Chapter 2

Question 1

Johnston’s and Pennypacker’s (1980, 1993a) definition of behavior

Answer 1

“The behavior of an organism is that 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 a measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment.”

Question 2

Skinner’s (1938) definition of behavior

Answer 2

“the movement of an organism or of its parts in a frame
of reference provided by the organism or by various ex-
ternal objects or fields”

Question 3

Response

Answer 3

A very specific instance of behavior

Question 4

Response Class

Answer 4

A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment.

Question 5

Stimulus

Answer 5

“An energy change that affects an organism through

its receptor cells” (Michael, 2004, p. 7).

Question 6

Stimulus class

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Stimulus control

Answer 7

A situation in which the frequency, latency,

duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus.

Question 8

Negative reinforcement

Answer 8

A stimulus whose termination (or reduction

in intensity) functions as reinforcement

Question 9

Positive reinforcement

Answer 9

Occurs when a behavior is followed

immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions

Question 10

Conditioned reinforcement

Answer 10

A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.

Question 11

Unconditioned reinforcement

Answer 11

A stimulus change that increases
the frequency of any behavior that immediately 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

Question 12

Unconditioned punishment

Answer 12

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 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).

Question 13

Conditioned punishment

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Establishing Operation (EO)

Answer 14

A motivating operation that establishes (increases) the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer. For example, food deprivation establishes food as an effective reinforcer

Question 15

Contingency

Answer 15

Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations

between operant behavior and its controlling variables

Question 16

Respondent conditioning

Answer 16

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)

Question 17

Operant conditioning

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Positive punishment

Answer 18

A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior; sometimes called Type I punishment

Question 19

Negative punishment

Answer 19

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.