S Flashcards
A decrease in the frequency of operant behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinforcer that has followed the behavior; also refers to a procedure for reducing the effectiveness of a reinforcer (eg; presenting a person with copious amounts of a reinforcing stimulus prior to a session)
Satiation
A two dimensional graph that shows the relative distribution of individual measures in a data set with respect to the variables depicted by the X and Y axes
- Data points on this are not connected
Scatterplot
A procedure for recording the extent to which a target behavior occurs more often at particular times than others; involves dividing the day into blocks of time, and using different symbols on an observation form to indicate the level of the target behavior (eg; a lot, some, or not at all)
Scatterplot Recording
A rule of specifying the environmental arrangements and response requirements for reinforcement; a description of a contingency of reinforcement
Schedule of Reinforcement
Changing a contingency of reinforcement by gradually increasing the response ratio or the extent of the time interval; it results in a lower rate of reinforcement per responses, time, or both
Schedule Thinning
A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena (as evidenced by description, prediction, and control) that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience
Science
An interobserver agreement index based only on the intervals in which either observer recorded the occurrence of the behavior; calculated by dividing the number of intervals in which either or both observers recorded the occurrence of the behavior and multiplying by 100
- This is recommended as a measure of agreement for behaviors that occur at low rates because it ignores the intervals in which agreement by chance is highly unlikely
Scored Interval IOA
The fundamental principle underlying operant conditioning; the basic tenet is that all forms of (operant) behavior, from simple to complex, are selected, shaped, and maintained by their consequences during an individual’s lifetime; Skinner’s concept of selection by consequences is parallel to Darwin’s concept of natural selection of genetic structures in the evolution of species
Selection by Consequences
A category of verbal behavior in which the speaker points to or selects a particular stimulus; what is conveyed to the listener is the information on the stimulus selected
Selection Based Verbal Behavior
A theory that all forms of life naturally and continually evolve as a result of the interaction between function and the survival value of that function
- Operant selection by consequences is the conceptual and empirical foundation of behavior analysis
Selectionism
Contingency contract that a person makes with himself or herself, incorporating a self selected task and reward as well as personal monitoring of task completions and self delivery of the reward
Self Contract
A person’s ability to “delay gratification” by emitting a response that will produce a larger (or higher quality) delayed reward over a response that produces a smaller but immediate reward
Self Control [Impulse Analysis]
Skinner (1953) conceptualized self control as a two way response phenomenon: the controlling response affects variables in such a way as to change the probability of the controlled response
Self Control [Skinner’s Analysis]
A procedure in which a person compares her performance of a target behavior with a predetermined goal or standard; often a component of self management
Self Evaluation
Self generated verbal responses, covert or overt, that function as rules or response prompts for a desired behavior; as a self management tactic, this can guide a person through a behavior chain or sequence of tasks
Self Instruction
The personal application of behavior change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior
Self Management
A procedure whereby a person systematically observes his behavior and records the occurrence or non occurrence of a target behavior
Self Monitoring
A two dimensional graph with a logarithmic scaled Y axis so that equal distances on the vertical axis represent changes in behavior that are of equal proportion
Semilogarithmic Chart
A procedure by which behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement are placed on extinction by masking or removing the sensory consequence
Sensory Extinction
The effects on a subject’s behavior in a given condition that are the result of the subject’s experience with a prior condition
Sequence Effects
The extent to which a learner emits the target behavior in a setting or stimulus situation that is different from the instructional setting
Setting/Situation Generalization
Using differential reinforcement to produce a series of gradually changing response classes; each response class is a successive approximation toward a terminal behavior
- Members of an existing response class are selected for differential reinforcement because they more closely resemble the terminal behavior
Shaping
Responding is under stimulus control of a single antecedent stimulus condition; described by the three term contingency: SD —-> R—->SR+
Simple Discrimination
A single component word or phrase evokes a nonmatching intraverbal response (eg; upon hearing “ready, set…,” a child says “go”)
Simple Verbal Discrimination
An arrangement in which types of stimulus equivalence probes are introduced sequentially, beginning with symmetry, followed by transitivity (if relevant), and then combined tests for equivalence
Simple to Complex Testing Protocol
A wide variety of research designs that use a form of experimental reasoning called baseline logic to demonstrate the effects of the independent variable on the behavior of individual subjects
Single Case Designs
Refers to the extent to which target behaviors are appropriate, intervention procedures are acceptable, and important and significant changes in target and collateral behaviors are produced
Social Validity
A contingency in which an antecedent stimulus and/or the consequence for the behavior is presented by another person
Socially Mediated Contingency (Reinforcement)
A verbal response evoked by a stimulus property that is only indirectly related to the proper tact relation (eg; Yogi Berra’s classic malapropism: “baseball is ninety percent mental; the other half is physical.”)
