Ch.1

Question 1

What is learning at the behavior level?

Answer 1

The acquisition, maintenance, and change of an organism’s behavior as a result of lifetime events.

Question 2

What does behavior encompass?

Answer 2

Everything an organism does, including private and covert actions like thinking and feeling.

Question 3

What are traditional causes of human behavior?

Answer 3

Societies and cultures have always been concerned with the acquisition and control of behavior.

Question 4

What do social norms dictate about behavior?

Answer 4

Appropriate behavior means one considers socially acceptable, while deviations get rejected.

Question 5

What are internal causes of behavior?

Answer 5

Metaphysical entities (the soul) and hypothetical structures of the mind.

Question 6

What are traditional causes of behavior?

Answer 6

Influences such as the moon, tides, arrangement of the stars, and whims of the gods.

Question 7

Why are traditional accounts of behavior not scientific?

Answer 7

They cannot be observed or measured.

Question 8

What does behavior theory state?

Answer 8

Behavior is due to a complex interaction between genetic influence and behavioral experience.

Question 9

What is Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)?

Answer 9

A natural-science approach to understanding the origin and control of behavior.

Question 10

What are the primary objectives of behavior analysis?

Answer 10

1. Discover principles and laws that govern behavior. 2. Extend these principles across species. 3. Develop an applied technology for the management of behavior.

Question 11

What is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)?

Answer 11

A field of study that focuses on the application of the principles, methods, and procedures of the science of behavior to solve practical problems.

Question 12

What is an example of a teaching strategy in ABA?

Answer 12

Correct Answer: Next problem; Incorrect Answer: Instruction on how to solve the problem, followed by several practice problems of the same type with feedback from the teacher.

Question 13

What was the question in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior example?

Answer 13

Why do seagulls congregate around crowded, but not empty, beaches?

Question 14

What was the plausible answer for the seagulls’ behavior?

Answer 14

People feed the birds.

Question 15

What is the dependent variable in the seagull experiment?

Answer 15

Number of seagulls each day.

Question 16

What are the two types of learning described in behavior analysis?

Answer 16

Respondent (Classical or Pavlovian Learning) and Operant (Consequential learning).

Question 17

What occurs during respondent conditioning?

Answer 17

A neutral stimulus (NS) is repeatedly followed by an unconditioned stimulus (US).

Question 18

What is a respondent?

Answer 18

Behavior elicited (caused) by an environmental event (stimulus).

Question 19

What is the definition of a neutral stimulus (NS)?

Answer 19

A stimulus that does not produce a particular response.

Question 20

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)?

Answer 20

A stimulus that produces the unconditioned response.

Question 21

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?

Answer 21

A stimulus that elicits the conditioned response.

Question 22

What is a conditioned response (CR)?

Answer 22

The response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus.

Question 23

What happens in an example of respondent conditioning?

Answer 23

A lab coat (NS) is paired with a shot (US), leading to crying (UR), and eventually the lab coat (CS) elicits crying (CR).

Question 24

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 24

Involves a change in the rate of an operant response as a function of its consequences.

Question 25

What is the three-term contingency in operant conditioning?

Answer 25

SD (Discriminative stimulus) → Response → Consequence.

Question 26

What does operant conditioning influence?

Answer 26

The future likelihood of a response based on the consequences that follow it.

Question 27

What does B.F. Skinner suggest about behavior?

Answer 27

Behavior is selected at three levels: species, behavior, and culture.

Question 28

What is immediate causation?

Answer 28

A mechanism whereby isolated and discrete events directly bring forth an effect.

Question 29

What is remote causation?

Answer 29

A series of distant events that bring forth an effect, often explained by evolutionary history.

Question 30

What is functional analysis?

Answer 30

An analysis of behavior in terms of the consequences it produces.

Question 31

What is the role of natural selection in learning?

Answer 31

It prepares organisms for constant elements or challenges of their environment.

Question 32

What is the focus of behavior analysts?

Answer 32

The interplay between behavior and environment.

Question 33

Who was Ivan Petrovich Pavlov?

Answer 33

A scientist known for his work on the conditioned reflex and recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1904.

Question 34

What did John Broadus Watson propose?

Answer 34

Psychology should be science based on observable behavior, excluding thoughts and feelings.

Question 35

What is the Law of Effect?

Answer 35

Gradually, non-successful impulses will be stamped out while successful impulses will be stamped in.

Question 36

Who is B.F. Skinner?

Answer 36

A prominent figure in modern behavior analysis, known for distinguishing between respondent and operant learning.

Question 37

What did Skinner say about private events?

Answer 37

He emphasized that behavior should be explained by analyzing variables in the environment rather than internal states.

Question 38

What is the significance of the Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior?

Answer 38

It was established in 1958 and is a key publication in the field of behavior analysis.

Question 39

What is the contemporary view on feelings in behavior analysis?

Answer 39

Feelings are seen as by-products of environmental events that regulate behavior.

Question 40

Why are reports of feelings considered unreliable?

Answer 40

They are influenced by how individuals learn to talk about their feelings.

Question 41

What are feelings?

Answer 41

Feelings are real, but they are by-products of the environmental events that regulate behavior.

Question 42

What does behavior analysis require regarding feelings?

Answer 42

Behavior analysis requires that the researcher trace feelings back to the interaction between behavior and environment.

Question 43

Why are reports of feelings largely inaccessible to the scientific community?

Answer 43

Reports of feelings are highly unreliable because we learn to talk about our feelings as others have trained us to do so.

Question 44

What determines the reliability of reports of feelings?

Answer 44

Reports of feelings are only as good as the training of correspondence between public conditions and private events.

Question 45

What does the history of human thought consist of?

Answer 45

The history of human thought is what people have said and done.

Question 46

What are symbols in the context of behavior?

Answer 46

Symbols are the products of written and spoken verbal behavior, representing concepts and relationships in the environment.

Question 47

What is the nature of thinking according to behavior analysis?

Answer 47

Thinking has the dimensions of behavior, not a fancied inner process which finds expression in behavior.

Question 48

How is the term 'think' used in our culture?

Answer 48

The term 'think' has a variety of meanings, such as reporting a low probability action or indicating weak control of behavior by a stimulus.

Question 49

What is an example of thinking as a low probability action?

Answer 49

EX: 'I am thinking of buying a new car.'

Question 50

What is an example of weak control of behavior by a stimulus?

Answer 50

EX: When shown an unfamiliar object, you may say, 'I think it’s a computer chip,' contrasted with 'I know it’s a computer chip.'

Question 51

What is the function of thinking as private behavior?

Answer 51

The function of thinking is to increase the effectiveness of practical action.

Question 52

How can people act at the covert level?

Answer 52

People can act at the covert level without committing themselves publicly.

Question 53

What is thinking considered in behavior analysis?

Answer 53

Thinking is operant behavior.