Stimulus & Response Classes

Question 1

Define conceptual behaviour.

Answer 1

When a class of stimuli that share stimulus features act as discriminative stimuli for responding. 
E.g., being able to identify when someone is inside a house vs inside a country. The person is able to identify inside-ness even when it occurs in diverse and novel situations.

Question 2

Define concept instances (aka examples)

Answer 2

The members of the stimulus class

Question 3

What are critical features?

Answer 3

defining/distinctive features that qualify it as a correct example of the concept

Question 4

What are variable features?

Answer 4

features of the stimuli that do not define it and vary from one stimulus to the next

Question 5

What are must a learner be able to do for successful learning of a concept?

Answer 5

discriminate the critical and variable features

Question 6

Explain why learning to respond to stimulus features, rather than individual stimuli, is valuable.

Answer 6

It enables the learner to respond to new stimulus-class members. So the learner is able to appropriately respond and accurately assess new situations, opposed to learning how to deal with only specific instances. By recognizing the features of the situations, they are prepared to deal with many types of incidences.

Question 7

Explain how concept learning involves both discrimination and generalization

Answer 7

The learner needs to be able to identify what stimulus-class the concept belongs to, but also what it doesn't belong to. 
E.g., that something is a part of a democracy, but it is not part of a monarchy, dictatorship, etc. This influences what rules apply to that category, such as voting.

Question 8

Describe errors of undergeneralization

Answer 8

Occurs when a student has learned to identify a specific stimuli and is unable to identify others that belong to the stimulus-class.

Question 9

Describe errors of overgeneralization

Answer 9

the learner incorrectly Identifies concept non-instances outside of the conceptual-stimulus class as concept instances.

Question 10

Describe what is necessary to test for conceptual behaviour

Answer 10

Novel test items that the learner has not encountered before so that they can demonstrate the ability to identify critical features as discriminative stimuli.

Question 11

Describe the relation between concepts and words.

Answer 11

It allows us to talk, read and write about stimuli that are too numerous to encounter directly. We can then discuss abstract relations.

Question 12

Describe the benefits of using words to refer to concepts.

Answer 12

Words refer to concept features free our thinking from the constraints of specific stimuli by allowing us to refer to stimulus features in isolation and in relation to other stimulus features.

Question 13

Describe the common factors between conceptual discrimination and stimulus discrimination that make them each effective.

Answer 13

Conceptual discrimination is a type of stimulus discrimination, so the principles that make stimulus discrimination effective generally apply to conceptual discrimination as well. Factors such as active responding, pretraining procedures, similarity of the stimuli, the relationship between the training and goal stimuli, the similarity of required responses, the rate of stimulus presentation and the order of stimulus presentation all contribute. For teaching, prompting, fading and multiple examples are useful.

Question 14

What conditions contribute to the effectiveness of conceptual discrimination?

Answer 14

(a) defining the goal of conceptual discrimination through concept analysis - defines the teacher identify the best methods and materials
(b) using concept definitions - helps the student distinguish between examples and nonexamples by taking advantage of their learning history
(c) training discrimination skills with examples and non-examples - helps the student learn the range and variations in the stimulus class

Question 15

Define concept analysis.

Answer 15

When a concept is broken down into its critical and variable features. Usually 3 critical features are identified and a few variable features, too.

Question 16

Define concept definition.

Answer 16

A rule that specifies the features of a concept that make it a member of the conceptual stimulus class. This helps learners know a “rule” of how to distinguish between examples and non-examples.

Question 17

Describe the major problem with teaching concepts exclusively through definitions.

Answer 17

It doesn’t give the student opportunities to learn the range and richness of variation in the examples of the conceptual stimulus class.

Question 18

Describe how focal examples contributes concept learning.

Answer 18

Prototypical examples that promote long term retention because it demonstrates the critical features of the concept.
They are better remembered than abstract information. It gives abstract material a concrete representation.

Question 19

Describe how using a range examples contributes concept learning.

Answer 19

Shows how a concept can vary while still qualifying as an example.
This illustrates the “sameness principle” which allows students to see how all of the concept examples are alike, despite them being different.

Question 20

Describe how using very similar non-examples contributes to concept learning.

Answer 20

When the differences are more than minimal, errors of misconception (aka misrules) are likely to occur because often the variable features of the concept are responded to as critical features. Because of this, non-examples should only miss one critical feature.

Question 21

Define errors of misconception.

Answer 21

When the variable features are responded to as critical features.

Question 22

Define generalized response class.

