Chapter 2 Flashcards
Basic Concepts and Principles
Antecedent
An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occur-ring prior to a behavior of interest.
Automatic Reinforcement
Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (e.g., scratching an insect bite relieves the itch).
Automaticity of Reinforcement
Automaticity (of reinforcement) refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the person’s awareness.
Aversive Stimulus
In general, an unpleasant or noxious stimulus; more technically, a stimulus change or condition that functions (a) to evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past; (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or (c) as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior.
Behavior
The portion of an organism’s interaction with its environment that is characterized by detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism and that results in measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment.
Behavior Change Tactic
A technologically consistent method for changing behavior derived from one or more principles of behavior.
Conditioned Punisher
A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers; some-times called secondary or teamed punisher.
Conditioned Reflex
A learned stimulus-response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., sound of refrigerator door opening) and the response it elicits (e.g., salivation).
Conditioned Reinforcer
A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.
Conditioned Stimulus
The stimulus component of a conditioned reflex; a formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) or another CS.
Consequence
A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest. Some consequences, especially those that are immediate and relevant to current motivational states, have significant influence on future behavior; others have little effect.
Contingency
Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables. (See contingent, three-term contingency.)
Contingency-Shaped Behavior
Behavior acquired by direct experience with contingencies.
Contingent
Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred.
Deprivation
The state of an organism with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a particular type of reinforcer.
Discriminative Operant
An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others.
Discriminative Stimulus
A stimulus in the presence of which responses of some type have been reinforced and in the absence of which the same type of responses have occurred and not been reinforced.
Environment
The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment.
Extinction
The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., responses no longer produce reinforcement).
Habituation
A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus.
Higher-Order Conditioning
Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS). Also called secondary conditioning.
History of Reinforcement
An inclusive term referring in general to all of a person’s learning experiences and more specifically to past conditioning with respect to particular response classes or aspects of a person’s repertoire.
Joint Control
A phenomenon in which two separate, but interrelated form of a person’s own verbal behavior, combine to acquire stimulus control over a response that would not have occurred in the absence of either.
Motivating Operation
An environmental variable that alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stim-ulus, object or event.
Negative Punishment
A response behavior is followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus (or a decrease in the intensity of the stimulus), that decreases the future frequency of similar responses under similar conditions; sometimes called Type II punishment.
Negative Reinforcement
A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as reinforcement.
Neutral Stimulus
A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior.
Ontogeny
The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime.
Operant Behavior
Behavior that is selected, maintained, and brought under stimulus control as a function of its consequences; each person’s repertoire of operant behavior is a product of his history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny).
Operant Conditioning
The basic process by which operant learning occurs; consequences (stimulus changes immediately following responses) result in an increased (reinforcement) or decreased (punishment) frequency of the same type of behavior under similar motivational and environmental conditions in the future.
Phylogeny
The history of the natural evolution of a species.
Positive Punishment
A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stim-ulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior; some-times called Type I punishment.
Positive Reinforcement
Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions.
Principle of Behavior
A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behaviors, and time.
Punisher
A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it.
Punishment
Occurs when stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions.
Reflex
A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits (e.g., bright light-pupil con-traction).
Reinforcement
Occurs when a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions.
Reinforcer
A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it.
Repertoire
All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task.
Respondent Conditioning
A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response.
Respondent Behavior
The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli.
Respondent Extinction
The relative frequency with which operant behavior is emitted during extinction.
Reponse
Action of an organism’s effector. An effector is an organ at the end of an efferent nerve fiber that is specialized for altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or in terms of other energy changes.
Response Class
A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment.
Rule-Govern Behavior
Behavior controlled by a rule (i.e., a verbal statement of an antecedent-behavior-consequence contingency); enables human behavior to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable but potentially significant consequences.
Selectionism
A philosophical assumption underlying the science of behavior analysis that anything that evolves does so because of the consequences of behavior, meaning that behaviors that result in positive consequences survive and produce more sophisticated repertoires.
Socially-Mediated Contingency
A contingency delivered in whole or in part by another person
Stimulus
An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells.
Stimulus Class
A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal (e.g., size, color), temporal (e.g., antecedent or consequent), and/or functional (e.g., discriminative stimulus) dimensions.
Stimulus Control
A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus.
Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing
A procedure in which two stimuli are presented at the same time, usually repeatedly for a number of trials, which often results in one stimulus acquiring the function of the other stimulus.
Three-term Contingency
The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior; encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecedent stimulus, behavior, and consequence.
Unconditioned Punisher
A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus.
Unconditioned Reinforcer
stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus.
Unconditioned Stimulus
The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning.
