Cooper Glossary

Question 122

The results of measurement, usually in quantifiable form; in applied behavior analysis, it refers to measures of some quantifiable dimension of a behavior
- This word is the plural form of datum

Answer 122

Data

Question 123

The level and trend of behavior between successive data points; created by drawing a straight line from the center of each data point in a given data set to the center of the next data point in the same set

Answer 123

Data Path

Question 124

A relation between the self, as one stimulus, and other stimuli from the external world

Answer 124

Deictic Relation

Question 125

A phenomenon in which delayed rewards, regardless of their significance and magnitude (eg; enough money for a secure retirement), exert decreasing influence over choice making behavior as a function of their temporal distance from present circumstances
- Both humans and nonhuman laboratory animals discount the value of delayed rewards; the greater the delay to the reward, the greater the discount (ie; the less value or influence the reward has on current behavior)

Answer 125

Delay Discounting

Question 126

Another name for Delay Discounting

Answer 126

Temporal Discounting

Question 127

A variation of the multiple baseline design in which an initial baseline, and perhaps intervention, begin for one behavior (or setting, or subject), and subsequent baselines for additional behaviors begin in a staggered or delayed fashion

Answer 127

Delayed Multiple Baseline Design

Question 128

A contingency in which reinforcement for all members of a group is dependent on the behavior of one member of the group or the behavior of a select group of members within the larger group

Answer 128

Dependent Group Contingency

Question 129

The measured behavior in an experiment to determine if it changes as a result of manipulations of the independent variable; in applied behavior analysis, it represents some measure of a socially significant behavior

Answer 129

Dependent Variable

Question 130

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 (eg; witholding a person’s access to a reinforcer for a specified period prior to a session)

Answer 130

Deprivation

Question 131

Responding indicating a relation (eg; same as, opposite, different from, better than) between two or more stimuli that emerges as an indirect function of related instruction or experience

Answer 131

Derived Stimulus Relations

Question 132

Another name for Derived Stimulus Relations

Answer 132

Emergent Stimulus Relations

Question 133

A data path that shows a decreasing trend in the response measure over time

Answer 133

Descending Baseline

Question 134

Direct observation of problem behavior and the antecedent and consequent events under naturally occurring conditions

Answer 134

Descriptive Functional Behavior Assessment

Question 135

The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy nilly, accidental fashion

Answer 135

Determinism

Question 136

Reinforcing only those responses within a response class that meet a specific criterion along some dimension(s) (ie; frequency, topography, duration, latency, or magnitude) and placing all other responses in the class on extinction

Answer 136

Differential Reinforcement

Question 137

A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that serves as a desirable alternative to the behavior targeted for reduction and withheld following instances of the problem behavior (eg; reinforcing completion of academic worksheet items when the behavior targeted for reduction is talk outs)

Answer 137

Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA)

Question 138

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is provided at the end of a predetermined interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval being fewer than a gradually decreasing criterion based on the individual’s performance in previous intervals (eg; fewer than five responses per 5 minutes, fewer than four responses per 5 minutes, fewer than three responses per 5 minutes)

Answer 138

Differential Reinforcement of Diminishing Rates (DRD)

Question 139

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is provided at the end of a predetermined interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval being greater than a gradually increasing criterion based on the individual’s performance in previous intervals (eg; more than three responses per 5 minutes, more than five responses per 5 minutes, more than eight responses per 5 minutes)

Answer 139

Differential Reinforcement of High Rates (DRH)

Question 140

A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that is topographically incompatible with the behavior targeted for reduction and withheld following instances of the problem behavior (eg; sitting in seat is incompatible with walking around the room)

Answer 140

Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI)

Question 141

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement (a) follows each occurrence of the target behavior that is separated from the previous response by a minimum interresponse time (IRT), or (b) is contingent on the number of responses within a period of time not exceeding a predetermined criterion
- Practicioners use these schedules to decrease the rate of behaviors that occur too frequently but should be maintained in the learner’s repertoire

Answer 141

Differential Reinforcement of Low Rates (DRL)

Question 142

A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is contingent on the absence of a problem behavior during or at specific times (ie; momentary type, sometimes called Differential Reinforcement of Zero Rates of Responding or Omission Training)

Answer 142

Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior

Question 143

Occurs when the behavior that is measured is the same as the behavior that is the focus of the investigation

Answer 143

Direct Measurement

Question 144

An experiment in which the researcher attempts to duplicate exactly the conditions of an earlier experiment

Answer 144

Direct Replication

Question 145

Statements describing corrective, disciplinary, and revocation actions, depending on the circumstances for violations of a professional

Answer 145

Disciplinary Standards

Question 146

Conducted in a manner such that some instances of the response class(es) of interest may not be detected

Answer 146

Discontinuous

Question 147

Any operant whose response rate is controlled by a given opportunity to emit the response
- Each discrete response occurs when an opprtunity to respond exists

Answer 147

Discrete Trial

Question 148

Other names for Discrete Trial

Answer 148

Restricted Operant and Controlled Operant

Question 149

Contingency in which responding in the presence of a signal prevents the onset of a stimulus from which escape is a reinforcer

Answer 149

Discriminated

Question 150

An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditons than others

Answer 150

Discriminated Operant

Question 151

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 their history, an SD evokes operant behavior because its presence signals the availability of reinforcement

Answer 151

Discriminative Stimulus (SD)

Question 152

A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been punished and in the absence of which that behavior has not been punished; as a result of this history, the behavior occurs less often in the presence of the SDp than in its absence

Answer 152

Discriminative Stimulus for Punishment (SDp)

Question 153

Responding jointly to two stimuli on the basis of their differences

Answer 153

Distinction Relation

Question 154

A procedure that prevents the subject and the experimenter(s) from detecting the presence or abscence of the treatment variable; used to eliminate confounding of results by subject expectations, parent and teacher expectations, differential treatmnent by others, and observer bias

Answer 154

Double Blind Control

Question 155

An experimental technique that demonstrates the effects of reinforcement; it uses differential reinforcement of an incompatible or alternative behavior (DRI/DRA) as a control condition instead of a no reinforcement (baseline) condition
- During this condition, the stimulus change used as reinforcement in the reinforcement condition is presented contingent on occurrences of a specified behavior that is either incompatible with the target behavior or an alternative to the target behavior
- A higher level of responding during the reinforcement condition than during the DRI/DRA condition demonstrates that the changes in behavior are the result of contingent reinforcement, not simply the presentation of or contact with the stimulus event

Answer 155

DRI/DRA Reversal Technique

Question 156

An experimental technique for demonstrating the effects of reinforcement by using differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) as a control condition instead of a no reinforcement (baseline) condition
- During the DRO condition, the stimulus change used as reinforcement in the reinforcement conditon is presented contingent on the absence of the target behavior for a specified period of time
- A higher level of responding during the reinforcement condition than durig the DRO condition demonstrates that the changes in behavior are the result of contingent reinforcement, not simply the presentation of or contact with the stimulus event

Answer 156

DRO Reversal Technique

Question 157

A method for conducting a component analysis in which the investigator presents the treatment package and then systematically removes components
- If the treatment’s effectiveness wanes when a component is removed, the resarcher has identified a necessary component

Answer 157

Drop Out Component Analysis

Question 158

A type of verbal behavior where the form of the response is under the functional control of a verbal stimulus with formal similarity, and a history of generalized reinforcem

Answer 158

Duplic

Question 159

The total time that behavior occurs; measured by elapsed time from the onset of a response to its end point

Answer 159

Duration

Question 160

An elementary verbal operant involving a vocal response that is evoked by a vocal verbal SD that has formal similarity between an auditory verbal stimulus and an auditory verbal response product, and a history of generalized reinforcement

Answer 160

Echoic

Question 161

An assessment protocol that acknowledges complex interrelationships between environment and behavior
- This is a method for obtaining data across multiple settings and persons

Answer 161

Ecological Assessment

Question 162

Michael’s (1982) term for Skinner’s (1957) taxonomy of five different types of speaker behavior (ie; expressive language) distinguished by their antecedent controlling variables and related history of consequences: mand, tact, intraverbal, duplic, and codic

Answer 162

Elementary Verbal Operants

Question 163

Stimulus relations that are not taught directly but emerge as an indirect function of related instruction or experience

Answer 163

Emergent Stimulus Relations

Question 164

Another name for Emergent Stimulus Relations

Answer 164

Derived Stimulus Relations

Question 165

The objective observation of the phenomena of interest; objective observations are “independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist…Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone’s observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist” (Zuriff, 1985)

Answer 165

Empiricism

Question 166

An intervention that provides noncontingent access to preferred sources of reinforcement (eg; toys, games, social and recreation activities)
- This noncontingent access to preferred reinforcers arranges a competition between this environment and the stimulation provided by the problem behavior

Answer 166

Enriched Environment

Question 167

The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of this

Answer 167

Environment

Question 168

An antecedent intervention that provides noncontingent access to preferred sources of reinforcement (eg; toys, games, social and recreation activities)
- This noncontingent access to preferred sources of reinforcement arranges a competition between the EE intervention and the stimulation provided by the problem behavior

Answer 168

Environmental Enrichment (EE)

Question 169

A scale in which equal distances on the axis represent equal absolute amounts of the variable plotted on the axis (eg; behavior change on an equal interval vertical axis)

Answer 169

Equal Interval Scale

Question 170

A probe for the emergence of untrained stimulus - stimulus relations that evaluates both symmetry and transivity simultaneously

Answer 170

Equivalence Test

Question 171

The emergence of accurate responding to untrained and nonreinforced stimulus - stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus - stimulus relations
- Requires successful performances on three types of probe trials - reflexivity, symmetry, and transivity - in the absence of reinforcement

Answer 171

Equivalence Class Formation

Question 172

Another name for Equivalence Class Formation

Answer 172

Stimulus Equivalence

Question 173

A variety of techniques for gradually transferring stimulus control with a minimum of errors

Answer 173

Errorless Learning

Question 174

A contingency in which a response terminates (produces escape from) an ongoing stimulus

Answer 174

Escape Contingency

Question 175

Behaviors maintained with negative reinforcement are placed on this when those behaviors are not followed by termination of the aversive stimulus; emitting the target behavior does not enable the person to escape the aversive situation

Answer 175

Escape Extinction

Question 176

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

Answer 176

Establishing Operation (EO)

Question 177

Documents generated or adopted by professional organizations that provide clear guidelines for their members when deciding a course of proper action in conducting their professional duties

Answer 177

Ethical Codes of Behavior

Question 178

Behaviors, practices, and decisions that address such basic and fundamental questions as the following: what is the right thing to do? What’s worth doing? What does it mean to be a good behavior analytic practitioner? The Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s (BCBA’s) Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts details ethical practice for behavior analysts