Answer 22

Acquired when the learner can engage in new responses to the stimulus features than those they were trained to respond to.
(operant)

Question 23

Define generalized imitation training

Answer 23

The learner is prompted/reinforced for specific models of behaviour, enabling the learner to imitate a new modelled response.

Question 24

How is generalized imitation an example of generalized response class?

Answer 24

(a) the response has a specific feature (it matches the model’s response)
(b) the learner is able to imitate new model responses without further training.

Question 25

Explain Goetz and Baer’s work in training creative responding illustrate generalized response classes.

Answer 25

They trained preschoolers to perform novel forms of block building by reinforcing their creations, and they began coming up with novel buildings at a higher rate. This is an example of generalized response class because (a) the trained response had a specific feature (it had to be different from what the child had done before)
(b) the training resulted in the children being able to perform new responses that had the specific property which was novelty.

Question 26

Compare and contrast conceptual behaviour with generalized responses classes.

Answer 26

• Both conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes are defined in terms of features. Conceptual behaviour has stimulus features rather than specific stimuli acting as discriminative stimuli for a response. In a generalized response class, the learner is able to engage in a variety of responses that have certain response features in common rather than one specific trained response.
• They both have stimulus and response class members that differ from each other in certain aspects. With conceptual behaviour, different conceptual class members differ because they have different variable features. Generalized response classes responses can differ as long as they contain the critical response features that define the class.
• The tests for both are similar because they require that the learner do something new. With conceptual behaviour, the learner must respond correctly to new stimuli that have the critical concept features so as to show that the learner is responding to the concept features and not specific isolated stimuli. With generalized stimulus classes, the learner must engage in new behaviours that have the critical features of the response class so as to show that the learner has acquired behaviour with certain critical response features rather than specific isolated responses.

Question 27

What is general-case instruction?

Answer 27

• It is combining conceptual and generalized response classes.
• The basic strategy of general-case instruction is to give the learner a range of teaching tasks in which the same basic stimulus and response features are present, but the specific stimuli and responses in each task vary. It provides the basic pattern for much complex behaviour that involves both conceptual discrimination and generalized response classes (e.g., rule-learning, applying schemes, using learning strategies, problem-solving).

Question 28

What are the conditions that influence the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes?

Answer 28

(a) defining the goal tasks
(b) analyzing the critical stimulus and response features
(c) providing rules that identify the critical stimulus and response features
(d) using a variety of tasks
(e) testing for stimulus and response class formation by requiring performance on novel tasks.

Question 29

Describe how defining the goal tasks influences the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes

Answer 29

Define the target skills that the learner is to acquire. The task should be able to teach these goals with both conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes. This helps the instructor create resources that are relevant to the students’ learning.

Question 30

Describe how analyzing the critical stimulus and response features influences the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes

Answer 30

The critical and variable features of the concept must be identified in order to derive illustrations for teaching and testing purposes. This applies to both conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes (critical response features that define class membership and variable features between stimulus class members). To do this, a sameness analysis might be helpful. By analyzing the critical stimulus and critical response features, tasks can be divided into classes and instruction can focus on teaching the sameness (the essential stimulus and response features that make different tasks alike). When teachers do not do this, students often fail to see this for themselves and lose out on the opportunity of better, clearer, more structured understanding.

Question 31

Describe how providing rules that identify the critical stimulus and response features influences the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes

Answer 31

Rules that help the students engage in conceptual behaviour by discrimination among critical features, or to engage in response features that inform the learner of what features (i.e., sameness) are required in a task help the learner acquire the desired skills/understanding. Rules are helpful because words in the definition can identify critical stimulus and critical response features (drawing on the learner’s learning history). It can address the features necessary to correctly perform the task.

Question 32

Describe how using a variety of tasks influences the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes

Answer 32

When training both conceptual behaviour and generalized responses classes simultaneously, a variety of tasks that sample the stimulus and response variations that exist in the stimulus and response classes is helpful. This method has been shown repeatedly in studies to improve the learner’s performance in a novel situation when compared to teaching with a single instance/object.

Question 33

Describe how testing for stimulus and response class formation by requiring performance on novel tasks influences the learning of conceptual behaviour and generalized response classes

Answer 33

It is essential to test with novel stimuli, as it is the only way to determine if a class of stimuli and responses have been learned rather than specific responses to specific stimuli.

Question 34

Define sameness analysis. Why is it important?

Answer 34

Identifying common stimulus and response features that are present in tasks, and making this the basis for instruction