Chapter 4

Question 1

Reinforcement

Answer 1

the procedure of providing consequences for a behaviour that increase or maintain the probability of that behaviour occurring in the future

Question 2

operant behaviour

Answer 2

a behaviour that is strengthened through the process of reinforcement

Question 3

reinforcer

Answer 3

any event or stimulus that follows an operant response and increases or maintains its future probability

Question 4

positive reinforcement

Answer 4

any event of stimulus that, when presented as a consequence of a behaviours, increases or maintains the future probability of that behaviour

Question 5

negative reinforcement

Answer 5

any event or stimulus that, when removed as a consequence of a behaviour, increases or maintains the future probability of that behaviour

Question 6

positive reinforcer

Answer 6

seen as something pleasant, desirable or valuable that a person will try and get.

Question 7

aversive stimulus

Answer 7

an event or stimulus that an organism escapes or avoids

Question 8

Social reinforcement

Answer 8

when a behaviour produces a reinforcing consequence through the actions of another person

Question 9

automatic reinforcement

Answer 9

when the behaviour produces a reinforcing consequence through direct contact with the physical environment

Question 10

escape behaviour

Answer 10

when operant behaviour increases by removing an ongoing event or stimulus
ex: pressing a lever to stop an electric shock

Question 11

avoidance behaviour

Answer 11

when operant behaviour increases by preventing the onset of the event or stimulus
ex: pressing a lever to prevent an electric shock

Question 12

unconditioned reinforcers

Answer 12

a reinforcer that acuquired its properties as a function of species evolutionary history

Question 13

conditioned reinforcers

Answer 13

otherwise neutral stimuli or events that have acquired the ability to reinforce due to a contigent relationship with other, typically unconditional, reinforcers

Question 14

back up reinforcers

Answer 14

in a token reinforcement program, the token is presented to the person after a desirable behaviour, and later the person exchanges the token for other reinforcers

Question 15

gerenalized conditioned reinforcer

Answer 15

when a conditioned reinforcer is paired with a wide variety of other reinforcers

Question 16

immediacy

Answer 16

for a consequence to be most effective as a reinforcer, it should occur immediately after the response occurs

Question 17

contigency

Answer 17

the degree of correlation between a behaviour and its consequence

Question 18

establishing operations

Answer 18

an operation that increases the effectiveness of a reinforcer
ex: deprivation

Question 19

abolishing operations

Answer 19

an operation that decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer
ex: satiation

Question 20

deprivation

Answer 20

a type of establishing operation that increases the effectiveness of most unconditioned reinforcers and some conditioned reinforcers

Question 21

satiation

Answer 21

when a person has recently consumed a large amount of a particular reinforcer (food or water) or has had substantial exposure to a particular reinforcing stimulus.

Question 22

acquisition

Answer 22

the person is acquiring a new behaviour with the use of CRF

Question 23

maintenance

Answer 23

the behaviour is maintained over time with the use of intermittent reinforcement

Question 24

fixed ratio schedule

Answer 24

a specific or fixed number of responses must occur before the reinforcer is delivered

Question 25

fixed interval (FI) schedule

Answer 25

the interval of time is fixed

Question 26

variable interval (VI) schedule

Answer 26

the reinforcer is delivered for the first respnose that occurs (like FI) but the intervals vary to an average

Question 27

concurrent schedules of reinforcement

Answer 27

all of the schedules of reinforcement that are in effect for a person’s behaviours at one time

Question 28

concurrent operants

Answer 28

a number of different behaviours or response options are concurrently available

Question 29

operant

Answer 29

a class of behaviour that operates on the environment to prodcue a common environmental consequence

Question 30

learning

Answer 30

a change in behaviour due to experience

Question 31

operant learning (conditioning)

Answer 31

a change in a class of behaviour as a function of the consequences that followed it

Question 32

continguity

Answer 32

nearness of events in time (temporal) or space (spatial)

Question 33

premack principle

Answer 33

high-probability behaviour reinforces low-probability behaviour

Question 34

schedule effect

Answer 34

particular pattern and rate of behaviour over time

Question 35

post-reinforcement pause (PRP)

Answer 35

pauses in behaviour immediately after reinforcer in fixed-ration schedules