Wk 6: ABA Terminology

Question 1

Analytic

Answer 1

Analysts work to develop experimental control over the occurrence and nonoccurrence of behavior and functional relations

Question 2

Behavioral

Answer 2

This is a dimension of ABA, but it means that precise measurement is collected on actual behaviors that require improvement and that documentation needs to be taken to show that is was the client’s behavior that was changed.

measurement and documentation of precise behaviors

Question 3

Effective

Answer 3

Behaviors change in the practical use of the client.

Question 4

Generality

Answer 4

changes in behavior last over time, transfer to new environments, appear in novel environments and appear across behaviors

Question 5

Applied

Answer 5

Changing socially significant behaviors

Question 6

Aversive stimulus

Answer 6

A stimulus that behaves as a punisher when following a behavior and a reinforcer when removed after a behavior

Question 7

Behavior change tactic

Answer 7

Technologically consistent behavior change method that shows generality across settings and or behaviors to warrant codification and dissemination

Question 8

Determinism

Answer 8

the universe is organized and things happen for a reason

Question 9

Stimulus control

Answer 9

when a behavior reliably appears in the presence of a certain stimulus

Question 10

Behavioral Contrast

Answer 10

Rate of responding decreases on punishing component and increases another component.

Grandma scolds child for cookie before dinner, child no longer eats cookies in front of grandma but when grandma is not there the rate of them eating cookies before dinner increases with her not in the room

Question 11

Behavioral chain

Answer 11

This represents a specific sequence of responses that must be completed to reach a terminal behavior.

Question 12

Challenging Behavior

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

Avoidance behavior

Answer 13

This is behavior that results in avoiding an aversive stimulus- so the aversive stimulus does not occur but there is the threat of its occurrence. Avoidance behavior can be considered a challenging behavior.

Question 14

Conceptually systematic

Answer 14

A dimension of ABA that means that the procedures used to change behaviors are derived from basic principles of behavior.

Question 15

Applied behavioral analysis

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Conditioned reinforcer
Unconditioned reinforcer
Conditioned punisher
Unconditioned punisher

Question 17

Generalized conditioned punisher

Answer 17

A stimulus change that, as a result of having been paired with many other punishers, functions as punishment under most conditions because it is free from the control of motivating conditions for specific types of punishment.

Question 18

Negative Punishment

Answer 18

A response behavior is followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus, or a decrease in the intensity of the stimulus, that decreases the future frequency of similar responses under similar conditions.

Question 19

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Positive Punishment

Answer 20

A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior.

Question 21

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

Principals of behavior

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Parsimony

Answer 23

This is one of the foundations of behaviorism. It is the practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.

Question 24

Punisher

Answer 24

A stimulus or event that, when presented contingent on the occurrence of a behavior, decreases the future probability of the behavior.

Question 25

Punishment

Answer 25

The process in which a behavior is followed by a consequence that results in a decrease in the future probability of the behavior.

Question 26

Radical Behaviorism

Answer 26

A thoroughgoing form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior-including private events such as thoughts and feelings-in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person and species.

Question 27

Methodological behaviorism

Answer 27

Adherents of methodological behaviorism believe that unobservable behaviors cannot be part of scientific exploration (in contrast to radical behaviorism).

Question 28

Science

Answer 28

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophical doubt as its guiding conscience.