Terms

Question 1

Abative effect

Answer 1

A decrease in the current frequency of behavior that had been reinforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same MO. Ex. food ingestion abates (decreases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food.

Question 2

Abolishing Operation

Answer 2

A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or even. Ex. the reinforcing effectiveness of food is abolished as result of food ingestion.

Question 3

Adjunctive behavior/schedule-induced behavior

Answer 3

Behavior that occurs as a collateral effect of a schedule of periodic reinforcement for other behavior, time-filling or interim activities (ex. doodling, idle talking, smoking, drinking) that are induced by schedules of reinforcement during times when reinforcement is unlikely to be delivered.

Question 4

Antecedent

Answer 4

An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest

Question 5

Antecedent intervention

Answer 5

A behavior change strategy that manipulates contingency-independent antecedent stimuli (motivating operations).

Question 6

applied behavior analysis

Answer 6

The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for the improvement in behavior.

Question 7

Arbitrary stimulus class

Answer 7

Antecedent stimuli that evoke the same response but do not resemble each other in physical form or share a relational aspect such as bigger or under. (ex. peanuts, cheese, and chicken are members of arbitrary stimulus class if they evoke the response “sources of protein”).

Question 8

Artifact

Answer 8

An outcome ore result that appears to exist because of the way it is measured but in fact does not correspond to what actually occurred.

Question 9

Autoclitic

Answer 9

A secondary verbal operant in which some aspect of a speaker’’s own verbal behavior functions as an SD or an MO for additional speaker verbal behavior. The autoclitic relation can be thought of as verbal behavior about verbal behavior.

Question 10

Automatic reinforcement

Answer 10

Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (ex. scratching an insect bite relieves the itch).

Question 11

Automaticity of reinforcement

Answer 11

Refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the person’s own awareness; a person does not have to recognize or verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence or even know that a consequence has occurred in order for reinforcement to work.

Question 12

Aversive stimulus

Answer 12

In general, an unpleasant or noxious stimulus more technically a stimulus change or condition that functions to (a) evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past; (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior; and/or(c) as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior.

Question 13

Back-up reinforcers

Answer 13

Tangible objects, activities, or privileges that serve as reinforcers that can be purchased with tokens.

Question 14

Backward chainaing

Answer 14

A teaching procedure in which a trainer completes all but the last behavior in a chain, which is performed by the learner, who then receives reinforcement for completing the chain. When the learner shows competence in performing the final step in the chain, the trainer performs all but the last two behaviors in the chain, the learner emits the final two steps to complete the chain, and reinforcement is delivered. This sequence is continued until the learner completes the entire chain independently.

Question 15

Baseline

Answer 15

A condition of an experiment in which the independent variable is not present; data obtained during baseline are the bases for determining the effects of the independent variable; a control condition that does not necessarily mean the absence of instruction o treatment, only the absence of a specific independent variable of experimental interest.

Question 16

Behavior

Answer 16

The activity of living organisms; human behavior includes everything that people do. A technical definition: “that portion of an organism’s interaction with its environment that is characterized by detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism and that results in a measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment.

Question 17

Behavior altering-effect

Answer 17

An alteration in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is altered in effectiveness by the same MO. Ex. the frequency of behavior that has been reinforced with food is increased r decreased by food deprivation or food ingestion.

Question 18

Behavior contrast

Answer 18

The phenomenon in which a change in one component of a multiple schedule that increase or decreases the rate of responding on that component is accompanied by a change in the response rate in the opposite direction on the other, unaltered component of the schedule.

Question 19

Behavioral cusp

Answer 19

A behavior that has sudden and dramatic consequences that extend well beyond the idiosyncratic change itself because it exposes the person to new environments, reinforcers, contingencies, responses, and stimulus controls.

Question 20

Behavioral momentum

Answer 20

A metaphor to describe a rate of responding and its resistance to change following an alteration in reinforcement conditions. The momentum metaphor has also been used to describe the effects produced by the high-probability (high-p) request sequence.

Question 21

Behaviorism

Answer 21

The philosophy of a science of behavior, there are various forms of behaviorism.

Question 22

Component analysis

Answer 22

Any experiment designed to identify the active elements of a treatment condition, the relative contributions of different variables in a treatment package, and/or the necessary and sufficient components of an intervention. Component analyses take many forms, but the basic strategy is to compare levels of responding across the successive phases in which the intervention is implemented with one or more components left out.

Question 23

Concurrent schedule

Answer 23

A schedule of reinforcement in which two or more contingencies of reinforcement (elements) operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors.

Question 24

Conditional probability

Answer 24

The likelihood that a target behavior will occur in a given circumstance; computed by calculating (a) the proportion of occurrences of behavior that were preceded by a specific antecedent variable and (b) the proportion of occurrence of problem behavior that were followed by a specific consequence. Conditional probabilities range from 0.0 to 1.0; the closer the conditional probability is to 1.0, the stronger the relationship is between the target behavior an the antecedent/consequence variable.

Question 25

Conditioned Motivation Operation (CMO)

Answer 25

A motivating operation whose value-altering effect depends on a learning history. Ex. because of the relation between locked doors and keys, having to open a locked door is a CMO that makes keys more effective as reinforcers, and evokes behavior that has obtained such keys.

Question 26

Conditioned punsiher

Answer 26

A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers; sometimes called secondary or learned punisher.

Question 27

Condition ed reinforcer

Answer 27

A stimulus change the functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.

Question 28

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 28

The stimulus component of a conditioned reflex; a formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus or another conditioned stimulus.