Chapter 2

Question 1

Behavior

Answer 1

Is a portion of an organisms interaction with its environment that involves movement of some part of the organism.

Question 2

Response

Answer 2

Specific instance of behavior. Refers to 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.

Question 3

Response Class

Answer 3

Group of responses with the same function, that is, each response in the group produces the same effect on the environment.

Question 4

Repertoire

Answer 4

Sometimes used to refer to all of the behaviors a person can do. More often the term denotes a person’s collection of knowledge and skills relevant to particular settings or task.

Question 5

Enviornment

Answer 5

Refers to the full set of physical circumstances in which the organism exists.

Question 6

Stimulus

Answer 6

An energy change that effects an organism through receptor cells

Question 7

Stimulus Class

Answer 7

Used to refer to any group of stimuli sharing a predetermined set of common elements in one or more of these dimensions.

Question 8

Respondent Behavior

Answer 8

Is a behavior elicited by antecedent stimuli.

Question 9

Habituation

Answer 9

Process of gradually diminishing response strength is known as habituation.

Question 10

Operant Behavior

Answer 10

Any behavior determined primarily by its history of consequences. Unlike respondent behavior, which is elicited by antecedent events, operant behavior is selected, shaped, and maintained by the consequences that have followed it in the past.

Question 11

Selectionism

Answer 11

Anchors a new paradigm in the life sciences. A basic tenet of this position is that all forms of life, from single cells to complex cultures, evolve as a result of selection with respect to function.

Question 12

Automaticity of Reinforcement

Answer 12

Behavior is modified by its consequences regardless of whether the individual is aware that her behavior is, or has been, reinforced.

Question 13

Discriminated Operant

Answer 13

Behavior that occurs more often under some antecedent conditions than it does in others is called a discriminated operant

Question 14

Stimulus Control

Answer 14

When a behavior occurs more often in the presence of a given stimulus than it does in the absence of that stimulus