Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is behavior?
Any individual living organisms activity, public or private, that may be influenced by internal or external stimulation.
What is a “response” as it relates to Behavioral Analysis?
A response is a single instance of behavior.
What are the components of behavior?
- Behavior is something you do.
- Behavior can be public (observable) or private (internal - only you can observe it).
- Behavior can be changed by stimulus events (see, hear, touch, taste, feel) and can occur outside or inside your body, i.e., internal and external stimulation.
What is a stimulus event?
A stimulus event is something that influences how we behave. What we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
What is the first goal of of behavior analysis?
The first goal of behavior analysis is to predict behavior.
Why is accuracy predicting behavior important?
Accuracy predicting behavior is important because predictably allows adaptive behavior - behavior that is efficient and meaningful not inefficient or irratic.
What is the second goal of behavioral analysis?
The second goal of behavioral analysis is to identify functional variables that can be used to influence behavior positively.
What is a functional variable?
A functional variable is something that, when altered, can reliably and systematically influence behavior.
What is meant by functional variables that “positively influence” behavior?
Behavior analysts are able to change behaviors by using functional variables to decrease the probability of maldaptive behaviors while increasing adaptive behaviors. Thus, positively influencing behavior change.
What does it mean to say “behavior is determined?”
The behavior has a cause or multiple causes.
What is the first assumption of behavioral analysis?
Behavior is determined, i.e., behavior has a cause or multiple causes.
What is Occam’s law of parisimony?
The best explanations of behavior are the simplest explanations.
What is the second assumption of behavioral analysis?
The scientific method is a valid way to reveal the determinants of behavior, i.e., the analysis of the functions of behavior and how behavior is reinforced.
What is an independent variable?
An observable change, controlled by the experimenter, that is predicted to influence behavior in a certain way.
In a therapeutic setting, the independent variable is the intervention.
What is the first meaning of the word “objective” as it relates to the scientific method?
Recognizes that humans can be influenced by their preferences, which, therefore, cloud their ability to evaluate evidence that supports or refutes their preferred theories.
What is the second meaning of the word “objective” as it relates to the scientific method?
That behavior can evolve and change as new research is made available, allowing us to make new predictions about how to positively influence behavior.
What are falsifiable predictions?
When a scientist makes a prediction, the prediction is precise enough to be shown to be incorrect.
What is the importance of “replication” as it pertains to the scientific method?
Experiments must be measurable and reliable, shown to reproduce the same effects if tested with new recipients of the treatment, i.e., if repeated, the experiment will produce the same findings.
What is empirical evidence?
A scientific finding that is either directly observable or observable while using an unbiased measurement tool.
