Philosophical Foundations

Question 1

principles of behavior

Answer 1

Reinforcement and Punishment.

Question 2

technical

Answer 2

Requires the thorough and accurate description of procedures used in interventions.

Question 3

analytic

Answer 3

Requires that experimenters have used single subject research designs to demonstrate a functional relation, or a believable demonstration of the efficacy of an intervention.

Question 4

generativity

Answer 4

Requires that behaviors last over time and appear in other environments other than the that of training.

Question 5

conceptual

Answer 5

Requires that interventions used must be based on the principles of behavior and have empirical evidence supporting efficacy.

Question 6

radical behaviorism

Answer 6

Represents Skinner’s “far-reaching” and “thoroughgoing” form of behaviorism that includes both public and private behaviors.

Question 7

experimental analysis of behavior

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

methodological behavior

Answer 8

Refers to a philosophical position in which behavioral events that cannot be observed are not behaviors.

Question 9

behavior

Answer 9

Requires that variables under study be observable and measurable.

Question 10

effective

Answer 10

Requires that improvement of behavior be socially significant and based on a visual analysis of data.

Question 11

explanatory fiction

Answer 11

A fictitious variable, often another name for an observable behavior, which implies an inner cause for the behavior.

Question 12

natural event

Answer 12

An event that is locatable in time and space in the natural world.

Question 13

public event

Answer 13

An event observed by another person.

Question 14

pragmatism

Answer 14

The notion that a question is only worth pursuing if the answer to it would change our knowledge of the world.

Question 15

determinism

Answer 15

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

Question 16

realism

Answer 16

The view of the world that assumes only the natural world, which presupposes an absolute truth.

Question 17

private event

Answer 17

An event that can only be observed and verified by the individual performing the behavior.

Question 18

mentalism

Answer 18

An assumption of an “inner” dimension as the explanation of behavior.

Question 19

applied

Answer 19

Requires that scientists and practitioners selecting behaviors for change that are socially significant.

Question 20

applied behavior analysis

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

classical conditioning

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

operant conditioning

Answer 22

Refers to organisms learning through interactions with their environment, including reinforcement.

Question 23

reinforcement

Answer 23

Refers to a consequence stimulus that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 24

negative punishment

Answer 24

Refers to the removal of something preferred that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 25

positive reinforcement

Answer 25

Refers to the delivery of something preferred that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 26

negative reinforcement

Answer 26

Refers to the removal of something aversive that increases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 27

positive punishment

Answer 27

Refers to the delivery of something aversive that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 28

punishment

Answer 28

Refers to a consequence stimulus that decreases the future rate of the behavior it follows.

Question 29

discriminative stimulus SD

Answer 29

Changes in the environment that induce different activities.

Question 30

stimulus control

Answer 30

The relationship between a discriminative stimulus and the activity it induces.

Question 31

empiricism

Answer 31

Knowledge based on experience.

Question 32

discrimination

Answer 32

A change in an individual’s behavior with a change in context.

Question 33

tact

Answer 33

A verbal response emitted in the presence of an object or event (labeling).

Question 34

mand

Answer 34

A verbal response that specifies its own reinforcer (request).

Question 35

contingency

Answer 35

A dependent relationship between two events.

Question 36

behaviorism

Answer 36

Philosophical principles underpinning the science of behavior - ‘behavior analysis’.

Question 37

parsimony

Answer 37

Scientific explanation that emphasizes simplicity and reliance on well-established knowledge.

Question 38

verbal behavior

Answer 38

Operant behavior on the part of a speaker that is reinforced by the behavior of the listener.

Question 39

rule

Answer 39

A verbal discriminative stimulus that induces an activity in the listener.

Question 40

dependent variable

Answer 40

The variable measured to determine if it changes as a result of manipulations of the independent variable.

Question 41

selectionism

Answer 41

All forms of life evolve as a result of selection with respect to function.

Question 42

situational ethics

Answer 42

The tendency to tailor behavior about good/bad, right/wrong to particular situations, rather than more generally across situations.

Question 43

experiment

Answer 43

A controlled comparison of a phenomenon of interest (dependent variable) under two or more different conditions (independent variable).

Question 44

verification

Answer 44

Demonstrating that the prior level of baseline responding would have remained unchanged had the independent variable not been introduced.

Question 45

phylogeny

Answer 45

The evolutionary history of individuals originating from the contingencies that operate during the environmental history of a species.

Question 46

replication

Answer 46

Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity.

Question 47

cultural selectionism

Answer 47

Passing behavior from one person to another by imitation and modeling.

Question 48

prediction

Answer 48

A statement of the anticipated outcome of a presently unknown or future measurement.

Question 49

reinforcement trap

Answer 49

A short-term contingency that reinforces maladaptive behavior is pitted against a long-term contingency that provides large reinforcers for good behavior.

Question 50

ontogeny

Answer 50

How the environment changes an individual over his or her lifetime.

Question 51

independent variable

Answer 51

The variable that is systematically manipulated in an experiment to see whether changes in the independent variable produce reliable changes in the dependent variable.