Solistic (Tact) Extension
A procedure for implementing DRL in which reinforcement follows each occurrence of the target behavior that is separated from the previous response by a minimum interresponse time (IRT)
Spaced Responding DRL
Responding jointly to two stimuli on the basis of their juxtaposition in space
Spatial Relation
Someone who engages in verbal behavior by emitting mands, tacts, intraverbals, autoclitics, ect…
- This is also someone who uses sign language, gestures, signals, written words, codes, pictures, or any form of verbal behavior
Speaker
A line drawn through a series of graphed data points that shows the overall trend in the data; drawn through the intersections of the vertical and horizontal middles of each half of the charted data and then adjusted up or down so that half of all the data points fall on or above and half fall on or below the line
Split Middle Line of Progress
A behavioral effect associated with extinction in which the behavior suddenly begins to occur after its frequency has decreased to its pre reinforcement level or stopped entirely
Spontaneous Recovery
Data that show no evidence of an upward or downward trend; all of the measures fall within a relatively small range of values
Stable Baseline
A multiply divide chart with six base - 10 (or x 10, divided by 10) cycles on the vertical axis that can accommodate response rates as low as 1 per 24 hours (0.000695 per minute) to as high as 1000 per minute
- It enables the standardized charting of celeration, a factor by which rate of behavior multiplies or divides per unit of time
Standard Celeration Chart
A pattern of responding that exhibits relatively little variation in its measured dimensional quantities over a period of time
Steady State Responding
Repeatedly exposing a subject to a given condition while trying to eliminate or control extraneous influences on the behavior and obtaining a stable pattern of responding before introducing the next condition
Steady State Strategy
An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells
Stimulus
Occurs when a competing stimulus blocks the evocative function of a stimulus that has acquired stimulus control over the behavior (sometimes called masking)
- This can be mitigated by rearranging the physical environment, making instructional stimuli appropriately intense, and consistently reinforcing behavior in the presence of the instructionally relevant discriminative stimuli
Stimulus Blocking
A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal (eg; size, color), temporal (eg; antecedent or consequent) and/or functional (eg; discriminative stimulus) dimensions
Stimulus Class
A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus
Stimulus Control
A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has not produced reinforcement, or has produced reinforcement of lesser quality, in the past
Stimulus Delta (S^)
When one stimulus (the SD) signals the availability of reinforcement and the absence of that stimulus (the S^) signals a zero or reduced chance of reinforcement, responses will occur more often in the presence of the SD than in its absence (the S^)
Stimulus Discrimination
The conventional procedure requires one behavior and two antecedent stimulus conditions
- responses are reinforced in the presence of one stimulus condition, the SD, but not in the presence of the other stimulus, the S^
Stimulus Discrimination Training
The emergence of accurate responding to untrained and non reinforced stimulus - stimulus relations following the reinforcement of responses to some stimulus - stimulus relations
- Requires successful performances on three types of probe trials - reflexivity, symmetry, and transitivity - in the absence of reinforcement
Stimulus Equivalence
A method of transferring stimulus control that involves highlighting a physical dimension of a stimulus (eg; size, color, position) to increase the likelihood of a correct response and then gradually diminishing the exaggerated dimension until the learner is responding correctly to the naturally occurring stimulus
Stimulus Fading
When an antecedent stimulus has a history of evoking a response that has been reinforced in its presence, the same type of behavior tends to be evoked by stimuli that share similar physical properties with the controlling antecedent stimulus
Stimulus Generalization
A graphic depiction of the extent to which behavior that has been reinforced in the presence of a specific stimulus condition is emitted in the presence of other stimuli
- The gradient shows relative degrees of stimulus generalization and stimulus control (or discrimination)
- A flat slope across test stimuli shows a high degree of stimulus generalization and relatively little discrimination between the trained stimulus and other stimuli; a slope that drops sharply from its highest point corresponding to the trained stimulus indicates a high degree of stimulus control (discrimination) and relatively little stimulus generalization
Stimulus Generalization Gradient
A variety of procedures used to determine the stimuli that a person prefers, the relative preference values (high versus low) of those stimuli, the conditions under which those preference values remain in effect, and their presumed value as reinforcers
Stimulus Preference Assessment
Prompts that operate directly on the antecedent task stimuli to cue a correct response in conjunction with the critical SD (eg; changing the size, color, or position of a stimulus within an array to make its selection more likely)
Stimulus Prompts
Refers to two different forms of stimulus control that can result from a match to sample procedure involving one sample stimulus and two comparison stimuli; when presented with A1 as the sample, a participant can either select B1 (known as Type S or Select Responding) or reject B2 (known as Type R or Reject Responding)
Stimulus Control Topographies
A procedure in which two stimuli are presented at the same time, usually repeatedly for a number of trials, which often results in one stimulus acquiring the function of the other stimulus
Stimulus - Stimulus Pairing
The sequence of new response classes that emerge during the shaping process as the result of differential reinforcement; each successive response class is closer in form to the terminal behavior than the response class it replaces
Successive Approximations
A stimulus that acquires its MO effectiveness by being paired with another MO and has the same value altering and behavior altering effects as the MO with which it was paired
Surrogate Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-S)
A type of stimulus to stimulus relationship in which the learner, without prior training or reinforcement for doing so, demonstrates the reversibility of matched sample and comparison stimuli (eg; if A=B, then B=A)
- This would be demonstrated in the following matching to sample procedure: the learner is taught, when presented with the spoken word car (sample stimulus A), to select a comparison picture of a car (comparison B)
- When presented with the picture of a car (sample stimulus B), without additional training or reinforcement, the learner selects the comparison spoken word car (comparison A)
Symmetry
A behavior therapy treatment for anxieties, fears, and phobias that involves substituting one response, generally muscle relaxation, for the unwanted behavior - the fear and anxiety
- The client practices relaxing while imagining anxiety producing situations in a sequence from the least fearful to the most fearful
Systematic Desensitization
An experiment in which the researcher purposefully varies one or more aspects of an earlier experiment
- A systematic replication that reproduces the results of previous research not only demonstrates the reliability of the earlier findings but also adds to the external validity of the earlier findings by showing that the same effect can be obtained under different conditions
Systematic Replication
