Bhaviour

Question 1

Experimental Control

Answer 1

> . Behavioural researchers have low reliance on statistics.
. A conservative approach – looking for invariances or generalities rather than differences
. Prefer to not use statistics at all, rather rely on graphical display of data to show that each individual’s behaviour changes in the same way with a change in the independent variable

Question 2

Generality versus Significant Difference

Answer 2

> . The generalisation of results is more useful in discovering the basic, underlying or common cause of an effect (for example, both pigeons and humans allocated their behaviour the same way between two alternatives).
. In other words, we are searching for the common features between subjects and conditions rather than concentrating on the differences between them.

Question 3

Type Errors

Answer 3

The Significance level a is the probability of committing a Type-1 error – reporting an effect when there is none.
Usually, we accept a = .05, which means that we are prepared to report an effect when the probability of making a Type-1 error is .05 (or 1/20).

Question 4

Experimental Design

Answer 4

In the EAB (experimental analysis behaviour), each subject/participant serves as its own control. This means that each subject receives all of the different experimental conditions (including the baseline).

Question 5

Experimental Design Flaw

Answer 5

A- (baseline) B- (intervention) design is that any observed effect could simply be due to the passage of time.
ABA Design
The ABA design provides a “return to baseline” phase allowing us to decide with more certainty whether the effect was due to the “treatment” during the B phase.
The return to baseline can be implemented by simply removing the treatment again. This is called an ABA withdrawal design.Functional control over behaviour

Question 6

3 Term Contingency - B.F Skinner

Answer 6

Stimulus > Behaviour > Reinforcement
In the presence of a stimulus an animal emits responses that might occasionally be followed by a consequence
Antecedents → Behaviour → Consequences

Question 7

Law of Effect

Answer 7

The Law of Effect is a temporal law.
Events that happen in close temporal proximity.
“is accompanied by”/“follows” stress that temporal contiguity between the response and the reinforcer is required.

Question 8

Reinforcement & Punishment

Answer 8

•Behaviour is reinforced and punished, not individuals
•Punishment is very specific, you must forget the negative connotations and focus on the effect on behaviour
>. Positive and negative refer to adding a stimulus or taking one away

Question 9

Reinforcement

Answer 9

•Positive Reinforcement
–The presentation of a pleasant stimulus after a behaviour makes the behaviour more likely to occur in the future
•Negative Reinforcement
–The removal of an aversive stimulus after a behaviour makes the behaviour more likely to occur in the future

Question 10

Punishment

Answer 10

•Positive Punishment
–The presentation of a an aversive stimulus after a behaviour reduces the likelihood of the behaviour occurring in the future
•Negative Punishment
–The removal of a pleasant stimulus after a behaviour reduces the likelihood of the behaviour occurring in the future

Question 11

Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Punishment

Answer 11

>. The manner of introduction*
>. Immediacy of punishment*
>. Schedule of punishment*
>. Motivation to respond*
>. Availability of alternative behaviours
>. Discriminative properties

Question 12

Stimulus Control

Answer 12

Antecedents → Behaviour → Consequences
Or, SD → Response → SR
Where SD is a discriminative stimulus
A stimulus that signals a reinforcement contingency in effect
and SR is a reinforcing stimulus
A stimulus presented after the response that maintains (or extinguishes) the response.

Question 13

What effects stimulus control?

Answer 13

> . Training/experience
. Rate of reinforcement
. Amount of training
. Discrimination training

Question 14

Type 2 Superstition

Answer 14

A type-2 superstition is not about reinforcement (C), but about stimulus control (A)
What does a black cat signal?
Morse and Skinner (1957)
Trained pigeons on variable-interval schedules (VI) until performance was stable

Question 15

Classical Conditioning

Answer 15

A conditioned stimulus (CS) is an initially neutral stimulus that
acquires the ability to signal important biological events.
• An unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is an event that elicitselicits a response without prior experience.
• A conditioned response (CR) is a learned reaction to a CS.
• An unconditioned response (UCR) is an unlearned reaction to a UCS.

Question 16

Different CRs used in Research

Answer 16

Commonly used CRs:
 Eyeblink conditioning
 Galvanic skin response (GSR) or skin 
conductance response (SCR)
 Elicited by fear/surprise/electric shock – basis 
of lie detectors
 Sexual response
 Conditioned suppression
 Suppression of ongoing behaviour
 Few trials needed
 Taste-aversion learning
 Few (often one) trials needed

Question 17

Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 17

Associate previously fear-evoking stimuli with a
relaxed state
 Thus, the first step in this procedure is training the
client to relax
 Construct a fear hierarchy, where stimuli are ranked
from least to most fear invoking
 When the client can relax in the presence of the
lowest stimuli then the next in the hierarchy is
presented
 It is a form of counter conditioning: a conditioning
procedure that reverses an organism’s previous
response to a stimulus

Question 18

Emetic Therapy

Answer 18

 Pairing alcohol consumption with induced

nausea/vomiting should produce alcohol aversion.