Answer 178

Ethics

Question 179

Measurement procedure for obtaining a tally or count of the number of times a behavior occurs

Answer 179

Event Recording

Question 180

An increase in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by some stimulus, object, or event whose reinforcing effectiveness depends on the same motivating operation
- For example, food deprivation evokes (increases the current frequency of) behavior such as opening the fridge that has been reinforced by food

Answer 180

Evocative Effect (of a Motivating Operation)

Question 181

The percentage of total intervals in which two observers recorded the same count; the most stringent description of IOA for most data sets obtained by event recording

Answer 181

Exact Count per Interval (IOA)

Question 182

A procedure for building new arbitrary conditional discriminations based on the robust finding that learners will select a novel comparison stimulus over a known one in the presence of a novel sample

Answer 182

Exclusion (Training)

Question 183

A procedure for implementing time out in which, contingent on the occurrence of a target behavior, the person is removed physically from the current environment for a specified period

Answer 183

Exclusion Time Out

Question 184

A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another

Answer 184

Experiment

Question 185

A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by BF Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graphed data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing

Answer 185

Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)

Question 186

Two meanings:
(A) The outcome of an experiment that demonstrates convincingly a functional relation, meaning that it is achieved when a predictable change in behavior (the dependent variable) can be reliably produced by manipulating a specific aspect of the environment (the independent variable); and:
(B) The extent to which a researcher maintains precise control of the independent variable by presenting it, withdrawing it, and/or varying its value, and also by eliminating or holding constant all confounding and extraneous variables

Answer 186

Experimental Control

Question 187

The particular type and sequence of conditions in a study so that meaningful comparisons of the effects of the presence and absence (or different values) of the independent variable can be made

Answer 187

Experimental Design

Question 188

A fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account or understanding of the phenomenon, such as “intelligence” or “cognitive awareness” as explanations for why an organism pushes the lever when the light is on and food is available but does not push the lever when the light is off and no food is available

Answer 188

Explanatory Fiction

Question 189

The degree to which a study’s findings have generality to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors

Answer 189

External Validity

Question 190

The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (ie; 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

Answer 190

Extinction

Question 191

An increase in the frequency of responding when an extinction procedure is initially implemented

Answer 191

Extinction Burst

Question 192

Phenomenon in which diverse and novel forms of behavior are sometimes observed during the extinction process

Answer 192

Extinction Induced Variability

Question 193

Any aspect of the experimental setting (eg; lighting, temperature) that must be held constant to prevent unplanned environmental variation

Answer 193

Extraneous Variable

Question 194

A procedure for transferring stimulus control in which features of an antecedent stimulus (eg; shape, size, position, color) controlling a behavior are gradually changed to a new stimulus while maintaining the current behavior; stimulus features can be faded in (enhanced) or faded out (reduced)

Answer 194

Fading

Question 195

Stimuli that share common physical forms or structures (eg; made from wood, four legs, round, blue) or common relative relationships (eg; bigger than, hotter than, higher than, next to)

Answer 195

Feature Stimulus Class

Question 196

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered for the first response emitted following the passage of a fixed duration of time since the last response was reinforced (eg; on an FI 3 minute schedule, the first response following the passage of 3 minutes is reinforced)

Answer 196

Fixed Interval (FI)

Question 197

A schedule of reinforcement requiring a fixed number of responses for reinforcement (eg; an FR 4 schedule of reinforcement follows every fourth response)

Answer 197

Fixed Ratio (FR)

Question 198

A DRO procedure in which reinforcement is available at the end of intervals of fixed duration and delivered contingent on the absence of the problem behavior during each interval

Answer 198

Fixed Interval DRO (FI-DRO)

Question 199

A DRO procedure in which reinforcement is available at specific moments in time, which are separated by a fixed amount of time, and delivered contingent on the problem not occurring at those moments

Answer 199

Fixed Momentary DRO (FM-DRO)

Question 200

A schedule for the delivery of noncontingent stimuli in which a time interval remains the same from one delivery to the next

Answer 200

Fixed Time Schedule (FT)

Question 201

Occurs when the controlling antecedent stimulus and the response or response product (A) share the same sense mode (eg; both stimulus and response are visual, auditory, or tactile) and (B) physically resemble each other
- Verbal relations with this are echoic, copying a text, and imitation as it relates to sign language

Answer 201

Formal Similarity

Question 202

A method for teaching behavior chains that begins with the learner being prompted and taught to perform the first behavior in the task analysis; the trainer completes the remaining steps in the chain
- When the learner shows competence in performing the first step in the chain, he is then taught to perform the first two behaviors in the chain, with the training completing the chain
- This process is continued until the learner completes the entire chain independently

Answer 202

Forward Chaining

Question 203

Intentional, willful, and deceitful behavior; such behavior can cause harm to others

Answer 203

Fraudulent Conduct

Question 204

Any operant behavior that results in minimal displacement of the participant in time and space
- This can be emitted at nearly any time; it is discrete, it requires minimal time for completion, and it can produce a wide range of response rates
- Examples in ABA include (A) the number of words read during a 1 minute counting period, (B) the number of hand slaps per 6 seconds, and (C) the number of letter strokes written in 3 minutes

Answer 204

Free Operant

Question 205

A contingency in which responses at any time during an interval prior to the scheduled onset of an aversive stimulus delays the presentation of the aversive stimulus

Answer 205

Free Operant Avoidance

Question 206

How often a behavior occurs
- Some behavior analysts use this to mean rate (a ratio of responses per standard unit of time); others use this as a synonym for count

Answer 206

Frequency

Question 207

A procedure for implementing DRL in which reinforcement is delivered at the end of the session if the total number of responses emitted during the session does not exceed a criterion limit

Answer 207

Full Session DRL

Question 208

A change in an organism’s repertoire of MO, stimulus, and response relations, caused by reinforcement, punishment, an extinction procedure, or a recovery from punishment procedure
- Respondent of these effects result from the pairing and unpairing of antecedent stimuli

Answer 208

Function Altering Effect (Relevant to Operant Relations)

Question 209

Designates responses as members of the targeted response class solely in terms of their common effect on the environment

Answer 209

Function Based Definition

Question 210

A term with two meanings in contemporary behavior analysis literature
- In its original and most fundamental usage, this denotes demonstrations of functional relations between environmental variables and behavior
- In the context of determining the purposes (functions) of problem behavior for an individual, it entails experimentally arranging antecedents and consequences representing those in the person’s natural routines so that their separate effects on problem behavior can be observed and measured

Answer 210

Functional Analysis

Question 211

A systematic method of assessment for obtaining information about the purposes (functions) a problem behavior serves for a person; results are used to guide the design of an intervention for decreasing the problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior

Answer 211

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

Question 212

An antecedent intervention in which an appropriate communicative behavior is taught as a replacement behavior for problem behavior usually evoked by an establishing operation (EO); involves differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA)

Answer 212

Functional Communication Training (FCT)

Question 213

A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment (or group of related experiments) that describes the occurrence of the phenomena under study as a function of the operation of one or more specified and controlled variables in the experiment in which a specific change in one event (the dependent variable) can be produced by manipulating another event (the independent variable), and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely the result of other factors (confounding variables); in behavior analysis expressed as b=f(x1),(x2),…, where b is the behavior and x1, x2, ect, are environmental variables of which the behavior is a function

Answer 213

Functional Relation

Question 214

Serving the same function or purpose; different topographics of behavior are functionally equivalent if they produce the same consequences

Answer 214

Functionally Equivalent

Question 215

A systematic process for identifying and selecting teaching examples that represent the full range of stimulus variations and response requirements in the generalization setting(s)

Answer 215

General Case Analysis

Question 216

A generic term for a variety of behavioral processes and behavior change outcomes

Answer 216

Generalization

Question 217

Changes in the behavior of people not directly treated by an intervention as a function of treatment contingencies applied to other people

Answer 217

Generalization Across Subjects

Question 218

Any measurement of a learner’s performance of a target behavior in a setting and/or stimulus situation in which direct training has not been provided

Answer 218

Generalization Probe

Question 219

Any place or stimulus situation that differs in some meaningful way from the instructional setting and in which performance of the target behavior is desired

Answer 219

Generalization Setting

Question 220

A behavior change that has not been taught directly
- Generalized outcomes take one, or a combination of, three primary forms: response maintenance, stimulus/setting generalization, and response generalization

Answer 220

Generalized Behavior Change

Question 221

Another name for Generalized Behavior Change

Answer 221

Generalized Outcome

Question 222

A conditioned reinforcer that as a result of having been paired with many other reinforcers does not depend on an establishing operation for any particular form of reinforcement for its effectiveness

Answer 222

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer

Question 223

A term often used when a learner imitates a wide variety of unprompted, untrained, nonreinforced modeled behaviors in different settings and situations
- This could be considered a higher order response class in which participants imitate novel models without training and that are not predictive of reinforcement

Answer 223

Generalized Imitation

Question 224

A behavioral effect whereby previously acquired speaker and listener skills enable or accelerate the acquisition of other speaker and listener skills, without dependence on direct teaching or a history of reinforcement

Answer 224

Generative Learning

Question 225

A tact evoked by a novel stimulus that shares all of the relevant or defining features associated with the original stimulus

Answer 225

Generic (Tact) Extension

Question 226

An interdependent group contingency in which a group is divided into two or more teams that compete against each other and/or a specified criterion
- The team with fewest marks at the end of the game earns a reinforcer
- Each team is also told that it can earn a reinforcer if it has fewer than a specified number of marks

Answer 226

Good Behavior Game

Question 227

A visual format for displaying data; reveals relations among and between a series of measurements and relevant variables

Answer 227

Graph

Question 228

A contingency in which reinforcement for all members of a group is dependent on the behavior of (A) a person within the group, (B) a select group of members within the larger group, or (C) each member of the group meeting a performance criterion

Answer 228

Group Contingency

Question 229

Adjustment occurs when a person’s repertoire has been changed such that short and long term reinforcers are maximized and short and long term punishers are minimized

Answer 229

Habilitation

Question 230

A multiple component treatment package for reducing unwanted habits such as fingernail biting and muscle ties; treatment typically includes self awareness training involving response detection and procedures for identifying events that precede and trigger the response; competing response training; and motivation techniques including self administerd consequences, social support systems, and procedures for prompting the generalization and maintenance of treatment gains

Answer 230

Habit Reversal

Question 231

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

Answer 231

Habituation

Question 232

A term sometimes used for a dependent group contingency (ie; a reward for the group is contingent upon the behavior of an individual group member)

Answer 232

Hero Procedure

Question 233

A nested stimulus relation in which a category, subsuming multiple stimuli, is itself a member of a higher order category subsuming multiple stimuli

