Quiz #4 Flashcards
chapter 8,9,10,11
What is behavioral variability
Variations in features of responding within a single response class, as well as variations in summary measures of that class.
Distinguish among three levels of behavioral variability
- Displaying the distribution of individual responses over time
- Displaying summaries of response measures for each observation period
- Displaying summaries of response measures across multiple observation periods
What does it mean to propose that variability in behavior is intrinsic?
The assumption that variability in behavior is in one way or another inherent or built into the nature of organisms.
Describe the position that variability in behavior is extrinsic in nature.
The assumption that variability in behavior
is describable, explainable, and predictable in terms of variation in other phenomena, whether biological or environmental.
What are the practical outcomes of assuming that behavioral variability is intrinsic?
This position might in turn lead to accepting
excessive variability in behavioral data, rather than taking steps to establish improved control over extraneous influences.
What are the practical outcomes of assuming that behavioral variability is extrinsic?
The extrinsic assumption tends to encourage researchers to design experiments that minimize the contribution of these extraneous factors so that the impact of treatment conditions can be more clearly identified.
Describe the three functions of variability for researchers.
- Motivates and guides researcher curiosities
- Guides decision-making as a study proceeds
- Provides the foundation for interpreting experiments
What are the two tactics that are together used to deal with variability?
(a) producing variability in responding by manipulating independent (treatment) variables, whose influence is in question; and
(b) reducing variability in responding by identifying and controlling extraneous factors.
Explain how it can be experimentally useful to increase variability.
The more substantial and distinctive the intervention’s impact on responding compared to baseline performance, the more confident the researcher and others might be about the role of the treatment condition.
What are synonyms for the independent variable condition?
(also called a treatment or experimental condition).
Describe two ways of managing extraneous sources of variability and the limitations of each.
One involves holding the extraneous factors constant across all phases of a study. This tactic of holding extraneous variables constant may not help if the
effects of extraneous factors are so powerful that they obscure the effects of the treatment variables.
Another way to manage extraneous variables is to completely eliminate the problematic factors from the situation so that they cannot have any influence. Although this approach can be quite effective, it can be challenging to accomplish and there is a price.
Describe three types of biological influences on behavioral variability.
What we can sense about the world we live in and how we can react to everyday events is indeed limited by our physical features and capabilities.
A different set of organismic variables are developmental in nature and thus change over time.
Finally, although we think about an organism’s history as largely the result of environmental factors, these influences are actually mediated by the organism’s biology.
Why is it appropriate to view an organism’s environmental history as a biological influence?
For example, we often speak as if the environment is
changed by conditioning processes (“the neutral stimulus has now become a conditioned reinforcer”), but it is the organism that has changed at a biological level in ways we do not yet fully understand.
What are some of the types of extraneous variables that researchers might encounter?
- Unrelated to the experiment / Sickness, stress
- Part of the general experimental space / Lighting or ventilation
- Associated with general procedures / Task features, instructions
- Associated with the independent variable condition but not part of it / Social interactions tied to nonsocial independent variable
How can behavioral variability be influenced by the response class definition?
The possibility that cursing often results in different consequences than the other tantrum behaviors suggests that it might be a separate functional response class. If we assume this to be the case for this illustration, the inclusion of cursing in the definition of tantrum behavior may result in greater variability than we might see if we only measured hitting, kicking, and throwing responses.
How can behavioral variability be influenced by the selection of dimensional quantities?
If a quantity is chosen for measurement that does not
reveal meaningful changes in responding, the data may prompt misleading conclusions about the effects of treatment conditions.
How can behavioral variability be influenced by observing and recording procedures?
For instance, decisions about when observation takes place and how long sessions last will influence the picture of variability in the same way that a documentary film-maker making a movie about a foreign country determines viewers’ impressions by how scenes are selected.
What is experimental design?
Arrangement of control and treatment conditions that permit comparisons that help to identify the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
Describe the argument that the study of behavior must be based on comparisons of the behavior of individual participants under control and experimental conditions.
Within-subject design. A method of arranging comparisons
between control and experimental conditions in which each subject is exposed to both control and experimental conditions in sequence so that the data represent the performance of individual participants.
What is intersubject variability?
Differences in responding between participants.
