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| Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) |
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Definition
| 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 in behavior. |
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| The philosophy of a science of behavior: there are various forms of behaviorism |
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| The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion |
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| The objective observation of the phenomena of interest: objective observations are “independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist….Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone’s observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist |
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| A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another |
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| Experimental analysis of Behavior |
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Definition
| A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B.F. Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within-subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graphed data instead of statistical inference and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing. |
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| A fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account or understanding of the phenomenon, such as “intelligence” or “cognitive awareness” as explanations for why an organism pushes the lever when the light is on and food is available but does not push the lever when the light is off and no food is available |
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| A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment( or group related experiments) that describes the occurrence of the phenomena under study as a function of the operation of one or more specified change in one event (the dependent variable) can be produced by manipulating another event (the independent variable) and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely the result of other factors (confounding variables); in behavior analysis expressed as b=f(x1), (x2)….where b is the behavior and x1, x2, etc., are environmental variables of which the behavior is a function |
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| A presumed but unobserved process or entity |
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| An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental, or “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, if not all |
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| The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations |
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| An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continuously questioned. |
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| 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 (ontogeny) and the species (phylogeny). |
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| Repeating conditions with in an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity. (B) Repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors |
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| A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena (as evidenced by description, prediction, and control) 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 philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience. |
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| An environment condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest |
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| Automaticity of reinforcement |
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Definition
| Refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the persons awareness; a person does not have to recognize or verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know that a consequence as occurred, for reinforcement to “work”. (Contrast with automatic reinforcement |
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Definition
| In general, an unpleasant or noxious stimulus; more technically, a stimulus change or condition that functions (a) to evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past; (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or (c) as a reinforcer when with drawn following behavior. |
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| The activity of living organisms; human behavior includes everything that people do |
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| A technologically consistent method for changing behavior (e.g., differential reinforcement of other behavior, response cost); possesses sufficient generally across subjects, settings, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination. |
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| A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers; sometimes called secondary or learned punisher. (Compare with unconditioned punisher). |
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| A learned stimulus-response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., sound of refrigerator door opening) and the response it elicits (e.g., salivation); each person’s repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny). |
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Definition
| stimulus change that functions as a reinforcers because of prior pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US) or another CS. |
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| The stimulus component of a conditioned reflex: a formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) or another CS |
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| A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest. Some consequences, especially those that are immediate and relevant to current motivational states, have significant influence on future behavior; others have little effect. |
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| Refers to dependent and or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables |
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| Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred |
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Definition
| The state of an organism with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a particular type of reinforcer; also refers to a procedure for increasing the effectiveness of a reinforcer (e.g., with holding a person’s access to a reinforcer for a specified period of time prior to a session). |
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Definition
| An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others |
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Term
| Discriminative Stimulus (S^d) |
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Definition
| A stimulus in the presence of which responses of some types have been reinforced |
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| The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment |
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Definition
| operant) The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., responses no longer produce reinforcement); The primary effect is a decrease in the frequency of the behavior until it reaches a prereinforced level or ultimately ceases to occur. |
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Definition
| A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus; most often used to describe a reduction of respondent behavior as a function of repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus over a short span of time; some researchers suggest that the concept also applies to within-session changes with in operant behavior |
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| Higher Order Conditioning |
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Definition
| Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS). Also called secondary conditioning. |
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| An inclusive term referring in general to all of a person’s learning experiences and more specifically to past conditioning with respect to particular response classes or aspects of a person’s repertoire |
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Definition
| MO) An environmental variable that (a) alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and (b) alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus, object, or event |
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Definition
| A stimulus whose termination ( or reduction intensity) functions as reinforcement. (Contrast with positive reinforcer). |
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| (NS) A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior |
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| The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime |
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| Behavior that is selected, maintained, and brought under stimulus control as a function of its consequences; each person’s repertoire of operant behavior is a product of his history of interactions with the environment. |
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| The basic process by which operant learning occurs; consequences (stimulus changes immediately following responses) result in an increased (reinforcement) or decreased (punishment) frequency of the same type of behavior under similar motivational and environmental conditions in the future |
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Definition
The basic process by which operant learning occurs; consequences (stimulus changes immediately following responses) result in an increased (reinforcement) or decreased (punishment) frequency of the same type of behavior under similar motivational and environmental conditions in the future.
The history of the natural evolution of a species.