Answer 233

Hierarchical Relation

Question 234

An antecedent intervention in which two to five easy tasks with a known history of learner compliance (the High-p requests) are presented in quick succession immediately before requesting the target task, the Low-p request

Answer 234

High Probability (High-p) Request Sequence

Question 235

Other names for High Probability (High-p) Request Sequence

Answer 235

Interspersed requests, pre-task requests, and behavioral momentum

Question 236

A procedure for improving compliance and diminishing escape maintained problem behaviors
- The practicioner presents two to five easy to follow (High-p) instructions for which the participant has a history of compliance
- When the learner complies with several High-p instructions, the practicioner immediately presents a target instruction (ie; Low-p)

Answer 236

High Probability Instructional Sequence (High-p)

Question 237

Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 237

Higher Order Conditioning

Question 238

Another name for Higher Order Conditioning

Answer 238

Secondary Conditioning

Question 239

Behavior defined in terms of general relations between antecedents and responses, rather than in terms of specific stimuli and responses; examples include generalized imitation, manding, instruction following, naming, and relational framing

Answer 239

Higher Order Operant Class

Question 240

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

Answer 240

History of Reinforcement

Question 241

A presumed but unobserved process or entity (eg; Freud’s ID, ego, and superego)

Answer 241

Hypothetical Construct

Question 242

Behavior that (A) is occasioned by another person’s model of the behavior (or symbolic representation therof), (B) has formal similarity with the model, (C) follows the modeled behavior closely in time, and (D) the model is the primary controlling variable for the imitative behavior
- An imitative behavior is a new behavior emitted following a novel antecedent event (ie; the model)

Answer 242

Imitation

Question 243

A systematic, research based set of procedures for teaching a nonimitative learner to imitate models of novel behaviors

Answer 243

Imitation Training

Question 244

A verbal operant involving a response that is evoked by both an MO and a nonverbal stimulus; thus, the response is part mand and part tact

Answer 244

Impure Tact

Question 245

A contingency in which reinforcement for each member of a group is dependent on that person’s meeting a performance criterion that is in effect for all members of the group

Answer 245

Independent Group Contingency

Question 246

The variable that is systematically manipulated by the researcher in an experiment to see whether changes in the independent variable produce reliable changes in the dependent variable
- In Applied Behavior Analysis, it is usually an environmental event or condition antecedent or consequent to the dependent variable

Answer 246

Independent Variable

Question 247

Other names for Independent Variable

Answer 247

Intervention Variable and Treatment Variable

Question 248

Structured interviews, checklists, rating scales, or questionnaires used to obtain information from people who are familiar with the person exhibiting the problem behavior (eg; teachers, parents, caregivers, and/or the individual himself or herself); used to identify conditions or events in the natural environment that correlate with the problem behavior

Answer 248

Indirect Functional Assessment

Question 249

Occurs when the behavior that is measured is in some way different from the behavior of interest; considered less valid than direct measurement because inferences about the relation between the data obtained and the actual behavior of interest are required

Answer 249

Indirect Measurement

Question 250

A contingency that makes it difficult for the learner to discriminate whether the next response will produce reinforcement
- Practitioners use these in the form of intermittent schedules of reinforcement and delayed rewards to promote generalized behavior change

Answer 250

Indiscriminable Contingency

Question 251

Formal permission - usually written, signed, and dated - given by a potential recipient of behavioral services or participant in a research study; requires that full disclosure of all pertinent information be provided to the individual prior to a granting of permission
- To give consent, the person must (A) demonstrate the capacity to decide, (B) do so voluntarily, and (C) have adequate knowledge of all salient aspects of the treatment

Answer 251

Informed Consent

Question 252

The environment where instruction occurs; includes all aspects of the environment, planned and unplanned, that may influence the learner’s acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of the target behavior

Answer 252

Instructional Setting

Question 253

A contingency in which reinforcement of all members of a group is dependent on each member of the group meeting a performance criterion that is in effect for all members of the group

Answer 253

Interdependent Group Contingency

Question 254

A contingency of reinforcement in which some, but not all, occurrences of the behavior produce reinforcement

Answer 254

Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement (INT)

Question 255

The extent to which an experiment shows convincingly that changes in behavior are a function of the independent variable and not the result of uncontrolled or unknown variables

Answer 255

Internal Validity

Question 256

The degree to which two or more independent observers report the same observed values after measuring the same events

Answer 256

Interobserver Agreement (IOA)

Question 257

A measure of temporal locus, defined as the elapsed time between two successive responses

Answer 257

Interresponse Time (IRT)

Question 258

A procedural variation of the behavior chain interruption strategy, entails arranging the environment such that the learner is unable to continue the chain at a predetermined point until responding to a prompt (eg; “what do you want?”)

Answer 258

Interrupted Chain Procedure

Question 259

A procedure for implementing DRL in which the total session is divided into equal intervals and reinforcement is provided at the end of each interval in which the number of responses during the interval is equal to or below a criterion limit

Answer 259

Interval DRL

Question 260

An index of the agreement between observers for data obtained by interval recording or time sampling measurement; calculated for a given session or measurement period by comparing the two observers’ recordings of the occurrence or nonoccurrence of the behavior in each observation interval and dividing the number of intervals of agreement by the total number of intervals and multiplying by 100

Answer 260

Interval by Interval IOA

Question 261

Other names for Interval by Interval IOA

Answer 261

Point by Point IOA and Total Interval IOA

Question 262

A variation of functional analysis designed to increase efficiency
- In the test condition, multiple contingencies are implemented simultaneously (eg; attention and escape) when the problem behavior is demonstrated
- In the control condition, those same contingencies are presented noncontingently and continuously

Answer 262

Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis

Question 263

An elementary verbal operant involving a response that is evoked by a verbal discriminative stimulus that does not have point to point correspondence with that verbal stimulus
- This is the opposite of echoic, in that the words emitted by one speaker do not match the words of another speaker
- This behavior constitutes the basis for social interaction, conversations, and much of academic and intellectual behavior
- Questions are mands, and answers are this type

Answer 263

Intraverbal

Question 264

Some verbal stimuli only supplement other more critical antecedents, but nonetheless they play a causal role in evoking behavior
- Palmer (2016) recommends “in cases in which the verbal antecedent is, by itself, insufficient to evoke the relevant response, we should speak of this, usually as one of a number of concurrent controlling variables”

Answer 264

Intraverbal Control

Question 265

A situation that occurs when the level of responding observed in a previous phase cannot be reproduced even though the experimental conditions are the same as they were during the earlier phase

Answer 265

Irreversibility

Question 266

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

Answer 266

Joint Control

Question 267

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is contingent on a response being different in some specified way (eg; different topography) from the previous response (eg; Lag 1) or a specified number of previous responses (eg; Lag 2 or more)

Answer 267

Lag Reinforcement Schedule

Question 268

An analysis in which each session is terminated as soon as a problem behavior occurs
- The index of problem behavior is the latency from onset of the establishing operation to the first occurrence of the problem behavior

Answer 268

Latency Based Functional Analysis

Question 269

A technique of transferring stimulus control in which the practitioner gives the participant an opportunity to perform the response with the least amount of assistance on each trial
- The participant receieves greater degrees of assistance with each successive trial without a correct response
- The procedure for this requires the participant to make a correct response within a set time limit (eg; 3 seconds) from the presentation of the natural SD
- If the response does not occur within the specified time limit (eg; another 3 seconds) the participant does not make a correct response, the analyst gives the natural SD and another response prompt, such as a gesture
- The participant receives partial or full physical guidance if the less intrusive prompt does not evoke a correct response

Answer 269

Least to Most Response Prompts

Question 270

The value on the vertical axis around which a series of behavioral measures converge

Answer 270

Level

Question 271

A component of some token economy systems in which participants advance up (or down) through a succession of levels contingent on their behavior at the current level
- The performance criteria and sophistication or difficulty of the behaviors required at each level are higher than those of preceding levels; as participants advance to higher levels, they gain access to more desirable reinforcers, increased privileges, and greater independence

Answer 271

Level System

Question 272

A situation in which reinforcement is available only during a finite time following the elapse of an FI or VI interval; if the target response does not occur within the time limit, reinforcement is withheld and a new interval begins (eg; on an FI 5 minute schedule with this type of hold for 30 seconds, the first correct response following the elapse of 5 minutes is reinforced only if that response occurs within 30 seconds after the end of the 5 minute interval)

Answer 272

Limited Hold

Question 273

Based on a cartesian plane, a two dimensional area formed by the intersection of two perpendicular lines
- Any point within the plane represents a specific relation between the two dimensions described by the intersecting lines
- It is the most common graphic format for displaying data in Applied Behavior Analysis

Answer 273

Line Graph

Question 274

Someone who provides reinforcement for a speaker’s verbal behavior
- They may also serve as an audience evoking verbal behavior
- The distinction between this and speaker is often blurred by the fact that much of this person’s behavior may involve becoming a speaker at the covert level (eg; thinking about what was said)
- A speaker may also serve as their own

Answer 274

Listener

Question 275

When verbal SD evokes a specific nonverbal behavior, due to a history of reinforcement

Answer 275

Listener Discriminations

Question 276

The average rate of response during a smaller period of time within a larger period for which an overall response rate has been given

Answer 276

Local Response Rate

Question 277

The force or intensity with which a response is emitted; provides important quantitative parameters used in defining and verifying the occurrence of some response classes
- Responses meeting those criteria are measured and reported by one or more fundamental or derivative measures such as frequency, duration, or latency

Answer 277

Magnitude

Question 278

Another name for Magnitude

Answer 278

Amplitude

Question 279

Two different meanings in Applied Behavior Analysis:
(A) the extent to which the learner continues to perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention has been terminated (ie; response type), a dependent variable or characteristic of behavior; and (B) a condition in which treatment has been discontinued or partially withdrawn, an independent variable or experimental condition

Answer 279

Maintenance

Question 280

An elementary verbal operant involving a response of any form that is evoked by an MO and followed by specific reinforcement
- This allows a speaker to get what she wants or refuse what she does not want

Answer 280

Mand

Question 281

A self directed behavior change technique in which the person forces herself to perform an undesired behavior (eg; a compulsive ritual) repeatedly, which sometimes decreases the future frequency of the behavior

Answer 281

Massed Practice

Question 282

The allocation of responses to choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcement received from each choice alternative

Answer 282

Matching Law

Question 283

A discrete trial procedure for investigating conditional relations and stimulus equivalence
- This begins with the participant making a response that presents or reveals the sample stimulus; next, the sample stimulus may or may not be removed, and two or more comparison stimuli are presented
- The participant then selects one of the comparison stimuli
- Responses that select a comparison stimulus that matches the sample stimulus are reinforced; no reinforcement is provided for responses selecting the nonmatching comparison stimuli

