Unit 1 SAFMEDS Flashcards
Behavior Analysis
A natural science that studies functional relations between behavior and environmental events.
Science and Technology
Two different areas of focus in behavior analysis.
Behavior
Behavior is everything that an organism does, the interaction of the muscles, glands, or other parts of a live organism with the environment.
6 Critical Attributes of Behavior
Behavior is a biological phenomenon, involves movement, can only be done by a living organism, observable, measurable, and involves interaction with the environment.
Behavior is a biological phenomenon
Only biological organisms engage in behavior, behavior has a biological and evolutionary basis
Behavior involves movement
Movement of muscles, glands and other body parts
Behavior is only done by a living organism
A single individual (a person, a pigeon)
Behavior is observable
At a minimum, the individual doing the behaving can detect its occurrence.
Behavior is measurable
Can be counted, timed or other dimensional quantities can be measured
Behavior involves interaction with the environment
The environment affects behavior and behavior affects the environment
The “What am I doing?” test and The “Dead Person’s” test
Two tests to determine whether a phenomenon is behavior
The “What am I doing?’ test
Must be a specific action that is measurable (usually countable)
The “Dead Person’s” test
If a dead person can “do” it, it is NOT behavior
Public behavior
Behavior that can be observed by others, even if special instrumentation is required
Private behavior
Behavior that is only accessible to the organism who is engaging in the private event and cannot be observed by others
Private events
A broader term for private behavior that includes private behavior and private environmental events
Response
A specific instance of behavior
Response cycle
The beginning, middle, and end of a response
Behavior is a collective term
Behavior refers to more than one occurrence of a specific behavior (multiple responses)
Property
A fundamental quality of a natural phenomenon
Fundamental properties of behavior
Temporal Locus, Temporal Extent, and Repeatability
Temporal Locus
A single response occurs in time; associated with latency
Temporal Extent
A response occupies time; associated with duration
Repeatability
A response can reoccur; associated with countability
Dimensional quantities
A quantifiable aspect of property
Latency
The amount of time between a stimulus and a response; associated with temporal locus
Duration
The amount of time between the beginning and the end of the response cycle; associated with temporal extent
Countability
The number of responses or number of cycles of the response class; associated with repeatability
IRT (Interresponse Time)
The time between two successive responses; associated with repeatability and temporal locus
Rate
The ratio of the number of responses over some period of time; associated with repeatability and temporal locus
Celeration
Change in one of the other dimensional quantities of behavior over time; associated with repeatability and temporal locus
Topography
Configuration, form, or shape of a response
Function
The effects or results of a response on the environment
Magnitude and Intensity
Topographical properties of a response class used to define behavior
Response Class
A grouping of individual actions or responses that share those commonalities included in the class definition
Topographical Response Class
A collection of two or more responses that share a common form
Functional Response Class
A collection of two or more topographically different responses that all have the same effect on the environment, usually producing a specific class of reinforcers
Environment
The total constellation of stimuli and conditions that can affect behavior
Environmental context
The set of circumstances in which behavior occurs at any given time
Stimulus
A change in the environment, which can affect behavior
Type of Human Receptors
Vision, hearing, smell, taste, cutaneous sense, organic sense, kinesthesis, vestibular sense
Antecedents and Consequences
Two general types of stimuli that are defined by their temporal relation to responses
Antecedent
A stimulus that precedes (occurs before) a response
Consequence
A stimulus that follows (occurs after) a response
Stimulus class
A group of stimuli that share a certain characteristic (along formal, temporal, and/or functional dimensions)
Functional relation
Changes in an antecedent or consequent stimulus class consistently after a dimension of a response class
4 Critical attributes of functional relations
Orderly relations between stimulus and response classes, changes in one variable (IV) result in changes in the second variable (DV), value of the behavioral dimensions (DV) changes in an orderly fashion, functional relations demonstrated through systematic manipulations
