Exam 1

Question 1

Stimulus

Answer 1

Any event that can potentially influence behavior

Question 2

Behavior

Answer 2

Any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured

Question 3

Learning

Answer 3

A relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience

Question 4

Establishing Operation

Answer 4

A procedure that increases the appetitiveness or aversiveness of a stimuli

Question 5

Operant conditioning

Answer 5

Goal directed or “voluntary” changes in behavior

Question 6

Classical conditioning

Answer 6

Reflexive or “involuntary” changes in behavior

Question 7

Radical Behaviorism

Answer 7

• A type of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence of the environment of overt behavior
• Rejects the use of internal events to explain behavior
• Views thoughts and feelings as behaviors that themselves need to be explained

Question 8

Covert behavior

Answer 8

Behavior that can be subjectively perceived only by the person performing the behavior.

*Also known as “private events” or “private behavior”

Question 9

Contingency

Answer 9

A predictive relationship between two events such that the occurrence of one event predicts the probable occurrence of the other

Question 10

Baseline

Answer 10

The normal frequency of a behavior prior to intervention

Question 11

Aversive stimulus

Answer 11

An event that an organism will avoid

Question 12

Appetitive stimulus

Answer 12

An event that an organism will seek out

Question 13

Nativism

Answer 13

The assumption that a person’s characteristics are largely inborn

*Also called “the nature perspective”

Question 14

Empiricism

Answer 14

The assumption that behavior patterns are mostly learned rather than inherited

*Also called “the nurture perspective”

Question 15

What is Descartes’ Philosophy and it’s assumptions

Answer 15

• Mind-body dualism
• Mind-body dualism assumes that we have a body that functions like a machine and produces involuntary, reflexive behaviors in response to external stimuli; As well as a mind that has free will and produces behaviors we regard as voluntary
• Descartes believed that only humans possessed free will and that the behaviors of non-human animals is entirely reflexive.

Question 16

Types of research designs

Answer 16

• Group designs
• Single-Subject design
• Reversal design
• Multiple baseline design

Question 17

Group design research

Answer 17

A type of experimental research design in which one manipulates one or more independent variables across groups of subjects

Question 18

Single-subject design

Answer 18

A research design that requires only one or a few subjects in order to conduct an experiment

Question 19

Reversal design

Answer 19

A design that involves repeated alterations between a baseline period and an intervention.

Question 20

Multiple Baseline design

Answer 20

A design in which a treatment is instituted at successive points in time for two or more persons, settings, or behaviors

Question 21

Descriptive research

Answer 21

A type of research that involves gathering information about a behavior and the circumstances within which it occurs

*Does not involve the manipulation of variables

Question 22

Experimental research

Answer 22

A type of research in which one or more independent variables are systematically varied to determine their effect on an independent variable

*Does involve the manipulation of variables

Question 23

Weakness of a control group design

Answer 23

• This design requires a large number of subjects
• Not well suited for investigating the effects of a certain treatment on a particular individual
• Little attention is given to the performance of individual subjects

Question 24

Weaknesses of an AB comparison design

Answer 24

This design does not control for the possibility that some other event occurred at the same time that the treatment was implemented and it was in fact this other event that influenced the change in behavior

Question 25

How to determine the results from a single-subject experiment are significant

Answer 25

Replication

Question 26

Skinner believed the ultimate cause of behavior was _______

Answer 26

The environment