Term
| Applied Behavioral Analysis |
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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. |
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| A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time differs from one condition to another. |
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| Experimental Analysis of Behavior |
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| A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B.F. Skinner. |
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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. |
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| A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment that describes the occurrence of the phenomena under study as a function of the operation of one or more specified and controlled variables in the experiment in which a specific change in one event can be produced by manipulating another event. |
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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 at all. |
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| methodological behaviorism |
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| A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science. |
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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 continually 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 and the species. |
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| a) repeating conditions within 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 behaviors. |
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| 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 philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience. |
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| an environmental 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 person's awareness; a person does not have to recognize or relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know that a consequence has occurred for reinforcement to work. |
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| In general, an unpleasant or noxious stimulus; more technically a stimulus change or condition that functions a) to evoke a behavior that has terminated in the past b) as a punisher when presented following behavior c) as reinforcer when withdrawn following a behavior. |
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| The activity of living organisms |
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| A technologically consistent method for changing behavior derived from one or more principles of behavior. |
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| A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers. |
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| A learned stimulus-response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the response it elicits. |
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| A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers. |
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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 or other 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 that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred. |
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| 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 holding a person's access to a reinforcer for a specified period of time prior to a sesion. |
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| An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others. |
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| A stimulus in the presence of which responses of some type have been reinforced and in the absence of which the same type of responses have occurred and not been reinforced. |
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| the conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists. |
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| The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior in order to decrease the behavior or cease it to occur. |
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| A decreases 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. |
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| higher order conditioning |
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Definition
| Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus. |
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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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| An environmental variable that a)alters the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus b) alters the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus. |
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| a stimulus whose termination functions as reinforcement. |
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| 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. |
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| The history of the natural evolution of a species. |
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| Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of that 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. |
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| A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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| Occurs when stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that response. |
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| A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits. |
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| 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 increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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| All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task. |
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| All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task. |
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| The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited by antecedent stimuli. |
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| A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a NS is presented with and US until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response. |
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| The repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus; 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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| A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior. |
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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 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. |
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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, temporal, and/or functional dimensions. |
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| A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimuli. |
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Term
| 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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| The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior; encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecedent stimulus, behavior and consequence. |
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| 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, meaning that all members of the species are more or less susceptible to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punishers. |
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Definition
| A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism's learning history with the stimulus. |
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| The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning. |
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| Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others. |
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| A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers. |
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| generalized conditioned reinforcer |
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Definition
| A conditioned reinforcer that as a result of having been paired with many other reinforcers does not depend on an establishing operation for any particular form of reinforcement for its effectiveness. |
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| Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of that behavior. |
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| A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement. |
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| A principle that states that making the opportunity to engage in a high-probability behavior contingent on the occurrence of a low-frequency behavior will function as a reinforcement for the low frequency behavior. |
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| Refers to a variety of direct, empirical methods for presenting one or more stimuli contingent on a target response and measuring their effectiveness as reinforcers. |
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| response-deprivation hypothesis |
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Definition
| A model for predicting whether contingent access to one behavior will function as reinforcement for engaging in another behavior based on whether access to the contingent behavior represents a restriction of the activity compared to the baseline level of engagement. |
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Term
| stimulus preference assessment |
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Definition
| A variety of procedures used to determine the stimuli that a person prefers, the relative preference values of those stimuli the conditions under which those preference values remain in effect and their presumed value as reinforcers. |
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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. |
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| A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of a stimulus. |
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Term
| conditioned negative reinforcer |
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Definition
| A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a negative reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more negative reinforcers. |
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| A contingency in which responding in the presence of a signal prevents the onset of a stimulus from which escape is the reinforcer. |
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| A contingency in which a response terminates an ongoing stimulus. |
