Ch. 2

Question 1

Variable

Answer 1

a characteristic of a person, place, or thing that can change (vary) over time or from 1 situation to another.

can be measured on a spectrum/ continuum or categorical variable.

Question 2

Independent variable

Answer 2

is the aspect of an experiment that is made to systematically vary across the different conditions in the experiment.

is what is manipulated.

typically an environmental event or experience

Question 3

Dependent variable

Answer 3

is the aspect of an experiment that is allowed to vary freely to see if it is affected by changes tin the independent variable.

is what is measured.

in psyc is almost always a beh.

changes in dependent are dependent upon changes in the independent

Question 4

quasi independent variable

Answer 4

is one that is inseparable from an individual and cant be manipulated; however group comparisons can be made based on that variable.

Ex: gender, age, and ethnicity.

designs that use this are called quasi-experimental designs

Question 5

functional relationship

Answer 5

the relationship between changes in an independent variable and changes in a dependent vari.

thought of as cause and effect relationships. indep = cause, dep = effect

Question 6

response

Answer 6

is another word for beh, but one that to be used when discussing a particular instance of beh.

esp whe it occurs in rxn to a stimulus.

Question 7

stimulus

Answer 7

is anyt event that can potentially influence beh.

sometimes also referred to as a cue in that it signals (cues) the occurrence of a certain beh.

response of 1 organism can be a stimulus that influences the response of another organism.

social interactions generally consist of a chain of alternating responses, with each persons response acting as a stimulus for the next response from the other person.

Question 8

overt beh

Answer 8

beh that can potentially be observed by individual other than the one performing the beh.

publicly observed of others present.

Question 9

covert beh

Answer 9

beh that can be perceived only by the person performing the beh.

subjectively perceived and not publicly observable.

“private behs”

covert and overt behs within the same person can act as a stimulus for each other.

environment doesn’t stop with the skin; events both outside and inside the skin can influence our beh– tho beh analysts maintain that the ultimate cause of beh os often found outside the skin.

Question 10

appetitive stimulus

Answer 10

is an event that an organism will seek out.

EX: food when we are hungry

Question 11

aversive stimulus

Answer 11

is an event that an organism will avoid.

Question 12

motivating operation

Answer 12

any procedure that affects the appetitiveness or aversiveness of an event

2 types
establishing
abolishing

Question 13

establishing operation

Answer 13

increases the appetitiveness or aversiveness of an event.

ex: depriving an animal of food that increases appetitive value of food

Question 14

abolishing operation

Answer 14

decreases the appetitiveness or aversiveness of an event.

ex: satiating an animal on food (feeding it till no longer hungry) that decreases appetitive value of food

Question 15

deprivation and satiation

Answer 15

dep –> prolonged absence of an event

Sat –> prolonged exposure to or consumption of an event.

if event being used as a reinforcer for some beh, could regard dep and sat as procedures that respectfully increase or decrease effectiveness of a reinforcer.

exceptions: dep could result in anorexia nervosa. food deprivation paradoxically becomes an establishing operation for the aversiveness of food

Question 16

temporal contiguity

Answer 16

is the extent to which events occur close together in time.

ex: thunder and lightning

Question 17

Spatial contiguity

Answer 17

is the extent to which events are situated close to each other in space.

Question 18

contingency

Answer 18

is a predictive (or functional) relationship between two events, such that the occurrence of one event predicts the probable occurrence of another.

ex: rat receives food pellet whenever presses lever, contingency exists between lever pressing and food. then presentation of food is contingent on lever pressing.

Question 19

Behavioral Definitions

Answer 19

“target behs” properly defined. should be objective = refer to some obs aspect of individuals beh.

Behavioral Definitions should also be

clearly defined, that is unambiguous:
- will ensure that measurements of the beh are relatively consistent over time and across settings.
EX: define yelling as a loud vocalization that continues for more than 5 secs and can be heard outside a closed door.

• also beneficial outside clinical or research setting.
  Ex: for child rearing. clearer def of what behs are appropriate vs inappropriate, decreases prob of child violating the rules. 3- warning rule for compliance but not necessarily immediately.

Question 20

rate of response

Answer 20

number of responses that occur in a period of time (the frequency of the response)

rate measurements are most appropriate when each response is very brief, with a well defined start and finish (onset and offset).

be sure to include time aspect

precision learning

Question 21

cumulative recorder

Answer 21

a classic device that meausures the total number of responses over time and provides a graphic depiction of the rate of beh.

consists of a roll of paper that unravels at a slow constant pace and a movable pen that tracks along it.
- no activity, pen remains stationary.
- low rate = line that slopes upward at a shallow angle
- high rate = line that slopes upward at a steep angle
- steeper the line, the higher the rate of response

Question 22

intensity

Answer 22

the intensity of a beh is the force or magnitude of the beh.