The history of the natural evolution of a species. |
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Definition
| Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increase the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions. |
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| A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behaviors, and time (e.g., extinction, positive reinforcement); an empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same function relation |
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| A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior hat immediately precedes it. |
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| Occurs when stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions. |
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| A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the responded behavior it elicits. (e.g., bright light-pupil contraction). Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes protect against harmful stimuli, help regulate the internal balance and economy of the organism, and promote reproduction |
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Definition
| Occurs when a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions |
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| A stimulus change that increase the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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| The response component of a reflex; behavior hat is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimulus. |
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Definition
| A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response |
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Definition
| The repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS)in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US); the CS gradually loses its ability to elicit the conditioned response until the conditioned reflex no longer appears in the individual’s repertoire. |
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Definition
| A single instance or occcurence of a specific class or type o behavior. Technical definition: and “action of an organism’s effector. An effector is an organ at the end of an efferent nerve fiber that is specialized or altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or in terms of other energy changes” (Michael, 2004, p.8). |
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| A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment. |
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| A decrease in the frequency of operant behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinforcer that has followed the behavior; also refers to a procedure for reducing the effectiveness of a reinforcer (e.g., presenting a person with copious amounts of a reinforcing stimulus prior to a session) |
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Term
| Selection by consequences |
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Definition
| The fundamental principle underlying operant conditioning; the basic tenet Is that all forms of (operant) behavior, from simple to complex, are selected, shaped, and maintained by their consequences during an individual’s lifetime; Skinner’s concept of selections by consequences is parallel to Darwin’s concept of natural selection of genetic structures in the evolution of species |
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| An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells |
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| A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal (e.g., size, color,) temporal (e.g., antecedent or consequent), and/or functional (e.g., discriminative stimulus) dimensions |
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| A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence of absence of an antecedent stimulus. |
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| Stimulus-stimulus pairing |
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Definition
| A procedure in which two stimuli are presented at the same time, usually repeatedly for a number of trials, which often results in one stimulus acquiring the function of the other stimulus |
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Definition
| The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior; encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecedent stimulus, behaviors, and consequence |
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Definition
| A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned punishers are products of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny), meaning that all members of a species are more or less susceptible to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punisher. |
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| A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny). Also called primary or unlearned reinforcer. |
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| The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning. |
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| A form of direct, continuous observation in which the observer records a descriptive, temporally sequenced account of all behavior(s) of interest and the antecedent conditions and consequences for those behaviors as those events occur in the client’s natural environment (also called ABD recording |
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| A checklist that provides descriptions of specific skills (usually in hierarchical |
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| A form of assessment that involves a full range of inquiry methods (observation, interview, testing, and the systematic manipulation of antecedent or consequence variables) to identify probable antecedent and consequent controlling variables, Behavioral assessment is designed to discover resources, assets, significant others competing contingencies, maintenance, and generality factors, and possible reinforcer and/or punishers that surround the potential target behavior |
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| A behavior that has sudden and dramatic consequences hat extend well beyond the idiosyncratic change itself because it exposes the person to new environments, reinforcers, contingencies, responses, and stimulus controls. |
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| An assessment protocol that acknowledges complex interrelationships between environment and behavior. An ecological assessment is a method for obtaining data across multiple settings and persons |
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| Function-Based definition |
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| Designates responses as members of the target response class solely in terms of their common effect on the environment |
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| occurs when a person’s repertoire has been changed such that short-and long-term reinforcers are maximized and short-and long-term punishers are minimized |
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| As a philosophy and principle, the belief that people with disabilities should, to he maximum extent possible, be physically and socially integrated into the mainstream of society regardless of the degree or type of disability. As an approach to interventions, the use of progressively more typical settings and procedures “to establish and/or maintain personal behaviors which are as culturally normal as possible” |
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| A behavior that, when learned, produces corresponding modifications or covariation in other untrained behaviors. |
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| Effects of an observation and measurement procedure on the behavior being measured. Recactivity is most likely when measurement procedures are obtrusive, especially if the person being observed is aware of the observed is aware of the observer’s presence and purpose |
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| Relevance of behavior rule |
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Definition
| Relevance of behavior rule Holds that only behaviors likely to produce reinforcement in the person’s natural environment should be target for change. |
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| Refers to the extent to which target behaviors are appropriate, intervention procedures are acceptable, and important and significant changes in target and collateral behaviors are produced |
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| The response class selected for intervention; can be defined either functionally or topographically |
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| The response class selected for intervention; can be defined either functionally or topographically |
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| Topographic-based definitions |
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Definition
| Defines instances of the targeted response class by the shape or form of the behaviors. |
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