Section B: Concepts and Principles

Question 1

What is behavior?

Answer 1

Activity of living organisms. If a dead man can do it, it is not behavior.
Example: Riding a bike
Non-example: Laying down

Question 2

What is a response?

Answer 2

A single instance or occurrence of a behavior

Example: Jumping or clapping one time

Question 3

What is a response class?

Answer 3

A group of responses with the same function
Example: Ringing a doorbell, knocking on a door, or pressing an intercom button to get the attention of someone inside the house

Question 4

Topography:

Answer 4

Physical form of a behavior; how the behavior looks
Example: When describing riding a bike, the topography might include the motion of pushing the bike pedals and hand placement on the handlebars

Question 5

What is a stimulus?

Answer 5

An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells (an event that an organism experiences through any of the senses)
Example: A bell ringing

Question 6

What is a stimulus class?

Answer 6

A group of stimuli that share common features (formally, temporally, or functionally similar)
Example: Football and soccer ball

Question 7

Respondent behavior is:

Answer 7

An unconditioned, reflex behavior of an organism

Example: Squinting in the presence of a bright light, salivating at the smell of food

Question 8

Respondent conditioning refers to:

Answer 8

The process of pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and elicits a response

Question 9

Conditioned stimulus:

Answer 9

A formerly neutral stimulus that now elicits a response after having been paired with an unconditioned stimulus or another conditioned stimulus

Question 10

Unconditioned stimulus:

Answer 10

A stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning

Question 11

Neutral stimulus:

Answer 11

A stimulus change that does not elicit a response

Question 12

Respondent extinction:

Question 13

What is operant behavior?

Answer 13

Behavior that is the result of a history of interactions with the environment; the behavior is intentional to access a specific consequence based on what the person has learned will likely result in access

All operant behaviors are conditioned, paired, and have a history of reinforcement
Example:

Question 14

Positive reinforcement is:

Answer 14

A response is immediately followed by the PRESENTATION of a stimulus change that INCREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again
Example: Teacher praises a student after participating in a discussion and the student participates in more discussions

Question 15

Negative reinforcement is:

Answer 15

A response is immediately followed by the REMOVAL of a stimulus change that INCREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 16

Positive punishment is:

Answer 16

A response is immediately followed by the PRESENTATION of a stimulus change that DECREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 17

Negative punishment is:

Answer 17

A response is immediately followed by the REMOVAL of a stimulus change that DECREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 18

What is reinforcement?

Answer 18

A response consequence that increases the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 19

What is punishment?

Answer 19

A response consequence that decreases the likelihood of the response occurring again

Question 20

What are schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 20

Environmental arrangements that determine conditions by which behaviors will produce reinforcement; what behavioral responses must occur for reinforcement to occur

Question 21

Unconditioned reinforcer:

Answer 21

A stimulus change that can INCREASE the future occurrences of a behavior WITHOUT prior pairing with any form of reinforcement

Question 22

Unconditioned punisher:

Answer 22

A stimulus change that can DECREASE the future occurrences of a behavior WITHOUT prior pairing with any form of reinforcement

Question 23

Conditioned reinforcer:

Answer 23

A stimulus event that occurs just before, or simultaneous to, the occurrence of another reinforcer that later acquires the ability to reinforce a behavior on its own

Question 24

Conditioned punisher

Answer 24

A stimulus event that occurs just before, or simultaneous to, the occurrence of another punisher that later acquires the ability to punish a behavior on its own

Question 25

Three Term Contingency

Answer 25

Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence; in a specific context (A), a behavior occurs (B), because of the consequences that follow (C)

Question 26

What is a discriminated operant?

Answer 26

A behavior that occurs more often under some antecedent conditions that it occurs in others

Question 27

When does stimulus control occur?

Answer 27

When an operant becomes discriminated. That is, when a behavior occurs more often under some conditions than others.

Question 28

What is a discriminative stimulus?

Answer 28

A stimulus that has been trained to elicit a specific response

Question 29

How do you describe discriminative stimuli?

Answer 29

Dimensions of a discriminative stimulus cannot be described until operant conditioning has occurred; one doesn’t know which stimulus will elicit a response until the response has occurred and been strengthened.

