Chapter 4: Reinforcement and Extinction of Operant Behavior

Question 1

The tendency of an animal to emit variations in response topography in a given situation.

Answer 1

Behavioral variability

Question 2

An event or stimulus that has acquired its effectiveness to increase operant behavior on the basis of an organism’s life or ontogenetic history.

Answer 2

Conditioned reinforcer

Question 3

The relationship between the occasion (e.g., SD), the operant class (R), and the consequences that follow the behavior (Sr)…SD: R–> Sr

Answer 3

Contingency of reinforcement

Question 4

A schedule of reinforcement in which each response produces reinforcement.

Answer 4

Continuous reinforcement

Question 5

A procedure that involves reinforcement in the presence of one stimulus (SD) but not in other settings (SΔ).

Answer 5

Differential reinforcement

Question 6

An event or stimulus that precedes an operant and sets the occasion for operant behavior (antecedent stimulus), due to a history of reinforcement when that stimulus is present.

Answer 6

Discriminative stimulus (SD)

Question 7

Respondent (CR) and reflexive (UR) behavior that is made to occur by the presentation of a stimulus (CS or US).

Answer 7

Elicited (behavior)

Question 8

Operant behavior that occurs at some probability in the presence of a discriminative stimulus, but the SD does not force its occurrence.

Answer 8

Emitted (behavior)

Question 9

A procedure that involves the breaking of the contingency between an operant and its consequence.

Answer 9

Extinction (as a procedure)

Question 10

A behavioral process that refers to a decline in the frequency of the operant when the contingency between an operant and its consequence has been broken.

Answer 10

Extinction (as a process)

Question 11

A rabid burst of responses when an extinction procedure is first implemented.

Answer 11

Extinction burst

Question 12

The time from the onset of one event (e.g., SD) to the onset of another (e.g., R).

Answer 12

Latency

Question 13

A contingency that involves the removal of an event or stimulus following behavior that has the effect of decreasing response rate.

Answer 13

Negative punishment

Question 14

A contingency where an ongoing stimulus or event is removed (or prevented) by an operant response and the rate of response increases.

Answer 14

Negative reinforcement

Question 15

The selection of operant behavior during the lifetime of an organism.

Answer 15

Ontogenetic selection

Question 16

Behavior that operates on the environment to produce a change, effect, or consequence.

Answer 16

Operant

Question 17

A set of responses that vary in topography but produce a common environmental consequence or effect.

Answer 17

Operant class

Question 18

An increase or decrease in a response as a function of the consequences that have followed the response.

Answer 18

Operant conditioning

Question 19

The rate of an operant before any known conditioning (e.g., the rate of key pecking before a peck-food contingency has been established).

Answer 19

Operant level

Question 20

A phenomenon in which intermittent reinforcement schedules generate greater resentence to extinction than continuous schedules of reinforcement.

Answer 20

Partial reinforcement effect (PRE)

Question 21

A contingency that involves the presentation of an event or stimulus following behavior that has the effect of decreasing the rate of response.

Answer 21

Positive punishment

Question 22

A contingency that involves the presentation of an event or stimulus following behavior that increases the rate of response.

Answer 22

Positive reinforcement

Question 23

Any stimulus or event that increases the probability (rate of response) of an operant when presented contingent on that response.

Answer 23

Positive reinforcer

Question 24

A higher frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for a lower-frequency response.

Answer 24

Premack principle

Question 25

The number of responses that occur in a given interval of time.

Answer 25

Rate of response

Question 26

All of the behavior that an organism is capable of emitting on the basis of species and environmental history.

Answer 26

Repertoire (of behavior)

Question 27

The perseverance of operant behavior when it is placed on extinction.

Answer 27

Resistance to extinction

Question 28

The principle that animals will work to gain access to activities that are restricted or withheld.

Answer 28

Response deprivation

Question 29

When reinforcement is contingent on some difference in response properties, that form of response will increase.

Answer 29

Response differentiation

Question 30

The difference in relative frequency or probability of different response topographies (e.g., all the ways you can open your car door) that make up an operant (e.g., opening your car door).

Answer 30

Response hierarchy

Question 31

Repeated presentations of a reinforcer weaken that reinforcers effectiveness, and for this reason the rate of response also declines.

Answer 31

Satiation

Question 32

An event or stimulus that precedes an operant and reduces the likelihood of a response, due to a history of that response failing to produce reinforcement when that stimulus is present.

Answer 32

S-delta (SΔ)

Question 33

A method of developing new responses that involves the differential reinforcement of closer and closer approximations to a target response.

Answer 33

Shaping

Question 34

The physical form of a response

Answer 34

Topography