Answer 283

Matching to Sample Procedure

Question 284

The average percentage of agreement between the counts reported by two observers in a measurement period composed of a series of smaller counting times; a more conservative measure of IOA than total count IOA

Answer 284

Mean Count per Interval (IOA)

Question 285

An IOA index for duration per occurrence data; also a more conservative and usually more meaningful assessment of IOA for total duration data calculated for a given session or measurement period by computing the average percentage of agreement of the durations reported by two observers for each occurrence of the target behavior

Answer 285

Mean Duration per Occurrence (IOA)

Question 286

The process of applying quantitative labels to describe and differentiate objects and natural events
- In Applied Behavior Analysis, this involves three steps:
(A) Identifying the behavior to be measured, (B) defining the behavior in observable terms, and (C) selecting an appropriate observation and data recording method

Answer 286

Measurement

Question 287

Nonrandom measurement error; a form of inaccurate measurement in which the data consistently overestimate or underestimate the true value of an event

Answer 287

Measurement Bias

Question 288

A method of measuring behavior after it has occurred by recording the effects that the behavior produced on the environment

Answer 288

Measurement by Permanent Product

Question 289

An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental, or “inner”, dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior, if not all

Answer 289

Mentalism

Question 290

A tact evoked by a novel stimulus that shares some, but not all, of the relevant features of the original stimulus

Answer 290

Metaphorical (Tact) Extension

Question 291

A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science

Answer 291

Methodological Behaviorism

Question 292

A tact evoked by a novel stimulus that shares none of the relevant features of the original stimulus configuration, but some irrelevant yet related feature has acquired stimulus control

Answer 292

Metonymical (Tact) Extension

Question 293

A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement (elements) that occur in an alternating, usually random, sequence; no discriminative stimuli are correlated with the presence or absence of each element of the schedule, and reinforcement is delivered for meeting the response requirements of the element in effect at any time

Answer 293

Mixed Schedule (Mix)

Question 294

A behavior change strategy in which learners acquire new skills by imitating demonstrations of the skills by live or symbolic models
- The model shows, demonstrates, or conveys exactly the behavior the learner is expected to perform
- Models can be live demonstrations or symbolic representations of the desired behavior

Answer 294

Modeling

Question 295

A measurement method in which the presence or absence of behaviors is recorded at precisely specified time intervals

Answer 295

Momentary Time Sampling

Question 296

A technique of transferring stimulus control in which the practitioner physically guides the participant through the entire performance sequence, and then gradually reduces the level of assistance in successive trials
- Customarily, this transitions from physical guidance to visual prompts to verbal instructions, and finally to the natural stimulus without prompts

Answer 296

Most to Least Response Prompts

Question 297

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

Answer 297

Motivating Operation (MO)

Question 298

A type of duplic verbal behavior in which the form of a motor response is under the functional control of a visual verbal SD that has formal similarity between a verbal stimulus and a verbal response product, and a history of generalized reinforcement

Answer 298

Motor Imitation (Relating to Sign Language)

Question 299

An experimental design in which two or more conditions (one of which may be a no treatment control condition) are presented in rapidly alternating succession (eg; on alternating sessions or days) independent of the level of responding; differences in responding between or among conditions are attributed to the effects of the conditions

Answer 299

Multielement Design

Question 300

Other names for Multielement Design

Answer 300

Alternating Treatments Design, Concurrent Schedule Design, and Multiple Schedule Design

Question 301

A multiple baseline design in which the treatment variable is applied to two or more different behaviors of the same subject in the same setting

Answer 301

Multiple Baseline Across Behaviors Design

Question 302

A multiple baseline design in which the treatment variable is applied to the same behavior of the same subject across two or more different settings, situations, or time periods

Answer 302

Multiple Baseline Across Settings Design

Question 303

A multiple baseline design in which the treatment variable is applied to the same behavior of two or more subjects (or groups) in the same setting

Answer 303

Multiple Baseline Across Subjects Design

Question 304

An experimental design that begins with the concurrent measurement of two or more behaviors in a baseline condition, followed by the application of the treatment variable to one of the behaviors while baseline conditions remain in effect for the other behavior(s)
- After maximum change has been noted in the first behavior, the treatment variable is applied in sequential fashion to each of the other behaviors in the design
- Experimental control is demonstrated if each behavior shows similar changes when, and only when, the treatment variable is introduced

Answer 304

Multiple Baseline Design

Question 305

There are two types of this
- Convergent type occurs when a single verbal response is a function of more than one variable (ie; what is said has more than one antecedent source of control)
- Divergent type occurs when a single antecedent variable affects the strength of more than one response

Answer 305

Multiple Control (of Verbal Behavior)

Question 306

Instruction that provides the learner with practice with a variety of stimulus conditions, response variations, and response topographies to ensure the acquisition of desired stimulus control response forms; used to promote both setting/situation generalization and response generalization

Answer 306

Multiple Exemplar Training

Question 307

A variation of the multiple baseline design that features itermittent measures, or probes, during baseline
- It is used to evaluate the effects of instruction on skill sequences in which it is unlikely that the subject can improve performance on later steps in the sequence before learning prior steps

Answer 307

Multiple Probe Design

Question 308

A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement (elements) that occur in an alternating, usually random, sequence; a discriminative stimulus is correlated with the presence or absence of each element of the schedule, and reinforcement is delivered for meeting the response requirements of the element in effect at any time

Answer 308

Multiple Schedule (Mult)

Question 309

The effects of one treatment on a subject’s behavior being confounding by the influence of another treatment administered in the same study

Answer 309

Multiple Treatment Interference

Question 310

Any experimental design that uses the experimental methods and logic of the reversal tactic to compare the effects of two or more experimental conditions to baseline and/or to one another (eg; A-B-A-B-C-B-C, A-B-A-C-A-D-A-C-A-D, A-B-A-B-B+C)

Answer 310

Multiple Treatment Reversal Design

Question 311

A bidirectional stimulus relation in which one direction (eg; if A, then B) is directly learned and the other (if B, then A) is derived

Answer 311

Mutual Entailment

Question 312

An observer who is unaware of the study’s purpose and/or the experimental conditions in effect during a given phase or observation period
- Data obtained by them are less likely to be influenced by observers’ expectations

Answer 312

Naive Observer

Question 313

Any contingency of reinforcement (or punishment) that operates independent of the behavior analyst’s or practitioner’s efforts; includes socially mediated contingencies contrived by other people and already in effect in the relevant setting

Answer 313

Naturally Existing Contingency

Question 314

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

Answer 314

Negative Punishment

Question 315

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

Answer 315

Negative Reinforcement

Question 316

A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as reinforcement

Answer 316

Negative Reinforcer

Question 317

Failure to demonstrate professional integrity on the part of the provider that threatens the client’s health and safety; typically exhibited as nonfeasance - not doing what ought to be done

Answer 317

Negligence

Question 318

A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior

Answer 318

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Question 319

A stimulus set that must be held in common across a minimum of two conditional discriminations to provide a basis for all equivalence properties

Answer 319

Nodal Stimulus (Node)

Question 320

Derived stimulus relations in which stimuli are related on some basis other than “sameness”

Answer 320

Nonequivalence Relations

Question 321

A procedure in which stimuli with known reinforcing properties are presented on fixed time (FT) or variable time (VT) schedules completely independent of behavior; often used as an antecedent intervention to reduce problem behavior

Answer 321

Noncontingent Reinforcement (NCR)

Question 322

An experimental control technique that demonstrates the effects of reinforcement by using noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) as a control condition instead of a no reinforcement (baseline) condition
- During the NCR condition, the stimulus change used as reinforcement in the reinforcement condition is presented on a fixed or variable time schedule independent of the subject’s behavior
- A higher level of responding during the reinforcement condition than during the NCR condition demonstrates that the changes in behavior are the result of contingent reinforcement, not simply the presentation of or contact with the stimulus event

Answer 322

Noncontingent Reinforcement Reversal Technique

Question 323

An experimental design that consists of a related series of A-B (baseline-intervention) sequences conducted across participants at different points in time; often used to assess treatment effects when concurrent measurement of participants’ behavior is not possible

Answer 323

Nonconcurrent Multiple Baseline Across Participants Design

Question 324

A procedure for implementing time out in which, contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior, the person remains within the setting, but does not have access to reinforcement, for a specified period

Answer 324

Nonexclusion Time Out

Question 325

As a philosophy and principle, the belief that people with disabilities should, to the maximum extent possible, be physically and socially integrated into the mainstream of society regardless of the degree or type of disability
- As an approach to intervention, the use of progressively more typical settings and procedures “to establish and/or maintain personal behaviors which are as culturally normal as possible” (Wolfersberger, 1972)

Answer 325

Normalization

Question 326

A measure produced by an observation and measurement system
- These serve as the data that the researcher and others will interpret to form conclusions about an investigation

Answer 326

Observed Value

Question 327

Any unintended change in the way an observer uses a measurement system over the course of an investigation that results in measurement error; often entails a shift in the observer’s interpretation of the original definitions of the target behavior subsequent to being trained

Answer 327

Observer Drift

Question 328

Influence on the data reported by an observer that results from the observer’s awareness that others are evaluating the data

Answer 328

Observer Reactivity

Question 329

The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime

Answer 329

Ontogeny

Question 330

Behavior that is selected, maintained, and brought under stimulus control as a function of its consequences; each person’s repertoire of this is a product of his history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny)

Answer 330

Operant Behavior

Question 331

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

Answer 331

Operant Conditioning

Question 332

The rate of response over a given time period

Answer 332

Overall Response Rate

Question 333

A behavior change tactic based on positive punishment in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the learner is required to engage in effortful behavior directly or logically related to fixing the damage caused by the behavior
- Forms of this are restitutional type and positive practice type

Answer 333

Overcorrection

Question 334

A condition in which the range of discriminative stimuli, or stimulus features controlling behavior, is extremely limited; often interferes with learning

Answer 334

Overselective Stimulus Control

Question 335

Another name for Overselective Stimulus Control

Answer 335

Stimulus Overselectivity

Question 336

Occurs when the most salient component of a compound stimulus arrangement controls responding and interferes with the acquisition of stimulus control by the more relevant stimulus

Answer 336

Overshadowing

Question 337

An experiment designed to discover the differential effects of a range of values of an independent variable

Answer 337

Parametric Analysis

Question 338

The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations

Answer 338

Parsimony

Question 339

A time sampling method for measuring behavior in which the observation period is divided into a series of brief time intervals (typically from 5 to 10 seconds)
- The observer records whether the target behavior occurred at any time during the interval
- It is not concerned with how many times the behavior occurred during the interval or how long the behavior was present, just that it occurred at some point during the interval; tends to overestimate the proportion of the observation period that the behavior actually occurred