Ex: pavlov’s dogs, the amount (magnitude) of saliva produced whenever tone was presented by itself.

Question 23

Duration

Answer 23

is the amount of time that an individual repeatedly or continuously performs a behavior, with no concern for how fast or slow the beh is occurring.

this measure is appropriate when we are concerned with either increasing or decreasing the amount of time the beh occurs.

Question 24

speed

Answer 24

is the length of time required to perform a beh from start to finish, which indicates how fast or slow the beh is occurring.

Question 25

latency

Answer 25

of a beh is the length of time required for a beh to begin.

Question 26

Latency, speed, and duration are often confused

Answer 26

beh of an athlete who specializes in the 100 meter sprint

amount of time it takes to commence running after hearing starting pistol = latency

amount of time it takes to complete the race (start to finish) = speed

the total amount of time spent running each day (independent of how fast they’re running) = duration

Question 27

interval recording

Answer 27

the measurement of whether a beh occurs during each interval within a series of continuous intervals.

• Major advantage is that don’t have to record every single response.
• Useful b/c its difficult to determine the point at ehich the target beh starts and stops.

EX: measure amount of aggressive beh in a classroom, record the class, get ppl to note whether an aggressive incident occurred within each 10-min interval. (not interested in how many agress incidents occurred in each interval, only with number of intervals in which at least 1 agress incident occurred. % of intervals during at least 1 agress incident occurred is overall measure of the beh

Question 28

time-sample recording

Answer 28

a variant of interval recording, one measures wjether a beh occurs during each interval within a series of discontinuous intervals (intervals paced apart).

Question 29

topography

Answer 29

is the physical form of the beh.

Ex: rather than record the rate at which a rat presses a lever, we might observe how it presses the lever, such as it if uses its left or right paw.

Question 30

number of errors

Answer 30

any beh in which responses can be categorized as right tor wrong.

Ex: how many errors a student makes on an exam is a traditional method of determining how well the student knows the material.

Question 31

assessing reliability: interobserver reliability

Answer 31

which is the extent to which two or more independent observers agree in their observations of the occurrence of a beh.

of times observers agree / total # of intervals

80% acceptable min, 90% preferred

Question 32

Descriptive research

Answer 32

involves gathering info about a beh and the circumstances within which it occurs.

doesn’t involve manipulation of any variables.

includes survey approach –> ppl answer series of questions
and
case study –> intensive study of an individual

Question 33

Naturalistic observation

Answer 33

a descriptive method, in which one systematically observes and records the occurrence of a bah in its natural environment.

researchers will define their variables precisely and make their observations in a consistent and uniform matter.

problem is it often leaves us uncertain as to which variables affect the occurrence of the beh : i.e. it is difficult to determine the cause and effect (functional) relationship.

Question 34

Naturalistic observation used in ecology

Answer 34

this is commonly used approach in ethology (now known as behvioural ecology), a branch of zoology that focuses on the study of inherited beh patterns in animals.

such patterns have presumably evolved to help the animal cope with certain aspects of its natural envrio. for this reason, inherited beh patterns are usually best studied within the nat envrio (or close to it), b/c animal might not display the beh if removed from it.

Question 35

experimental research

Answer 35

one or more indep variables are systematically varied to determine their effect on a dep variable.

any diffs in beh across diff conditions of the experiment are presumed to be caused by the diffs in the indep variable.

2 types
1. group desgin
2. single subject desgin

Question 36

Group design

Answer 36

in which researchers manipulate 1 or more indep variables across groups of subjects.

are good for assessing the average effects of certain variables.

Cause and effect conclusions are possible due to strict control over the envrio that allows experimenter to rule out alt explanations.

Random assignment.

drawbacks, requires large # of subjects, not suited for investigating the effect of a certain treatment on a particular individual, focus on average performance of all subjects, and they are often analyzed at the end the experiment = no flexibility.

control group design –> individuals are randomly assigned to either an experimental (treatment) group or control group. experi grp is exposed to certain manipulations or treatment, while control is not.

Factorial design –> one examines the effects of 2 or more indep variables (or factors) across groups of subjects.

comparative design –> in which species is used as a quasi-ID variable. often used to test evolutionary hypotheses regarding the diffs in selective pressures for a particular trait between species.

Question 37

single subject designs

Answer 37

require only 1 or few subjects to conduct an entire experiment.

also known as single case or small-n designs

Question 38

simple comparison (AB) design

Answer 38

in this, the beh is a baseline condition is compared to beh in a treatment condition.

1st step = measure baseline of number of times beh occurred. the baseline of a beh is the normal freq of the beh that occurs before some type of intervention. should last several days-2 weeks. (monitoring beh can sometimes result in reactivity, in which the beh improves a bit). continue baseline until beh is stable.

