Chapter 2 Flashcards
An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest.
Antecedent
Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (e.g., scratching an insect bite relieves the itch).
Automatic Reinforcement
Refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the person’s awareness; a person does not have to recognize or verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know that a consequence has occurred, for reinforcement to “work.” (Contrast with automatic reinforcement.)
Automaticity of Reinforcement
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has terminated it in the past, (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or (c) as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior.
Aversive Stimulus
That portion of an organism’s interaction with its environment that involves movement of some part of the organism (Johnston & Pennypacker, 2009, p. 31).
Behavior
A technologically consistent method for changing behavior derived from one or more principles of behavior (e.g., response cost is derived from the principle of negative punishment); possesses sufficient generality across subjects, settings, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination.
Behavior Change Tactic
A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers. (Sometimes called secondary or learned punisher; compare to unconditioned punisher.)
Conditioned Punisher
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); each person’s repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny).
Conditioned Reflex
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 Reinforcer
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.
Conditioned Stimulus
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.
Consequence
Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables
Contingency
Behavior acquired by direct experience with contingencies.
Contingency-shaped Behavior
Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred.
Contingent
The state of an organism with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a particular type of reinforcer; also refers to a procedure for increasing the effectiveness of a reinforcer (e.g., withholding a person’s access to a reinforcer for a specified period prior to a session).
Deprivation
An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others.
Discriminated Operant
A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been reinforced and in the absence of which that behavior has not been reinforced; as a result of this history, an s0 evokes operant behavior because its presence signals the availability of reinforcement.
Discriminative Stimulus
The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced pan of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment.
Environment
The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., responses no longer produce reinforcement); the primary effect is a decrease in the frequency of the behavior until it reaches a pre-reinforced level or ultimately ceases to occur
Extinction
A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus; most often used to describe a reduction of respondent behavior as a function of repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus over a short span of time; some researchers suggest that the concept also applies to within-session changes in operant behavior.
Habituation
Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS). (Also called secondary conditioning.)
Higher-order Conditioning
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.
History of Reinforcement
A phenomenon in which two separate, but interrelated forms of a person’s own verbal behavior, combine to acquire stimulus control of a response that would not have occurred in the absence of either.
Joint Control
An environmental variable that (a) alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and (b) alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus, object, or event.
Motivating Operation
A response behavior followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus (or a decrease in the intensity of the stimulus) that results in similar responses occurring less often.
Negative Punishment
A contingency in which the occurrence of a response is followed immediately by the termination, reduction, postponement, or avoidance of a stimulus, and which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of similar responses.
Negative Reinforcement
A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior. (Compare to conditioned stimulus [CS] and unconditioned stimulus [US].)
Neutral Stimulus
The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime.
Ontogeny
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
Operant Behavior
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.
Operant Conditioning
The history of the natural evolution of a species
Phylogeny
A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior.
Positive Punishment
A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often.
Positive Reinforcement
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 (e.g., extinction, positive reinforcement); an empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same functional relation.
Principle of Behavior
A stimulus change that decreases the future occurrence of behavior that immediately precedes it
Punisher
A basic principle of behavior describing a response consequence functional relation in which a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that decreases future occurrences of that type of behavior.
Punishment
A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits (e.g., bright light-pupil contraction). Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes protect against harmful stimuli, help regulate the internal balance and economy of the organism, and promote reproduction.
Reflex
A basic principle of behavior describing a response consequence functional relation in which a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often.
Reinforcement
A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it
Reinforcer
All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task (e.g., gardening, mathematical problem solving).
Repertoire
The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli.
Respondent Behavior
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. (Also called classical or Pavlovian conditioning; see also conditioned reflex and higher order conditioning.)
Respondent Conditioning
The repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US); the CS gradually loses its ability to elicit the conditioned response until the conditioned reflex no longer appears in the individual’s repertoire.
Respondent Extinction
A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior. Technical definition: an “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” (Michael, 2004, p. 8).
Response
A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment.
Response Class
Behavior controlled by a rule (i.e., a verbal statement of an antecedent-behavior-consequence contingency); enables human behavior (e.g., fastening a seat belt) to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable, but potentially significant consequences (e.g., avoiding injury in an auto accident). Often used in contrast to contingency shaped behavior, a term used to indicate behavior selected and maintained by controlled, temporally close consequences.
Rule-governed Behavior
A theory that all forms of life naturally and continually evolve as a result of the interaction between function and the survival value of that function. Operant selection by consequences is the conceptual and empirical foundation of behavior analysis.
Selectionism
A contingency in which an antecedent stimulus and/or the consequence for the behavior is presented by another person.
Socially Mediated Contingency
“An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells” (Michael, 2004, p. 7).
Stimulus
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 Class
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 Control
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.
Stimulus-stimulus Pairing
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.
Three-term Contingency
A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediate ly precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned punishers are products of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny), meaning that all members of a species are more or less susceptible to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punishers. (Also called primary or unlearned punishers; compare to conditioned punisher.)
Unconditioned Punisher
A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediate ly precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny). (Also called primary or unlearned reinforcer; compare to conditioned reinforcer.)
Unconditioned Reinforcer
The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning.
Unconditioned Stimulus