Question 30

What are generalized punishers and reinforcers?

Answer 30

Stimulus changes that have been paired with numerous conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers and punishers
Example: Shaking your head while frowning as a generalized way of saying “no”

Question 31

What is operant extinction?

Answer 31

Withholding of all forms of reinforcement for a response class that had been previously reinforced
Example: Withholding attention for screaming behavior that previously was reinforced with attention by asking "what do you want?"

Question 32

Explain stimulus control

Answer 32

Stimulus control occurs when a discriminated behavior occurs more often in the presence of a specific stimulus than in its absence
Example: Students raise their hand to speak only when the teacher is in the room

Question 33

What is meant by discrimination?

Answer 33

A stimulus change elicits specific responses, but those responses do not occur without that stimulus change, and the stimulus change does not elicit different responses
Example: A child says “green” when shown a green square, but does not say “green” when shown a red square

Question 34

Describe generalization

Answer 34

Occurs when a variety of stimulus changes elicit a certain response
Example: Saying “Hello” when another person waves, nods, says “hello”, says “good morning”, or says “good afternoon” across multiple people and settings

Question 35

What is meant by maintenance?

Answer 35

A lasting change in behavior that does not require additional behavior modification regardless of behavior change technique used
Example: A child continues to use a spoon to eat cereal 6 months after a skills acquisition plan was implemented to teach her how to eat with utensils

Question 36

What are motivating operations?

Answer 36

Environmental variables that increase or decrease the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of a stimulus AND alters the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus
Example: A person accepts a sandwich after not having eaten for 5 hours, but does not accept a bowl of soup after eating the sandwich. The variable of hunger made the sandwich more valuable, but the soup was less valuable after hunger was satiated.

Question 37

What is rule-governed behavior?

Answer 37

Behavior controlled by verbal statements; they do not require direct experience with a contingency
Example: Following GPS directions

Question 38

What is contingency-shaped behavior?

Answer 38

Behavior acquired by direct experience with contingencies

Example: Waiting for a turn on a swing

Question 39

What are the basic verbal operants?

Answer 39

Tact, mand, intraverbal, duplic (echoic, motor imitation, copying text), and codic (textual, taking dictation)

Question 40

Tacts are:

Answer 40

A response in which the form is under functional control of a nonverbal Sd and history of conditioned reinforcement
Example: A child says “balloon” when he sees a balloon at a park. His Dad says, “yes, that’s a balloon”

Question 41

Mands are:

Answer 41

Responses whose forms are under the functional control of an MO and a history of specific reinforcment
Example: A child is thirsty (MO) and says “juice”. Her mother gives her juice (specific reinforcement)

Question 42

Echoics are:

Answer 42

Vocal responses under the functional control of an auditory Sd that has formal similarity between the Sd and response and a history of generalized reinforcement
Example: A therapist says “say ‘monkey’” and the client says “monkey”. The therapist praises the client.

Question 43

Motor imitation

Answer 43

Verbal behavior in the form of a motor response which is under the functional control of a visual verbal Sd and has formal similarity and a history of generalized reinforcement
Example: A therapist says “do this” while holding up her arms. The client imitates by holding up her arms. The therapist praises the client.

Question 44

Textual behavior is:

Answer 44

Verbal behavior whose form is under the functional control of a verbal Sd and a history of generalized reinforcement. It has no formal similarity, but has point-to-point correspondence
Example: Reading the word “library” aloud from a sign

Question 45

Intraverbals are:

Answer 45

Verbal behavior whose form is under the functional control of a verbal Sd that does NOT have point-to-point correspondence
Example: Teacher asks “what is a noun?” and the student responds “person, place, thing, or idea”

Question 46

Derived stimulus relations are:

Answer 46

A behavior that is a byproduct of directly taught relationships between stimuli that is NOT directly taught and includes related stimuli

Question 47

Derived stimulus relations includes

Answer 47

Reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity

Question 48

Reflexivity

Answer 48

A=A

Question 49

Symmetry

Answer 49

A=B

Question 50

Transitivity

Answer 50

A=B, B=C, so A=C