Unit 5 Flashcards
3 term contingency
Antecedent and consequent contingencies that are involved in the process of conditioning or learning.
Behavioral contingency
A relationship between responses and the environmental events preceding and following them
Bx
That portion of an organisms interaction with its environment that involves movement of some part of the organism.
Intraorganism
A reference to the individual organism as a level of analysis.
Unit of analysis
A constituent part of a whole phenomenon that serves as a basis for experimental study. In the study of bx the unit Of analysis is the response class.
Response
A single instance of a response class
Response class
A collection of individual responses that have common sources of influence in the environment. Also called a bx.
Goal of developing and phrasing experimental questions
Developing a question whose subsequent experiment will generate data more revealing and useful than produced by any other previous question.
Considerations in choosing a response class
- compatibility with procedures
- sensitivity to iv
- influence by extraneous variables
- dimensional quantities
- measurability
Most important role of the experimental question
Guiding the selection of the iv(s)
Generality
The meaningfulness of experimental interpretations under circumstances different from those that generated the data.
Ignored day
A plotting convention referring to days on which the target bx could have occurred but was not measured. Data points bracketing such days should be connected in line graphs.
No chance day
A plotting convention referring to days on which the target bx could not have occurred. Data points bracketing such days should not be connected in line graphs.
Types of response definitions
- topographical
- functional
Which variable do you-as the experimenter- control?
Independent variable
in experimental notation a
_______
solid line indicates?
that the IV is in contact with the bx
in experimental notation a
- - - - - - -
dashed line indicates?
that the IV is NOT in contact with the bx
in experimental notation a
| |
vertical line, extending upward/downward indicates
beginning of another experimental phase
in experimental notation
}
a brace indicates?
subject, behavior, setting.
what do the vertical lines mean? | |
beginning of another phase
what does this mean? - - - - - - - - -
IV is not in contact with bx
what does this mean? _________
IV is in contact with bx
steady state
responding that exhibits relatively little variation in its measured dimensional quantities over a period of time. It can be cyclic.
transition state
responding is changing from one steady state to another
transitory state
end in a return to the original level or pattern of responding.
__________________ what state?
steady state
VVVVVVVVVVVVV what state?
steady state (cyclic)
_____n______ what state?
transitory
_______n———- what state?
transition
allow us to observe and record naturally occurring dimensions of behavior that take place in time and have characteristic physical properties.
direct measures
how long it takes to behave
duration
how long it takes to behave given the onset of stimuli
latency
behavior occurs in time
has rate/frequency
time passes between occurrences of behavior(IRT)
specific bx may not be emitted
it changes rate across time
celerates
measurable by rate, duration, force (electronically)
bx has intensity
natural grouping of behaviors that operate on the environment in the same way.
response classes
a target behavior needs:
- be sensitive to changes/experimental
conditions/independent variable. - to occur at a frequency that can be measured.
topographical response definition
has to do with form of bx
functional response class definition
has to do with function/cause of bx, not always obvious
inter-response time, latency and duration are…
temporal variations
Extent to which observed values match true
values
accuracy
Extent to which measurement yields same values
when exposed to same state of nature.
reliability
what is the difference between the primary focus of researchers and practitioners?
researchers try to identify empirical generalizations about the relation ship between bx and the environment that may generalize to human populations. Practitioners focus on changing an individual’s behaviors to solve problems that they are experiencing.
how is it that the researcher both controls and is controlled by the subject matter?
the researcher must control the factors whose effects are under study and other outside factors, while the data from the study serve as a prompt for any needed changes.
what are three key implications of Johnston and Pennypacker’s definition of bx?
bx can only occur in living organisms and must involve some form of movement, creating an interaction between the organism and the environment
what is the goal of developing and phrasing experimental questions?
developing a question whose subsequent experiment will generate data more revealing and useful than produced by any other previous question.
perhaps the most important role for any bx that will serve as the dependent variable is
to be sensitive to the IV
when measuring response classes that occur very frequently, one solution may be to identify and record ______.
episodes of responding
the use of _______ allows for making true statements when comparing units, describing relations, and predicting future outcomes.
absolute units
what is a limitation on what countability describes about bx?
it does not specify any temporal dimensions
the ideal approach to calculating frequency is to divide total count by _______.
time
what advantage does automatic observation have over human observation?
machines are much better at doing the same task repeatedly with out being influenced by anything outside of their programmed parameters
the ability of partial interval, whole interval, and momentary time sampling procedures to provide accurate descriptions of responding is affected by the
size of the interval and distribution of responses
the most notable advantages of using participants as observers is…
that they are always present when the bx occurs
the only way to assess accuracy is..
by comparing observed values with true values
if the target bx is directly measured, the data are automatically _______.
valid
what are the 3 general functions served by behavioral variability?
guides experimental decisions; provides foundation for interpretations; motivates researcher’s curiosities
by giving a participant repeated exposure first to the baseline condition and then to the intervention condition, the researcher is trying to get a graphical picture of responding under each condition that is _________ and _________.
complete; representative
if a researcher is measuring the duration of a target bx and achieves a steady state of responding, they can then conclude what about the frequency of that target bx?
they cannot make any conclusions about the frequency of the target bx.
______ interval scales allow descriptions of events that show how much they differ in terms of equal ratios between values.
logarithmic (ratio is key!!)
when displaying time on the horizontal axis, why is it important to represent time continuously?
representing time in a discontinuous manner can hide variability in the data.
______ addresses the question of if experimental procedures are repeated, with the same effects be obtained. While __________ addresses the question of if experimental findings are used under different circumstances, will the same kin of effects be obtained.
reliability; validity.
a measurement scale that allows description of events that show how much they differ in terms of equal ratios between values
logarithmic scale
a measurement scale that allows descriptions of events that show how much they differ in terms of equal intervals between values.
linear interval scale
an approach to data analysis that emphasizes largely graphical techniques focusing on discovering order and structure in the data.
exploratory data analysis (EDA)
requirements for comparing responding across multiple baselines
- each baseline must be independent of the others
- the sensitivity of each baseline to the intervention must eventually be demonstrated
- when the intervention is ongoing in one baseline the control condition must be ongoing in other baselines
- there must be suffient temporal overlap between intervention and control conditions in different baselines to allow extraneous effects to develop
- extraneous variables associated with the intervention condition must have the opportunity of influencing responding under the control condition.