Question 39

Reversal/withdrawal/ABAB design

Answer 39

Which consists of repeated alterations between a baseline phase and treatment phase.

If the behaviour systematically changes each time, the treatment instituted and later withdrawn, then a functional relationship has been demonstrated between the treatment and the behaviour.

It allows the entire experiment to be conducted with a single subject.

Ideal for determining the effectiveness of a behavioural intervention for a particular person.

One can simply eyeball the graph to see if the treatment is working and there doesn’t have to be statistical tests to determine if the change in behaviour is meaningful

Each subject in the study constitutes an entire experiment, and each additional subject constitute a replication of that experiment.

Therefore, finding the same pattern of results for all the subjects exposed to these procedures would indicate that the results of the experiment are probably valid, and have a good generality.

Disadvantage is that if the behaviour doesn’t revert to its original baseline when the treatment is withdrawn, we will be left wondering if the treatment was effective.

Another disadvantage is that the design is inappropriate for a situation in which the treatment is intended to, produce a long lasting or permanent change to your behavior, such that you would not expect to see a reversal. Ex: math.

Another disadvantage is that in some circumstances it’d be ethically inappropriate to remove a treatment once some improvement has been obtained. Ex: drug addiction

Question 40

ABCAC design

Answer 40

If the treatment is an effective, rather than withdrawing from the treatment, and returning to baseline, a better strategy, would be to implement a new treatment and see if it produces a stronger effect, the new phase would be called C. If the new phase appears to be successful, subject can return to baseline for a week, and then return back to the treatment to confirm effectiveness. this is called an ABCAC design.

Question 41

Multiple baseline design

Answer 41

A treatment is instituted at successive points in time for two or more persons, settings or behaviours

This design is therefore inappropriate for situations in which the treatment is likely to produce a permanent change in behavior, or in which it may be unethical to withdraw the treatment once some improvement has been achieved

Limitations
- more than one person, setting or behaviour to watch the treatment can be applied.
- The treatment effect might generalize across the different settings or behaviours before the treatment is instituted within those settings or behaviors.

Ex: multiple baseline across persons design —> at the end of the first week. One person begins the treatment while the other 2 carry on with the baseline. At the end of the second week, The second person begins the treatment. While the third person carries on with the baseline. At the end of the third week, the third person also begins the treatment.

Ex: multiple baseline across settings design —> rates of smoking in three different settings. After a week of baseline. Self punishing for smoking but only at work. Second week self punishing for smoking at home and at work. Third week, start punishing smoking while at the coffee shop.

Ex: multiple baseline across behaviours design —> implement treatment at different times for each behaviour. good alternative to reversal design, in that we do not have to worry about withdrawing the treatment to determine that it is effective.

Question 42

Changing criterion design

Answer 42

In which the effect of the treatment is demonstrated by how closely the behaviour matches a criterion or standard, that is systematically altered.

Ex: set a certain criterion for an allowable number of cigarettes that is slightly less than the average number of cigarettes smoked during the baseline.
If successful for three consecutive days, reduce the allowable limit by two cigarettes, and repeat this process, until the eventual goal of no smoking has been achieved.

Appropriate when behaviour is intended to change, gradually buy some specified amount.

Important that behaviour closely match the changing criteria otherwise it will be difficult to determine if the change in behaviour is the result of the treatment or of some other factor

Can be greatly strengthened by including a period In which the criteria suddenly change in the opposite direction. If the behaviour continues to track the criteria closely, even when they change direction then we will have obtained a strong evidence for the effectiveness of the treatment in a sense we have created a change in criterion design that incorporates aspects of a reversal design.

Ex: number of cigarettes allowed would sometimes be raised for a few days.

Question 43

In experimental research the control group design versus the reversal design

Answer 43

In experimental research, the control group design is often employed in studies of classical conditioning, while the reversal design (or some variant of it) is often employed in studies of operant conditioning

Question 44

Multi element or alternating treatment design

Answer 44

One randomly alternates between conditions often on a day by day basis, independent of the level of responding.

This might, for example be a useful design for determining whether eating certain foods before bed is the cause of a persons, bad dreams, or nightmares.

Question 45

Advantages of using animals in research

Answer 45

Are the ability to control their genetic makeup and their learning history.

Knowledge of an animals, genetic make up, can help us eliminate, or assess the effects of inherited differences on learning and behaviour.

Animals bred for research have had somewhat identical experiences during their upbringing, along with a fairly limited learning history

Researchers are often able to more strictly control their experimental environment for animals than humans. This is especially important in behavioural research in which we are trying to isolate and manipulate certain aspects of the environment to determine their effect on behavior. 

Some research cannot ethically be conducted with humans. This is particularly the case with experiment manipulations that are potentially adverse or harmful.