Answer 339

Partial Interval Recording

Question 340

A variation of time out from positve reinforcement in which contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior, the participant remains in the time in setting, but his view of the setting is restricted by a panel or cubicle, or a select space is arranged to serve as the time out area (ie; a carpet, a corner)

Answer 340

Partition Time Out

Question 341

Another name for Partition Time Out

Answer 341

Select Space Time Out

Question 342

A ratio (ie; a proportion) formed by combining the same dimensional quantities, such as count (number divided by number) or time (duration divided by duration; latency divided by latency); expressed as a number of parts per 100; typically expressed as a ratio of the number of responses of a certain type per total number of responses (or opportunities or intervals in which such a response could have occurred)
- A percentage presents a proportional quantity per 100

Answer 342

Percentage

Question 343

Responding as if from the vantage point of another person, place, or time than the personal here and now

Answer 343

Perspective Shifting

Question 344

An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned

Answer 344

Philosophic Doubt

Question 345

The history of the natural evolution of a species

Answer 345

Phylogeny

Question 346

A behavior that, when learned, produces corresponding modifications or covariation in other untrained behaviors

Answer 346

Pivotal Behavior

Question 347

A procedure that prevents a subject from detecting the presence or absence of the treatment variable
- To the subject, the placebo condition appears the same as the treatment condition (eg; a placebo pill contains an inert substance but looks, feels, and tastes exactly like a pill that contains the treatment drug)

Answer 347

Placebo Control

Question 348

A variation of momentary time sampling in which the observer records whether each person in a group is engaged in the target behavior at specific points in time; provides a measure of “group behavior”

Answer 348

Planned Activity Check (Placheck)

Question 349

A procedure for implementing time out in which social reinforcers - usually attention, physical contact, and verbal interaction - are withheld for a brief period contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior

Answer 349

Planned Ignoring

Question 350

A relation between the stimulus and response or response product that occurs when the beginning, middle, and end of the verbal stimulus matches the beginning, middle, and end of the verbal response
- The verbal relations with this are echoic, copying text, imitation as it relates to sign language, textual and transcription

Answer 350

Point to Point Correspondence

Question 351

A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on an occurrence of the target behavior, the learner is required to repeat a correct form of the behavior, or a behavior incompatible with the problem behavior, a specified number of times; entails an educative component

Answer 351

Positive Practice Overcorrection

Question 352

A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior

Answer 352

Positive Punishment

Question 353

A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often

Answer 353

Positive Reinforcement

Question 354

A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement

Answer 354

Positive Reinforcer

Question 355

The absence of responding for a period of time following reinforcement; an effect commonly produced by fixed interval (FI) and fixed ratio (FR) schedules of reinforcement

Answer 355

Postreinforcement Pause

Question 356

Improvements in performance resulting from opportunities to perform a behavior repeatedly so that baseline measures can be obtained

Answer 356

Practice Effects

Question 357

A philosophical position asserting that the truth value of a statement is determined by how well it promotes effective action; it is a primary criterion by which behavior analysts judge the value of their findings

Answer 357

Pragmatism

Question 358

An instructional approach that involves (A) pinpointing the skills to be learned; (B) measuring the initial frequency or rate per minute at which the student can perform those skills; (C) setting an aim, or goal, for the child’s improvement; (D) using direct, daily measurement to monitor progress made under an instructional program; (E) charting the results of those measurements on a standard celeration chart; and (F) changing the program if progress is not adequate

Answer 358

Precision Teaching

Question 359

A statement of the anticipated outcome of a presently unknown or future measurement; one of three components of the experimental reasoning, or baseline logic, used in single subject research designs

Answer 359

Prediction

Question 360

A principle that states that making the opportunity to engage in a high probability behavior contingent on the occurrence of a low frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for the low frequency behavior
- Sometimes called “grandma’s law”

Answer 360

Premack Principle

Question 361

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 (eg; extinction, positive reinforcement); an empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same functional relation

Answer 361

Principle of Behavior

Question 362

Covert events typically accessible only to the person experiencing them
- Skinner’s radical behaviorism holds three major assumptions about this:
(A) These are behavior; (B) behavior that takes place within the skin is distinguished from other (“public”) behavior only by its inaccessibility, and (C) private behavior is influenced by (ie; is a function of) the same kinds of variables as publicly accessible behavior

Answer 362

Private Events

Question 363

The extent to which procedures in all phases and conditions of an experiment, including baseline, are implemented correctly

Answer 363

Procedural Fidelity

Question 364

A tactic for promoting setting/situation generalization by making the instructional setting similar to the generalization setting; the two step process involves (1) identifying salient stimuli that characterize the generalization setting and (2) incorporating those stimuli into the instructional setting

Answer 364

Programming Common Stimuli

Question 365

A variation of the fixed ratio (FR) schedule of reinforcement that increases the ratio requirements incrementally within the session; PR schedule requirements are changed using (A) arithmetic progressions to add a constant number to each successive ratio, or (B) geometric progressions to add successively a constant proportion of the preceding ratio

Answer 365

Progressive Ratio (PR) Schedule of Reinforcement

Question 366

A schedule that systematically thins each successive reinforcement opportunity independent of the individual’s behavior; progressive ratio (PR) and progressive interval (PI) schedules are thinned using arithmetic or geometric progressions

Answer 366

Progressive Schedule of Reinforcement

Question 367

A procedure for transferring stimulus control from contrived response prompts to naturally existing stimuli that starts with simultaneous presentation of the natural stimulus and the response prompt (ie; 0 second delay)
- The number of 0 second trials depends on the task difficulty and the functioning level of the participant
- Following the simultaneous presentations, the time delay is gradually and systematically extended

Answer 367

Progressive Time Delay

Question 368

A stimulus change that decreases the future occurrence of behavior that immediately precedes it

Answer 368

Punisher

Question 369

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

Answer 369

Punishment

Question 370

A form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior, including private events such as thoughts and feelings, in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person (ontogeny) and the species (phylogeny)

Answer 370

Radical Behaviorism

Question 371

A variation of the changing criterion design in which each intervention sub-phase includes a lower and an upper criterion within which the participant is expected to perform

Answer 371

Range Bound Changing Criterion Design

Question 372

A fundamental measure of how often behavior occurs expressed as count per standard unit of time (eg; per minute, per hour, per day) and calculated by dividing the number of responses recorded by the number of standard units of time in which observations were conducted
- Some behavior analysts use this and frequency interchangeably; others use frequency to mean count

Answer 372

Rate

Question 373

A scale in which equal distances on a graph’s axis correspond to equal ratios of change in the variable plotted on the axis

Answer 373

Ratio Scale

Question 374

A behavioral effect associated with abrupt increases in ratio requirements when moving from denser to thinner reinforcement schedules; common effects include avoidance, aggression, and unpredictable pauses or cessation in responding

Answer 374

Ratio Strain

Question 375

Effects of an observation and measurement procedure on the behavior being measured
- It is most likely when measurement procedures are obtrusive, especially if the person being observed is aware of the observer’s presence and purpose

Answer 375

Reactivity

Question 376

“Differential responding to novel combinations of stimulus components that have been included previously in other stimulus contexts” (Goldstein, 1983)

Answer 376

Recombinative Generalization

Question 377

The occurrence of a previously punished type of response without its punishing consequence; analogous to the extinction of previously reinforced behavior and has the effect of undoing the effect of the punishment

Answer 377

Recovery from Punishment

Question 378

A stimulus response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits (eg; 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

Answer 378

Reflex

Question 379

A stimulus that acquires MO effectiveness by preceding some form of worsening or improvement
- It is exemplified by the warning stimulus in a typical escape avoidance procedure, which establishes its own offset as reinforcement and evokes all behavior that has accomplished that offset

Answer 379

Reflexive Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-R)

Question 380

A type of stimulus to stimulus relation in which the learner, without any prior training or reinforcement for doing so, selects a comparison stimulus that is the same as the sample stimulus (eg; A=A)
- It would be demonstrated in the following matching to sample procedure: The sample stimulus is a picture of a tree, and the three comparison stimuli are a picture of a mouse, a picture of a cookie, and a duplicate of the tree picture used as the sample stimulus
- The learner selects the picture of the tree without specific reinforcement in the past for making the tree picture to tree picture match

Answer 380

Reflexivity

Question 381

Another name for Reflexivity

Answer 381

Generalized Identity Matching

Question 382

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

Answer 382

Reinforcement

Question 383

A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it

Answer 383

Reinforcer

Question 384

Refers to a variety of direct, empirical methods for presenting one or more stimuli contingent on a target response and measuring their effectiveness as reinforcers

Answer 384

Reinforcer Assessment

Question 385

A decrease in the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event caused by a motivating operation
- For example, food ingestion abolishes (decreases) the reinforcing effectiveness of food

Answer 385

Reinforcer Abolishing Effect (of a Motivating Operation)

Question 386

An increase in the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event caused by a motivating operation
- For example, food deprivation establishes (increases) the reinforcing effectiveness of food

Answer 386

Reinforcer Establishing Effect (of a Motivating Operation)

Question 387

Any specific type of arbitrarily applicable relational responding

Answer 387

Relational Frame

Question 388

A theory of derived stimulus relations proposing that stimulus relations are inherently verbal and that accumulated experience with relational exemplars creates generalized repertoires of relating

Answer 388

Relational Frame Theory (RFT)

Question 389

Holds that only behaviors likely to produce reinforcement in the person’s natural environment should be targeted for change

Answer 389

Relevance of Behavior Rule

Question 390

Refers to the consistency of measurement, specifically, the extent to which repeated measurement of the same event yields the same values

Answer 390

Reliability (of Measurement)

Question 391

Refers to the fact that a behavior can occur repeatedly through time (ie; behavior can be counted); one of the three dimensional quantities of behavior from which all behavioral measurements are derived

Answer 391

Repeatability

Question 392

All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task (eg; gardening, mathematical problem solving)

Answer 392

Repertoire

Question 393

(A) Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity
(B) Repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors

Answer 393

Replication

Question 394

A statement of what the researcher seeks to learn by conducting the experiment; may be presented in question form and is most often found in a published account as a statement of the experiment’s purpose
- All aspects of an experiment’s design should follow from this

Answer 394

Research Question

Question 395

The relative frequency with which operant behavior is emitted during extinction

Answer 395

Resistance to Extinction

Question 396

The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli

Answer 396

Respondent Behavior

Question 397

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

Answer 397

Respondent Conditioning

Question 398

Other names for Respondent Conditioning

Answer 398

Classical Conditioning and Pavlovian Conditioning

Question 399

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

Answer 399

Respondent Extinction

Question 400

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 errerent nerve fiber that is specialized for altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or in terms of other energy changes” (Michael, 2004)

