Final Exam Vocabulary Flashcards
Operant Conditioning
Increasing or decreasing a voluntary behavior through reinforcement or punishment.
Positive Reinforcement
A stimulus/event at follows a behavior in order to increase the rate of occurrence of that behavior.
Punishment
A stimulus/event that follows a behavior in order to decrease the occurrence of that behavior.
Negative Reinforcement
A stimulus/event that is removed following a behavior in order to increase the rate of occurrence of that behavior.
Antecedent
The stimulus/event factor that precedes a behavior
Consequence
The stimulus/environmental factor that follows and reinforces a behavior
Behavior
A person’s action that is observable and measurable
Three term contingency
Antecedent + Behavior + Consequence. The method in which applied behavior analysts examine behavior.
Social Validity
The acceptability of a treatment’s goals and/or procedures by the primary stakeholders involved.
Operational Definition
Providing concrete examples of a target behavior. Minimizes disagreements among observers as to the behavior’s occurrence.
Behavioral Objective (CSBC)
A statement that communicates a proposed change in a target behavior. Must include these components: condition, student, behavior, and criteria.
Indirect Assessment
Assessment measures that do no include direct observation of the behavior as it is occurring. Instead assessment is done through talking about the behavior through an informant.
Direct Assessment
Assessment measures that include observing the behavior as it is occurring.
Discrete Behaviors
Behaviors with a clearly discernible beginning and ending.
Latency
The amount of time between the presentation of a stimulus and the initiation of a response.
Partial Interval Recording
A method of measuring a behavior’s frequency by indicating if a behavior occurred at least once during an interval of time. Tends to overestimate duration and underestimate rate of behaviors.
Reversal Design (ABAB)
A format for graphing single-subject data that allows for monitoring behavior change. Has an initial baseline phase and intervention phase in which the independent variable is applied. Then the independent variable is withdrawn and reapplied. Can demonstrate a functional relationship between the dependent and independent variables.
Dependent Variable
The behavior to be changed through intervention (independent variable)
Independent Variable
The treatment or intervention that the experimenter manipulates in order to change a behavior.
Primary reinforcers
Stimuli (such as food) that may have biological importance to an individual; such stimuli are innately motivating.
Pairing
Simultaneous presentation of primary and secondary reinforcers to condition the secondary reinforcer.
Satiation
A condition that occurs when there is no longer a state of deprivation.
Fixed ratio schedule
Schedule for the delivery of reinforcers contingent on the number of correct responses; which the number of correct responses is held constant.
Variable interval schedule
Schedule for the delivery of reinforcers contingent on the occurrence of a behavior following an average amount of time, where the interval of time varies for reinforcement.
Thinning
Making reinforcement gradually available less often or contingent on greater amounts of appropriate behavior.
Extinction
Withholding reinforcement for a previously reinforced behavior to reduce the occurrence of the behavior
Noncontingent Reinforcement (NCR)
The delivery of reinforcers at predetermined intervals regardless of the student behavior
Stimulus Control
The relation in which an antecedent prompts a behavior or serves as a cue for the behavior to occur.
Shaping
Teaching new behaviors through differential reinforcement of successive approximations to a specified target behavior.
Applied Behavior Analysis
A method of examining the functional relationship between a behavior and the real-world environmental variables that prompt and maintain it.
Generalization
When a behavior is durable over time, appears in a variety of environments, and occurs in the presence of similar stimuli.
Stimulus Generalization
When behaviors that have been reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus occur in the presence of different but similar stimuli
