Section B: Concepts and Principles Flashcards
What is behavior?
Activity of living organisms. If a dead man can do it, it is not behavior.
Example: Riding a bike
Non-example: Laying down
What is a response?
A single instance or occurrence of a behavior
Example: Jumping or clapping one time
What is a response class?
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
Topography:
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
What is a stimulus?
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
What is a stimulus class?
A group of stimuli that share common features (formally, temporally, or functionally similar)
Example: Football and soccer ball
Respondent behavior is:
An unconditioned, reflex behavior of an organism
Example: Squinting in the presence of a bright light, salivating at the smell of food
Respondent conditioning refers to:
The process of pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and elicits a response
Conditioned stimulus:
A formerly neutral stimulus that now elicits a response after having been paired with an unconditioned stimulus or another conditioned stimulus
Unconditioned stimulus:
A stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning
Neutral stimulus:
A stimulus change that does not elicit a response
Respondent extinction:
What is operant behavior?
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:
Positive reinforcement is:
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
Negative reinforcement is:
A response is immediately followed by the REMOVAL of a stimulus change that INCREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again
Positive punishment is:
A response is immediately followed by the PRESENTATION of a stimulus change that DECREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again
Negative punishment is:
A response is immediately followed by the REMOVAL of a stimulus change that DECREASES the likelihood of the response occurring again
What is reinforcement?
A response consequence that increases the likelihood of the response occurring again
What is punishment?
A response consequence that decreases the likelihood of the response occurring again
What are schedules of reinforcement?
Environmental arrangements that determine conditions by which behaviors will produce reinforcement; what behavioral responses must occur for reinforcement to occur
Unconditioned reinforcer:
A stimulus change that can INCREASE the future occurrences of a behavior WITHOUT prior pairing with any form of reinforcement
Unconditioned punisher:
A stimulus change that can DECREASE the future occurrences of a behavior WITHOUT prior pairing with any form of reinforcement
Conditioned reinforcer:
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
Conditioned punisher
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
Three Term Contingency
Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence; in a specific context (A), a behavior occurs (B), because of the consequences that follow (C)
What is a discriminated operant?
A behavior that occurs more often under some antecedent conditions that it occurs in others
When does stimulus control occur?
When an operant becomes discriminated. That is, when a behavior occurs more often under some conditions than others.
What is a discriminative stimulus?
A stimulus that has been trained to elicit a specific response
How do you describe discriminative stimuli?
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.
What are generalized punishers and reinforcers?
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”
What is operant extinction?
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?"
Explain stimulus control
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
What is meant by discrimination?
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
Describe generalization
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
What is meant by maintenance?
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
What are motivating operations?
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.
What is rule-governed behavior?
Behavior controlled by verbal statements; they do not require direct experience with a contingency
Example: Following GPS directions
What is contingency-shaped behavior?
Behavior acquired by direct experience with contingencies
Example: Waiting for a turn on a swing
What are the basic verbal operants?
Tact, mand, intraverbal, duplic (echoic, motor imitation, copying text), and codic (textual, taking dictation)
Tacts are:
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”
Mands are:
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)
Echoics are:
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.
Motor imitation
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.
Textual behavior is:
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
Intraverbals are:
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”
Derived stimulus relations are:
A behavior that is a byproduct of directly taught relationships between stimuli that is NOT directly taught and includes related stimuli
Derived stimulus relations includes
Reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity
Reflexivity
A=A
Symmetry
A=B
Transitivity
A=B, B=C, so A=C