Answer 400

Response

Question 401

A procedure in which the therapist physically intervenes as soon as the learner begins to emit a problem behavior, to prevent completion of the targeted behavior

Answer 401

Response Blocking

Question 402

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

Answer 402

Response Class

Question 403

The response contingent loss of a specific number of positive reinforcers (eg; a fine) that decreases the frequency of similar responses in the future; a form of negative punishment

Answer 403

Response Cost

Question 404

A behavior change produced by differential reinforcement: Reinforced members of the current response class occur with greater frequency, and unreinforced members occur less frequently (undergo extinction); the overall result is the emergence of a new response class

Answer 404

Response Differentiation

Question 405

The extent to which a learner emits untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to the trained target behavior

Answer 405

Response Generalization

Question 406

A procedural variation of response blocking that involves interrupting stereotypic behavior at its onset and redirecting the individual to complete high probability behaviors instead

Answer 406

Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD)

Question 407

A measure of temporal locus; the elapsed time from the onset of a stimulus (eg; task direction, cue) to the initiation of a response

Answer 407

Response Latency

Question 408

The extent to which a learner continues to perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention responsible for the behavior’s initial appearance in the learner’s repertoire has been terminated

Answer 408

Response Maintenance

Question 409

Other names for Response Maintenance

Answer 409

Maintenance, Durability, and Behavioral Persistence

Question 410

Incorrect name for Response Maintenance

Answer 410

Resistance to Extinction

Question 411

Prompts that operate directly on the response to cue a correct response
- The three major forms of these are verbal instructions, modeling, and physical guidance

Answer 411

Response Prompts

Question 412

A model for predicting whether contingent access to one behavior will function as reinforcement for engaging in another behavior based on whether access to the contingent behavior represents a restriction of the activity compared to the baseline level of engagement

Answer 412

Response Deprivation Hypothesis

Question 413

A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the learner is required to repair the damage or return the environment to its original state and then to engage in additional behavior to bring the environment to a condition vastly better than it was in prior to the misbehavior

Answer 413

Restitutional Overcorrection

Question 414

Three common types of this - personal, protective equipment, and self - appear in the behavior analysis literature
- With personal, therapists physically restrict the problem behavior by holding the body parts (eg; response blocking) that produce the problem behavior
- With protective equipment, therapists often use protective equipment (eg; padded helmets, arm splints, boxing gloves, padded hand mitts, safety belts, safety straps) to protect individuals from causing serious injury
- Persons with self-injurous behavior (SIB) often apply self type, such as sitting on hands, placing arms between folded legs, and wrapping arms in tight clothing

Answer 414

Restraint

Question 415

Refers to the reoccurrence of a previously reinforced behavior when reinforcement for an alternative behavior is terminated or decreased and to the three phase procedure that produces the effect:
(1) A target behavior is reinforced, (2) the target behavior is placed on extinction and reinforcement provided for an alternative behavior, and (3) both responses are placed on extinction

Answer 415

Resurgence

Question 416

Any experimental design in which the researcher attempts to verify the effect of the independent variable by “reversing” responding to a level obtained in a previous condition; encompasses experimenta designs in which the independent variable is withdrawn (A-B-A-B) or reversed in its focus (eg; DRI/DRA)

Answer 416

Reversal Design

Question 417

A comparison prior to conducting a behavioral assessment or intervention of the potential harm to the client (or others) versus the benefits likely to result from the procedures

Answer 417

Risk Benefit Analysis

Question 418

Behavior controlled by a rule (ie; a verbal statement of an antecedent behavior consequence contingency); enables human behavior (eg; fastening a seat belt) to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable, but potentially significant consequences (eg; 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

Answer 418

Rule Governed Behavior

Question 419

A decrease in the frequency of operant behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinforcer that has followed the behavior; also refers to a procedure for reducing the effectiveness of a reinforcer (eg; presenting a person with copious amounts of a reinforcing stimulus prior to a session)

Answer 419

Satiation

Question 420

A two dimensional graph that shows the relative distribution of individual measures in a data set with respect to the variables depicted by the X and Y axes
- Data points on these are not connected

Answer 420

Scatterplot

Question 421

A procedure for recording to the extent to which a target behavior occurs more often at particular times than others; involves dividing the day into blocks of time, and using different symbols on an observation form to indicate level of the target behavior (eg; a lot, some, or not at all)

Answer 421

Scatterplot Recording

Question 422

A rule specifying the environmental arrangements and response requirements for reinforcement; a description of a contingency of reinforcement

Answer 422

Schedule of Reinforcement

Question 423

Changing a contingency of reinforcement by gradually increasing the response ratio or the extent of the time interval; it results in a lower rate of reinforcement per responses, time, or both

Answer 423

Schedule Thinning

Question 424

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena (as evidenced by description, prediction, and control) that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience

Answer 424

Science

Question 425

An interobserver agreement index based only on the intervals in which either observer recorded the occurrence of the behavior; calculated by dividing the number of intervals in which the two observers agreed that the behavior occurred by the number of intervals in which either or both observers recorded the occurrence of the behavior and multiplying by 100
- This is recommended as a measure of agreement for behaviors that occur at low rates because it ignores the intervals in which agreement by chance is highly unlikely

Answer 425

Scored Interval IOA

Question 426

The fundamental principle underlying operant conditioning; the basic tenet is that all forms of (operant) behavior, from simple to complex, are selected, shaped, and maintained by their consequences during an individual’s lifetime, Skinner’s concept of this is parallel to Darwin’s concept of natural selection of generic structures in the evolution of species

Answer 426

Selection by Consequences

Question 427

A category of verbal behavior in which the speaker points to or selects a particular stimulus; what is conveyed to the listener is the information on the stimulus selected

Answer 427

Selection Based Verbal Behavior

Question 428

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

Answer 428

Selectionism

Question 429

Contingency contract that a person makes with himself or herself, incorporating a self selected task and reward as well as personal monitoring of task completions and self delivery of the reward

Answer 429

Self Contract

Question 430

A person’s ability to “delay gratification” by emitting a response that will produce a larger (or higher quality) delayed reward over a response that produces a smaller but immediate reward

Answer 430

Self Control [Impulse Analysis]

Question 431

Another word for Self Control [Impulse Analysis]

Answer 431

Impulse Control

Question 432

Skinner (1953) conceptualized self control as a two response phenomenon: The controlling response affects variables in such a way as to change the probability of the controlled response

Answer 432

Self Control [Skinner’s Analysis]

Question 433

A procedure in which a person compares her performance of a target behavior with a predetermined goal or standard; often a component of self management

Answer 433

Self Evaluation

Question 434

Another word for Self Evaluation

Answer 434

Self Assessment

Question 435

Self generated verbal responses, covert or overt, that function as rules or response prompts for a desired behavior; as a self management tactic, this can guide a person through a behavior chain or sequence of tasks

Answer 435

Self Instruction

Question 436

The personal application of behavior change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior

Answer 436

Self Management

Question 437

A procedure whereby a person systematically observes his behavior and records the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a target behavior

Answer 437

Self Monitoring

Question 438

Other names for Self Monitoring

Answer 438

Self Recording and Self Observation

Question 439

A two dimensional graph with a logarithmic scaled y axis so that equal distances on the vertical axis represent changes in behavior that are of equal proportion

Answer 439

Semilogarithmic Chart

Question 440

A procedure by which behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement are placed on extinction by masking or removing the sensory consequence

Answer 440

Sensory Extinction

Question 441

The effects on a subject’s behavior in a given condition that are the result of the subject’s experience with a prior condition

Answer 441

Sequence Effects

Question 442

The extent to which a learner emits the target behavior in a setting or stimulus situation that is different from the instructional setting

Answer 442

Setting/Situation Generalization

Question 443

Using differential reinforcement to produce a series of gradually changing response classes; each response class is a successive approximation toward a terminal behavior
- Members of an existing response class are selected for differential reinforcement because they more closely resemble the terminal behavior

Answer 443

Shaping

Question 444

Responding is under stimulus control of a single antecedent stimulus conditon; described by the three term contingency: SD —> R —> SR+

Answer 444

Simple Discrimination

Question 445

A single component word or phrase evokes a nonmatching intraverbal response (eg; upon hearing “ready, set…” a child says “go”)

Answer 445

Simple Verbal Discrimination

Question 446

An arrangement in which types of stimulus equivalence probes are introduced sequentially, beginning with symmetry, followed by transivity (if relevant), and then combined tests for equivalence

Answer 446

Simple to Complex Testing Protocol

Question 447

A wide variety of research designs that use a form of experimental reasoning called baseline logic to demonstrate the effects of the independent variable on the behavior of individual subjects

Answer 447

Single Case Designs

Question 448

Other names for Single Case Designs

Answer 448

Single Subject Designs, Within Subject Designs, and Intra Subject Designs

Question 449

Refers to the extent to which target behaviors are appropriate, intervention procedures are acceptable, and important and significant changes in target and collateral behaviors are produced

Answer 449

Social Validity

Question 450

A contingency in which an antecedent stimulus and/or the consequence for the behavior is presented by another person

Answer 450

Socially Mediated Contingency (Reinforcement)

Question 451

A verbal response evoked by a stimulus property that is only indirectly related to the proper tact relation (eg; Yogi Berra’s classic malapropism: “baseball is ninety percent mental; the other half is physical”)

Answer 451

Solistic (Tact) Extension

Question 452

A procedure for implementing DRL in which reinforcement follows each occurrence of the target behavior that is separated from the previous response by a minimum interresponse time (IRT)

Answer 452

Spaced Responding DRL

Question 453

Responding jointly to two stimuli on the basis of their juxtaposition in space

Answer 453

Spatial Relation

Question 454

Someone who engages in verbal behavior by emitting mands, tacts, intraverbals, autoclitics, ect
- They are also someone who uses sign language, gestures, signals, written words, codes, pictures, or any form of verbal behavior

Answer 454

Speaker

Question 455

A line drawn through a series of graphed data points that shows the overall trend in the data; drawn through the intersections of the vertical and horizontal middles of each half of the charted data and then adjusted up or down so that half of all the data points fall on or above and half fall on or below the line

Answer 455

Split Middle Line of Progress

Question 456

A behavioral effect associated with extinction in which the behavior suddenly begins to occur after its frequency has decreased to its pre reinforcement level or stopped entirely

Answer 456

Spontaneous Recovery

Question 457

Data that show no evidence of an upward or downward trend; all of the measures fall within a relatively small range of values

