function. If the NS is entirely redundant with the CS, it doesn’t tell the rat anything it didn’t already know.
Delay-reduction Ratio
CS -> US interval (seconds)
