Unit 2 Flashcards
3 characteristics of stimulus classes: _____
Formal, temporal, functional
Antecedent stimulus: _____
Environmental event that precedes a response
Consequence stimulus: _____
Environmental event that follows a response
Evoke: _____
Increases momentary probability of a response
Evocative effects:
Effect of antecedents to: _____
Increase momentary probability of a response
Abate: _____
Decreases momentary probability of a response
Abative effects of antecedents to _____
Decrease momentary probability of a response
Latency: _____
Time between antecedent stimulus and response
Consequence effect of
Strengthening: _____
Increases future probability of a behavior
Consequence effect of
Weakening: _____
Decreases future probability of a behavior
Determinism: _____
Phenomena are lawful and occur in a systematic way
Determinants of behavior: _____
Biological and environmental factors
Selection: repeated cycles of: _____
Variation, interaction, and differential replication
Selection: variation and interaction with the environment results in: _____
differential replication
______ is the result of Selectionism
Genetic and behavioral diversity
Contingency: _____
Dependent relation between events
- Emphasizes the likelihood that one event is a result of another even
Functional relation is a mathematical: _____
Relation between IV and DV
Parsimony: _____
Rule out simple explanations before evaluating complex ones
Environmental explanations describe: _____
Behavior as a function of current environment and past experience
Explanatory fictions describe behavior as caused by: _____
Hypothetical construct within individual or future events
IV manipulated in behavior analysis: _____
Stimulus class
DV studied in behavior analysis: _____
Response class
Stimulus class properties: Based on temporal location: \_\_\_\_\_
Antecedents and consequences
Stimulus class properties: Based on functional relation: \_\_\_\_\_
Same effect on behavior or another stimulus
Stimulus class properties: Based on formal properties: \_\_\_\_\_
Same physical characteristics (form)
Antecedents:
2 effects on behavior: _____
Evocative and abative
Consequences:
2 effects on behavior: _____
Strengthening or weakening
3 types of selection: _____
Natural, operant, cultural
Types of environmental contingencies: _____
S-S
R-S
S-R-S
Stimulus class definition
A group of stimuli (AKA a stimulus class) that share one or more common formal, temporal, or functional characteristics
Two types of environmental variables
Antecedents and consequences
External environment and non-social antecedent example
- Light changes from green to red right before (antecedent) > you press the brake (response)
- Rain starts (antecedent) > you open your umbrella (response)
External environment and social antecedent example
(Radhika is the behaver): Frank says, “Would you like to meet me for dinner tonight at Tandoor India Cuisine?” (antecedent) > Radhika says, “I would love to. What time should we meet there?” (response)
The behaver’s responses are _____ and therefore _______
Not stimuli; are never antecedents
What is a precursor?
A response that may occur before another response; NOT AN ANTECEDENT
Consequences Outside the Skin Examples:
- Butch opens his umbrella (response) > rain stops falling on his head (consequence)
* Zach reaches for a tube of pain reliever (response) > tube is in his hand (consequence)
Consequences Within the Skin Examples:
- Zach applies pain reliever ointment to his back (response) > pain subsides (consequence)
- I eat a chip loaded with habanero pepper dip (response) > my tongue and throat feel an awful burning sensation (consequence)
The effects of responses are ______
Consequences
Social consequences example
○ Ask, “Where is Naoki’s?” (response) > Someone gives directions (consequence)
○ Grab sushi with fingers (response) > Naoki says, “Don’t do that!” (consequence)
Consequences are simply….
Stimuli
Environmental variables can have either:
- Immediate effects in the here and now on the behavior of interest
- Effects on future occurrences of the behavior of interest
S-R… Is not a contingency, it is….
A functional relation
Strongest contingency:
If X and only if X, then Y
Contingencies are, and can be
Probabilistic
When changes in an antecedent or consequent stimulus class consistently alter a dimension of a response class
A functional relationship exists
Behavior analysts seek to identify functional relations between
- manipulated environmental events
- behavior through systematic manipulations
Characteristics of Functional Relations
- Probabilistic (not cause-and-effect)
- Non-linear
- Complex (change over time with respect to changing conditions)
- Allow us to make predictions
Functional relations are between….
Environmental events and behavior
Contingencies lead to the development of ______
Functional relations, but not vice versa
Environmental Explanations Do NOT
- Rely on assumptions of an inner agency or entity within an organism
- Rely on descriptions or mere labels as causes of behavior
- Rely on what will happen in the future as a cause for current responses
Labels are Not…
Causes of Behavior (Ex. diagnosis, internal states, characteristics)
Mentalism: Yes or No?
○ “Can I measure the supposed explanation (IV) independently from the behavior it is said to cause (DV)?”
○ If you cannot independently measure (1) the behavior and (2) its supposed cause, then the supposed cause is an explanatory fiction
Terms for Non-Environmental Explanations
○ Explanatory fiction-based ○ Mentalistic ○ Teleological ○ Non-behavioral Non-environmental
Terms for Environmental Explanations
○ Behavioral ○ Behavior analytic ○ Scientific ○ Evidence-based Environmental
What two kinds of behavior were brought into perspective with the publication of B.F. Skinner’s The Behavior of Organisms?
Respondent and operant
What unit of analysis was a revolutionary conceptual breakthrough?
The experimental analysis of operant behavior > The 3 term contingency
How is mentalism defined in general terms?
An approach to the study of bx which assume that a mental or “inner” dimension exist that differs from a bx dimension
What level of selection applies to selection of genes related to survival and reproduction?
Natural
What level of selection by consequences applies to the selection of behavior within the lifetime of an individual organism?
Operant conditioning
What level of selection by consequences applies to the selection of behavior patterns of groups of human beings that endure beyond the lifetime of a single individual?
Cultural
Immediate causation
The physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of the organism
Remote causation
The principle of selection by consequences