Answer 457

Stable Baseline

Question 458

A multiply-divide chart with six base-10 (or x10 divided by 10) cycles on the vertical axis that can accomodate response rates as low as 1 per 24 hours (0.000695 per minute) to as high as 1000 per minute
- It enables the standardized charting of celeration, a factor by which rate of behavior multiplies or divides per unit of time

Answer 458

Standard Celeration Chart

Question 459

A pattern of responding that exhibits relatively little variation in its measured dimensional quantities over a period of time

Answer 459

Steady State Responding

Question 460

Repeatedly exposing a subject to a given condition while trying to eliminate or control extraneous influences on the behavior and obtaining a stable pattern of responding before introducing the next condition

Answer 460

Steady State Strategy

Question 461

“An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells” (Michael, 2004)

Answer 461

Stimulus

Question 462

Occurs when a competing stimulus blocks the evocative function of a stimulus that has acquired stimulus control over the behavior
- It can be mitigated by rearranging the physical environment, making instructional stimuli appropriately intense, and consistently reinforcing behavior in the presence of the instructionally relevant discriminative stimuli

Answer 462

Stimulus Blocking

Question 463

A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal (eg; size, color), temporal (eg; antecedent or consequent), and/or functional (eg; discriminative stimulus) dimensions

Answer 463

Stimulus Class

Question 464

A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus

Answer 464

Stimulus Control

Question 465

A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has not produced reinforcement, or has produced reinforcement of lesser quality, in the past

Answer 465

Stimulus Delta

Question 466

When one stimulus (the SD) signals the availability of reinforcement and the absence of that stimulus signals a zero or reduced chance of reinforcement, responses will occur more often in the presence of the SD than in its absence

Answer 466

Stimulus Discrimination

Question 467

The conventional procedure requires one behavior and two antecedent stimulus conditions
- Responses are reinforced in the presence of one stimulus condition, the SD, but not in the presence of the other stimulus

Answer 467

Stimulus Discrimination Training

Question 468

The emergence of accurate responding to untrained and nonreinforced stimulus-stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus-stimulus relations
- Requires successful performances on three types of probe trials - reflexivity, symmetry, and transivity - in the absence of reinforcement

Answer 468

Stimulus Equivalence

Question 469

Another name for Stimulus Equivalence

Answer 469

Equivalence Class Formation

Question 470

A method of transferring stimulus control that involves highlighting a physical dimension of a stimulus (eg; size, color, and position) to increase the likelihood of a correct response and then gradually diminishing the exaggerated dimension until the learner is responding correctly to the naturally occurring stimulus

Answer 470

Stimulus Fading

Question 471

When an antecedent stimulus has a history of evoking a response that has been reinforced in its presence, the same type of behavior tends to be evoked by stimuli that share similar physical properties with the controlling antecedent stimulus

Answer 471

Stimulus Generalization

Question 472

A graphic depiction of the extent to which behavior that has been reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus condition is emitted in the presence of other stimuli
- The gradient shows relative degrees of stimulus generalization and stimulus control (or discrimination)
- A flat slope across test stimuli shows a high degree of stimulus generalization and relatively little discrimination between the trained stimulus and other stimuli; a slope that drops sharply from its highest point corresponding to the trained stimulus indicates a high degree of stimulus control (discrimination) and relatively little stimulus generalization

Answer 472

Stimulus Generalization Gradient

Question 473

A variety of procedures used to determine the stimuli that a person prefers, the relative preference values (high versus low) of those stimuli, the conditions under which those preference values remain in effect, and their presumed value as reinforcers

Answer 473

Stimulus Preference Assessment

Question 474

Prompts that operate directly on the antecedent task stimuli to cue a correct response in conjunction with the critical SD (eg; changing the size, color, or position of a stimulus within an array to make its selection more likely)

Answer 474

Stimulus Prompts

Question 475

Refers to two different forms of stimulus control that can result from a match to sample procedure involving one sample stimulus and two comparison stimuli; when presented with A1 as the sample, a participant can either select B1 (known as Type S or select responding) or reject B2 (known as Type R or reject responding)

Answer 475

Stimulus Control Topographies

Question 476

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

Answer 476

Stimulus - Stimulus Pairing

Question 477

The sequence of new response classes that emerge during the shaping process as the result of differential reinforcement; each successive response class is closer in form to the terminal behavior than the response class it replaces

Answer 477

Successive Approximations

Question 478

A stimulus that acquires its MO effectiveness by being paired with another MO and has the same value altering and behavior altering effects as the MO with which it was paired

Answer 478

Surrogate Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-S)

Question 479

A type of stimulus to stimulus relationship in which the learner, without prior training or reinforcement for doing so, demonstrates the reversibility of matched sample and comparison stimuli (eg; if A=B, then B=A)
- This would be demonstrated in the following matching to sample procedure: the learner is taught, when presented with the spoken word car (sample stimulus A), to select a comparison picture of a car (comparison B)
- When presented with the picture of a car (sample stimulus B), without additional training or reinforcement, the learner selects the comparison spoken word car (comparison A)

Answer 479

Symmetry

Question 480

A behavior therapy treatment for anxieties, fears, and phobias that involves substituting one response, generally muscle relaxation, for the unwanted behavior - the fear and anxiety
- The client practices relaxing while imagining anxiety producing situations in a sequence from the least fearful to the most fearful

Answer 480

Systematic Desensitization

Question 481

An experiment in which the researcher purposefully varies one or more aspects of an earlier experiment
- When this produces the results of previous research it not only demonstrates the reliability of the earlier findings but also adds to the external validity of the earlier findings by showing that the same effect can be obtained under different conditions

Answer 481

Systematic Replication

Question 482

An elementary verbal operant involving a response that is evoked by a nonverbal discriminative stimulus and followed by generalized conditioned reinforcement
- This allows a speaker to identify or describe the features of the physical environment
- The elements that make up one’s physical environment are vast; thus, much of language instruction and educational programs focus on teaching tacts

Answer 482

Tact

Question 483

Once a tact has been established, the tact response can occur under novel stimulus conditions through the process of stimulus generalization
- Skinner (1957) identifies four different levels of generalization based on the degree to which a novel stimulus shares the relevant or defining features of the original stimulus
- The four types of this are generic, metaphorical, metonymical, and solecistic

Answer 483

Tact Extension

Question 484

An elementary verbal operant involving a spoken verbal stimulus that evokes a written, typed, or fingerspelled response that does not have formal similarity between the stimulus and the response, but does have point to point correspondence and a history of generalized reinforcement

Answer 484

Taking Dictation

Question 485

A schedule of reinforcement identical to the chained schedule except, like the mix schedule, the tandem schedule does not use discriminative stimuli with the elements in the chain

Answer 485

Tandem Schedule (Tand)

Question 486

The response class selected for intervention; can be defined either functionally or topographically

Answer 486

Target Behavior

Question 487

The process of breaking a complex skill or series of behaviors into smaller, teachable units; also refers to the results of this process

Answer 487

Task Analysis

Question 488

Randomly varying functionally irrelevant stimuli within and across teaching sessions; promotes setting/situation generalization by reducing the likelihood that (A) a single or small group of noncritical stimuli will acquire exclusive control over the target behavior and (B) the learner’s performance of the target behavior will be impeded or “thrown off” should he encounter any of the “loose” stimuli in the generalization setting

Answer 488

Teach Loosely

Question 489

A strategy for promoting generalized behavior change that consists of teaching the learner to respond to a subset of all the relevant stimulus and response examples and then assessing the learner’s performance on untrained examples

Answer 489

Teach Enough Examples

Question 490

Refers to the fact that every instance of behavior occurs during some amount of time; one of the three dimensional quantities of behavior from which all behavioral measurements are derived

Answer 490

Temporal Extent

Question 491

Refers to the fact that every instance of behavior occurs at a certain point in time with respect to other events (ie; when in time behavior occurs can be measured); often measured in terms of response latency and interresponse time (IRT); one of the three dimensional quantities of behavior from which all behavioral measurements are derived

Answer 491

Temporal Locus

Question 492

Responding jointly to two stimuli on the basis of their juxtaposition in time

Answer 492

Temporal Relation

Question 493

The end product of shaping

Answer 493

Terminal Behavior

Question 494

A variation of nonexclusion time out whereby each occurrence of the target behavior immediately stops an activity or sensory reinforcer

Answer 494

Terminate Specific Reinforcer Contact

Question 495

An elementary verbal operant involving a response that is evoked by a written verbal discriminative stimulus that does not have formal similarity between the stimulus and the response, but does have point to point correspondence and a history of generalized reinforcement

Answer 495

Textual

Question 496

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

Answer 496

Three Term Contingency

Question 497

A procedure for transferring stimulus control from contrived response prompts to naturally existing stimuli that begins with the simultaneous presentation of the natural stimulus and response prompt
- After several correct responses, a delay is introduced between the stimulus and the response prompt until the student emits the unprompted correct response
- This is considered an “errorless learning” technique as students make few or no errors transitioning from the contrived prompt to the instructional stimulus

Answer 497

Time Delay

Question 498

A measurement of the presence or absence of behavior within specific time intervals
- It is most useful with continuous and high rate behaviors

Answer 498

Time Sampling

Question 499

The immediate response contingent withdrawal of the opportunity to earn positive reinforcement or the immediate loss of access to positive reinforcers for a specified time; a form of negative punishment

Answer 499

Time Out from Positive Reinforcement

Question 500

An object or symbol that is awarded contingent on appropriate target behavior(s) that can be traded for a wide variety of backup reinforcers; these function as generalized conditioned reinforcers

Answer 500

Token

Question 501

A behavior change system consisting of a list of target behaviors, with tokens (points or small objects) participants earn for emitting the target behaviors, and a menu of backup reinforcers (ie; preferred items, activities, or privileges) for which participants exchange earned tokens

Answer 501

Token Economy

Question 502

Another name for Token Economy

Answer 502

Token Reinforcement System

Question 503

The physical form or shape of a behavior

Answer 503

Topography

Question 504

Defines instances of the targeted response class by the shape or form of the behavior

Answer 504

Topography Based Definition

Question 505

A category of verbal behavior in which the listener is affected by a specific response topography emitted by the speaker; includes (eg; speech, sign language, writing, fingerspelling)

Answer 505

Topography Based Verbal Behavior

Question 506

The simplest indicator of IOA for event recording data; based on comparing the total count recorded by each observer per measurement period; calculated by dividing the smaller of the two observers’ counts by the larger count and multiplying by 100

Answer 506

Total Count IOA

Question 507

A relevant index of IOA for total duration measurement; computed by dividing the shorter of the two durations reported by the observers by the longer duration and multiplying by 100

Answer 507

Total Duration IOA

Question 508

A variation of forward chaining in which the learner receives training on each behavior in the chain during each session

