Philosophical Foundations Flashcards
principles of behavior
Reinforcement and Punishment.
technical
Requires the thorough and accurate description of procedures used in interventions.
analytic
Requires that experimenters have used single subject research designs to demonstrate a functional relation, or a believable demonstration of the efficacy of an intervention.
generativity
Requires that behaviors last over time and appear in other environments other than the that of training.
conceptual
Requires that interventions used must be based on the principles of behavior and have empirical evidence supporting efficacy.
radical behaviorism
Represents Skinner’s “far-reaching” and “thoroughgoing” form of behaviorism that includes both public and private behaviors.
experimental analysis of behavior
Founded by Skinner, this natural science focuses on studying operant behavior as a subject matter, using single subject experimental designs rather than group designs, to measure behavior as a dependent variable.
methodological behavior
Refers to a philosophical position in which behavioral events that cannot be observed are not behaviors.
behavior
Requires that variables under study be observable and measurable.
effective
Requires that improvement of behavior be socially significant and based on a visual analysis of data.
explanatory fiction
A fictitious variable, often another name for an observable behavior, which implies an inner cause for the behavior.
natural event
An event that is locatable in time and space in the natural world.
public event
An event observed by another person.
pragmatism
The notion that a question is only worth pursuing if the answer to it would change our knowledge of the world.
determinism
An assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events, not in accidental fashion.
realism
The view of the world that assumes only the natural world, which presupposes an absolute truth.
private event
An event that can only be observed and verified by the individual performing the behavior.
mentalism
An assumption of an “inner” dimension as the explanation of behavior.
applied
Requires that scientists and practitioners selecting behaviors for change that are socially significant.
applied behavior analysis
This is the science in which the principles of behavior are used to improve socially important behaviors and experimental analysis is used to determine which variables are responsible for improvement.
classical conditioning
Refers to organisms learning through association (pairing) of a stimulus that typically produces an automatic response in the organism with a previously neutral stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to trigger the same automatic response.
operant conditioning
Refers to organisms learning through interactions with their environment, including reinforcement.
reinforcement
Refers to a consequence stimulus that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
negative punishment
Refers to the removal of something preferred that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
positive reinforcement
Refers to the delivery of something preferred that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
negative reinforcement
Refers to the removal of something aversive that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
positive punishment
Refers to the delivery of something aversive that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
punishment
Refers to a consequence stimulus that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.
discriminative stimulus SD
Changes in the environment that induce different activities.
stimulus control
The relationship between a discriminative stimulus and the activity it induces.
empiricism
Knowledge based on experience.
discrimination
A change in an individual’s behavior with a change in context.
tact
A verbal response emitted in the presence of an object or event (labeling).
mand
A verbal response that specifies its own reinforcer (request).
contingency
A dependent relationship between two events.
behaviorism
Philosophical principles underpinning the science of behavior - ‘behavior analysis’.
parsimony
Scientific explanation that emphasizes simplicity and reliance on well-established knowledge.
verbal behavior
Operant behavior on the part of a speaker that is reinforced by the behavior of the listener.
rule
A verbal discriminative stimulus that induces an activity in the listener.
dependent variable
The variable measured to determine if it changes as a result of manipulations of the independent variable.
selectionism
All forms of life evolve as a result of selection with respect to function.
situational ethics
The tendency to tailor behavior about good/bad, right/wrong to particular situations, rather than more generally across situations.
experiment
A controlled comparison of a phenomenon of interest (dependent variable) under two or more different conditions (independent variable).
verification
Demonstrating that the prior level of baseline responding would have remained unchanged had the independent variable not been introduced.
phylogeny
The evolutionary history of individuals originating from the contingencies that operate during the environmental history of a species.
replication
Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity.
cultural selectionism
Passing behavior from one person to another by imitation and modeling.
prediction
A statement of the anticipated outcome of a presently unknown or future measurement.
reinforcement trap
A short-term contingency that reinforces maladaptive behavior is pitted against a long-term contingency that provides large reinforcers for good behavior.
ontogeny
How the environment changes an individual over his or her lifetime.
independent variable
The variable that is systematically manipulated in an experiment to see whether changes in the independent variable produce reliable changes in the dependent variable.
