Unit 1

Question 1

A stimulus or event that precedes the target behavior.

Answer 1

Antecedent

Question 2

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 of behavior.

Answer 2

ABA

Question 3

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

Answer 3

Automatic reinforcement

Question 4

A stimulus change or condition that functions to evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past, as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior.

Answer 4

Aversive stimulus

Question 5

A behavior that prevents an aversive event.

Answer 5

Avoidance behavior

Question 6

A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of a stimulus.

Answer 6

Avoidance contingency

Question 7

The philosophy of a science of behavior.

Answer 7

Behaviorism

Question 8

Disruptive behaviors which represent a major obstacle to habilitation. Severe aggression, self-injurious behavior, and violent tantrums are some of the behaviors that significantly restrict the lives of those who engage in them.

Answer 8

Challenging behavior

Question 9

A previously neutral stimulus that has been paired a number of times with an established reinforcer and consequently functions as a reinforcer itself.

Answer 9

Conditioned reinforcer

Question 10

A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest.

Answer 10

Consequence

Question 11

Variables that are relevant to describing the stimulus environment. These can include people and items present.

Answer 11

Environmental variables

Question 12

Behavior that results in the termination of an aversive stimulus.

Answer 12

Escape behavior

Question 13

A contingency in which a response terminates (produces escape from) an ongoing stimulus.

Answer 13

Escape contingency

Question 14

Interventions that decrease problem behaviors without the use of punishment by modifying the antecedents and consequences that control the behaviors.

Answer 14

Functional interventions

Question 15

Designates responses as members of the targeted response class solely in terms of their common effect on the environment.

Answer 15

Function-based definition

Question 16

The environment where instruction occurs; includes all aspects of the environment, planned and unplanned, that may influence the learner’s acquisition and generalization of the target behavior.

Answer 16

Instructional setting

Question 17

An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that an “inner” dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension, and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior.

Answer 17

Mentalism

Question 18

A type of reinforcement in which the occurrence of the behavior is followed by the removal or avoidance of an aversive stimulus.

Answer 18

Negative reinforcement

Question 19

The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.

Answer 19

Parsimony

Question 20

A type of reinforcement in which, contingent on the behavior, a stimulus or event is presented and the probability of the behavior increases in the future.

Answer 20

Positive reinforcement

Question 21

A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behavior, and time.

Answer 21

Principle of behavior

Question 22

Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity.

Answer 22

Replication

Question 23

Repetitive behaviors that do not serve any social function for the individual.

Answer 23

Stereotypic behavior

Question 24

The response class selected for intervention.

Answer 24

Target behavior

Question 25

A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforcer as a result of the evolutionary development of the species.

Answer 25

Unconditioned negative reinforcer

Question 26

The occurrence alone of a stimulus that acquired its function by being paired with an already effective stimulus, or the occurrence of the stimulus in the absence as well as in the presence of the effective stimulus.

Answer 26

Unpairing