Answer 508

Total Task Chaining

Question 509

Refers to dimensions of procedural arrangements when teaching multiple conditional discriminations
- Commonly used ones include one to many training or sample as node training, many to one or comparison as node structure, and linear series training

Answer 509

Training Structure

Question 510

An elementary verbal operant involving a spoken verbal stimulus that evokes a written, typed, or finger spelled response
- Like the textual, there is point to point correspondence between the stimulus and the response product, but no formal similiarity

Answer 510

Transcription

Question 511

Occurs when teaching a new function for one member of an established equivalence class results in the same function holding for all members of the class

Answer 511

Transfer of Function

Question 512

Occurs when the behavioral function of one stimulus in a stimulus class changes as a predictable function of the behavior function of other stimuli in the class

Answer 512

Transformation of Function

Question 513

An environmental variable that, as a result of a learning history, establishes (or abolishes) the reinforcing effectiveness of another stimulus and evokes (or abates) the behavior that has been reinforced by that other stimulus

Answer 513

Transitive Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-T)

Question 514

Describes derived stimulus-stimulus relations (eg; A=C) that emerge as a product of training two other stimulus-stimulus relations (A=C and B=C)
- It would be demonstrated if, after training, the following occurs: (1) If A (eg; spoken word bicycle) = B (eg; the picture of a bicycle) and (2) B (the picture of a bicycle) = C (eg; the written word bicycle), then (3) A (the spoken name, bicycle) = C (the written word bicycle)

Answer 514

Transitivity

Question 515

An undesirable situation in which the independent variable of an experiment is applied differently during later stages than it was at the outset of the study

Answer 515

Treatment Drift

Question 516

The extent to which the independent variable is applied exactly as planned and described and no other unplanned variables are administered inadvertently along with the planned treatment

Answer 516

Treatment Integrity

Question 517

A behavioral intervention consisting of multiple components (eg; contingent praise, tokens, and extinction)

Answer 517

Treatment Package

Question 518

The overall direction taken by a data path
- It is described in terms of direction (increasing, decreasing, or zero), degree (gradual or steep), and the extent of variability of data points around it
- This is used in predicting future measures of the behavior under unchanging conditions

Answer 518

Trend

Question 519

An analysis in which a series of trials is interspersed among classroom activities
- Each trial consists of two 1 minute components: (A) the establishing operation and contingency for problem behavior (test condition), and (B) continuous access to the reinforcer (control condition)

Answer 519

Trial Based Functional Analysis

Question 520

An IOA index for discrete trial data based on comparing the observers’ counts (0 or 1) on a trial by trial, or item by item, basis; yields a more conservative and meaningful index of IOA for discrete trial data than does total count IOA

Answer 520

Trial by Trial IOA

Question 521

A measure accepted as a quantitative description of the true state of some dimensional quantity of an event as it exists in nature
- Obtaining these requires “special or extraordinary precautions to ensure that all possible sources of error have been avoided or removed” (Johnston & Pennypacker, 1993)

Answer 521

True Value

Question 522

A special form of event recording; a measure of the number of responses or practice opportunities needed for a person to achieve a pre established level of accuracy or proficiency

Answer 522

Trials to Criterion

Question 523

An error that occurs when a researcher concludes that the independent variable had an effect on the dependent variable, when no such relation exists; a false positive

Answer 523

Type I Error

Question 524

An error that occurs when a researcher concludes that the independent variable had no effect on the dependent variable, when in truth it did; a false negative

Answer 524

Type II Error

Question 525

Occurs when, in the case of a two step chain, the second behavior in the chain (R2) produces reinforcement in the presence of the prior SD (S2), but (R2) also produces reinforcement when that SD is not present
- It may weaken a chain

Answer 525

Unchaining

Question 526

A motivating operation whose value altering effect does not depend on a learning history
- For example, food deprivation increases the reinforcing effectiveness of food without the necessity of any learning history

Answer 526

Unconditioned Motivating Operation (UMO)

Question 527

A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforcer as a result of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny); no prior learning is involved (eg; shock, loud noise, intense light, extreme temperatures, strong pressure against the body)

Answer 527

Unconditioned Negative Reinforcer

Question 528

A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus
- These 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 this

Answer 528

Unconditioned Punisher

Question 529

Other names for Unconditioned Punisher

Answer 529

Primary Punishers and Unlearned Punishers

Question 530

An unlearned stimulus-response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (eg; food in mouth) that elicits the response (eg; salivation); a product of the phylogenic evolution of a given species; all biologically intact members of a species are born with similar repertoires of these

Answer 530

Unconditioned Reflex

Question 531

A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus
- These are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny)

Answer 531

Unconditioned Reinforcer

Question 532

Other names for Unconditioned Reinforcer

Answer 532

Primary Reinforcer and Unlearned Reinforcer

Question 533

The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning

Answer 533

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Question 534

Two kinds: (A) The occurrence alone of a stimulus that acquired its function by being paired with an already effective stimulus, or (B) the occurrence of the stimulus in the absence as well as in the presence of the effective stimulus
- Both kinds of this will undo the result of the pairing: the occurrence alone of the stimulus that became a conditioned reinforcer; and the occurrence of the unconditioned reinforcer in the absence as well as in the presence of the conditioned reinforcer

Answer 534

Unpairing

Question 535

An interobserver agreement index based only on the intervals in which either observer recorded the nonoccurrence of the behavior; calculated by dividing the number of intervals in which the two observers agreed that the behavior did not occur by the number of intervals in which either or both observers recorded the nonoccurrence of the behavior and multiplying by 100
- This is recommended as a measure of agreement for behaviors that occur as high rates because it ignores the intervals in which agreement by chance is highly likely

Answer 535

Unscored Interval IOA

Question 536

The extent to which data obtained from measurement are directly relevant to the target behavior of interest and to the reason(s) for measuring it

Answer 536

Validity (of Measurement)

Question 537

Either (A) an increase in the reinforcing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event, in which case the MO is an establishing operation (EO); or (B) a decrease in reinforcing effectiveness, in which case the MO is an abolishing operation (AO)
- For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is altered as a result of food deprivation and food ingestion

Answer 537

Value Altering Effect (of a Motivating Operation)

Question 538

The frequency and extent to which multiple measures of behavior yield different outcomes

Answer 538

Variability

Question 539

Data points that do not consistently fall within a narrow range of values and do not suggest any clear trend

Answer 539

Variable Baseline

Question 540

A schedule of reinforcement that provides reinforcement for the first correct response following the elapse of variable durations of time occurring in a random or unpredictable order
- The mean duration of the intervals is used to describe the schedule (eg; on a VI 10 minute schedule, reinforcement is delivered for the first response following an average of 10 minutes since the last reinforced response, but the time that elapses following the last reinforced response might range from 30 seconds or less to 25 minutes or more)

Answer 540

Variable Interval (VI)

Question 541

A schedule of reinforcement requiring a varying number of responses for reinforcement
- The number of responses required varies around a random number, the mean number of responses required for reinforcement is used to describe the schedule (eg; on a VR 10 schedule an average of 10 responses must be emitted for reinforcement, but the number of responses required following the last reinforced response might range from 1 to 30 or more)

Answer 541

Variable Ratio (VR)

Question 542

A DRO procedure in which reinforcement is available at the end of intervals of variable duration and delivered contingent on the absence of the problem behavior during the interval

Answer 542

Variable Interval DRO (VI-DRO)

Question 543

A DRO procedure in which reinforcement is available at specific moments of time, which are separated by variable amounts of time in random sequence, and delivered if the problem is not occurring at those times

Answer 543

Variable Momentary DRO (VM-DRO)

Question 544

A schedule for the delivery of noncontingent stimuli in which the interval of time from one delivery to the next randomly varies around a given time
- For example, on a VT 1 minute schedule, the delivery to delivery interval might range from 5 seconds to 2 minutes, but the average interval would be 1 minute

Answer 544

Variable Time Schedule (VT)

Question 545

Behavior whose reinforcement is mediated by a listener; includes both vocal verbal behavior (eg; saying “water, please” to get water) and nonvocal verbal behavior (pointing to a glass of water to get water)
- Encompasses the subject matter usually treated as language and topics such as thinking, grammar, composition, and understanding

Answer 545

Verbal Behavior

Question 546

A type of convergent multiple control involving a verbal stimulus that alters the evocative effects of another verbal stimulus in the same antecedent configuration
- The conditional discrimination is between the words in the antecedent event

Answer 546

Verbal Conditional Discrimination (VCD)

Question 547

An interaction between a speaker and a listener
- A speaker emits any type of verbal response (eg; echoic, mand, tact, intraverbal), in any form (speech, sign language, icon selection, eye contact), and a listener (1) serves as an audience for a speaker, (2) provides reinforcement for a speaker, and (3) responds in specific ways to the speaker’s behavior
- The roles of speaker and listener switch back and forth in an exchange, and usually involve covert speaker and listener behavior as well

Answer 547

Verbal Episode

Question 548

Verbal stimuli can alter the functional effects of immediate or future SDs and MOs and, accordingly, change a listener’s behavior
- For example, being told “The bridge is out, turn left at the 7-eleven and there will be another one in 5 miles” can alter the functional effects of stimuli encountered in the future and evoke verbal and nonverbal behavior at that time (eg; tacting the 7-eleven, turning left)

Answer 548

Verbal Function Altering Effect

Question 549

One of three components of the experimental reasoning, or baseline logic, used in single subject research designs; accomplished by demonstrating that the prior level of baseline responding would have remained unchanged had the independent variable not been introduced
- Verifying the accuracy of the original prediction reduces the probability that some uncontrolled (confounding) variable was responsible for the observed change in behavior

Answer 549

Verification

Question 550

A behavior change strategy in which the participant views a video of a model performing the target behavior and then imitates the behavior

Answer 550

Video Modeling

Question 551

A behavior change strategy in which the participant views a video of himself successfully performing the target behavior and then imitates his own model

Answer 551

Video Self Modeling

Question 552

A systematic approach for interpreting the results of behavioral research and treatment programs that entails visual inspection of graphed data for level, trend, and variability within and between experimental conditions

Answer 552

Visual Analysis

Question 553

A time sampling method for measuring behavior in which the observation period is divided into a series of brief time intervals (typically from 5 to 15 seconds)
- At the end of each interval, the observer records whether the target behavior occurred throughout the entire interval; tends to underestimate the overall percentage of the observation period in which the target behavior actually occurred

Answer 553

Whole Interval Recording

Question 554

A term used by some authors as a synonym for A-B-A-B design; also used to describe experiments in which an effective treatment is sequentially or partially withdrawn to promote the maintenance of behavior changes

Answer 554

Withdrawal Design