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| A contingency in which responses at any time during an interval prior to the scheduled onset of an aversive stimulus delays the presentation of the aversive stimulus. |
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Term
| unconditioned negative reinforcer |
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Definition
| A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforcer as a result of the evolutionary development of the species. |
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| behavior that occurs as a collateral effect of a schedule of periodic reinforcement for other behavior. |
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| Provides reinforcement whenever the requirement of either a ratio schedule or an interval schedule is met, regardless of which is met first. |
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| chained schedule of reinforcement |
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Definition
| A schedule in which the response requirements of two or more basic schedules must be met in a specific sequence before reinforcement is delivered. |
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| compound schedule of reinforcement |
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Definition
| A schedule consisting of two or more elements of continuous reinforcement. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement in which two or more contingencies of reinforcement operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement that provides reinforcement for each occurrence of the target behavior. |
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| differential reinforcement of diminishing rates |
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Definition
| A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is provided at the end of a predetermined interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval being fewer than a gradually decreasing criterion based on the individual's performance in previous intervals. |
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| Differential reinforcement of high rates |
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Definition
| A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is provided at the end of a predetermined interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval being greater than a gradually increasing criterion based on the individual's performance in previous intervals. |
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| differential reinforcement of low rates |
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Definition
| A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement follows each occurrence of the target behavior that is separated from the previous response by a minimum interresponse time or is contingent on the number of responses within a period of time not exceeding a predetermined criterion. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered for the first response emitted following the passage of a fixed duration of time since the last response was reinforced. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement requiring a fixed number of responses for reinforcement. |
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| intermittent schedule of reinforcement |
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Definition
| A contingency of reinforcement in which some, but not all , occurrences of the behavior produce reinforcement. |
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| A situation in which reinforcement is available only during a finite time following the elapse of an FI or VI interval. |
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| The allocation of responses to choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcement received from each choice alternative. |
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| A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement that occur in an alternating, usually random sequence. |
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| A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement that occur in an alternating, usually random sequence. |
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Definition
| A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of a stimulus. |
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Term
| conditioned negative reinforcer |
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Definition
| A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a negative reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more negative reinforcers. |
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| A contingency in which responding in the presence of a signal prevents the onset of a stimulus from which escape is a reinforcer. |
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| A contingency in which a response terminates an ongoing stimulus. |
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| A contingency in which responses at any time during an interval prior to the scheduled onset of an aversive stimulus delays the presentation of the aversive stimulus. |
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Term
| unconditioned negative reinforcer |
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Definition
| A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforcer as a result of the evolutionary development of the species ; no prior learning is involved. |
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| The absence of responding for a period of time following reinforcement; an effect commonly produced by fixed interval and fixed ratio schedules of reinforcement. |
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| progressive schedule of reinforcement |
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| A schedule that systematically thins each successive reinforcement opportunity independent of the individual's behavior |
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| A behavioral effect associated with abrupt increases in ratio requirements when moving from denser to thinner reinforcement schedules. |
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| Changing a contingency of reinforcement by gradually increasing the response ratio or the extent of the time interval. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement identical to the chained schedule except, like the mix schedule, the tandem schedule does not use discriminative stimuli with the elements of the chain. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement that provides reinforcement for the first correct response following the elapse of variable durations of time occuring in a random or unpredictable order. |
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| A schedule of reinforcement requiring a varying number of responses for reinforcement. The number of responses required varies around a random number; the mean number of responses required for reinforcement is used to describe the schedule. |
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| The phenomenon in which a change in one component |
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Definition
| A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more punishers. |
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Term
| generalized conditioned punisher |
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Definition
| 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. |
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| A response behavior is followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of similar responses under similar conditions. |
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| A behavior change tactic based on positive punishment in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the learner is required to engage in effortful behavior directly or logically related to fixing the damage caused by the behavior. |
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| positive practice overcorrection |
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Definition
| A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on an occurrence of the target behavior, the lerner is required to repeat a correct for of the behavior, or a behavior incompatible with the problem behavior a specified number of times. |
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Definition
| A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of that behavior. |
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| A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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| Occurs when stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that response. |
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| A procedure in which the therapist physically intervenes as soon as the learner begins to emit a problem behavior to prevent completion of the targeted behavior. |
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Term
| restitutional overcorrection |
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Definition
| A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the learner is required to repair the damage or return the environment to its original state and then to engage in additional behavior to bring the environment to a condition vastly better than it was prior to the misbehavior. |
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| A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism's learning history with the stimulus. |
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| Describes a situation of trust insofar as any information regarding a person receiving or having received services may not be discussed with or otherwise made available to any other person or group. |
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| A situation in which a person in a position of responsibility or trust has competing professional or personal interests that make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. |
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| ethical codes of behavior |
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| Statements that provide guidelines for members of professional associations when deciding a course of action or conducting professional duties. |
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| Behaviors, practices and decisions that address such basic and fundamental questions as; What is the right thing to do? What is worth doing? What does it mean to be a good behavior analytic practictioner. |
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Definition
| When the potential recipient of services or participant in a research study gives his explicit permission before any assessment or treatment is provided. Full disclosure of effects and side effects must be provided. To give consent, the person must demonstrate the capacity to decide, do so voluntarily and have adequate knowledge of all salient aspects of the treatment. |
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