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Definition
| An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest. |
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Term
| 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 verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know that a consequence has occurred, for reinforcement to "work". |
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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has terminated it in the past; (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or (c) as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior. |
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Definition
| The activity of living organisms. A technical definition: "That portion of an organism's interaction with its environment that is characterized by detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism and that results in a measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment. |
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Definition
| A technologically consistent method for changing behavior derived from one or more principles of behavior (e.g., differential reinforcement of other behavior, response cost); possesses sufficient generality across subjects, setting, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination. |
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Definition
| 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. |
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Definition
| 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 own history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny). |
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Definition
| A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called secondary or learned. |
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Definition
| 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 another CS. |
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Definition
| A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest. Some, especially those that are relevant to current motivational states, have significant influence on future behavior; others have little effect. |
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Definition
| Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables. |
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Definition
| 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 particular type of reinforcer; also refers to a procedure for increasing the effectiveness of a reinforcer. |
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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 (sD) |
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Definition
| 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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Definition
| The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of it. |
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Definition
| 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 pre-reinforced 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 in operant behavior. |
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Term
| 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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Definition
| 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 the person's repertoire. |
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Definition
| (MO) An environmental variable that (a) alters the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and (b) alters the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus, object, or event. |
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Definition
| When the frequency of a behavior increases because past responses have resulted in the withdrawal or termination of a stimulus. |
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Definition
| (NS)A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior. |
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Definition
| The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime. |
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Definition
| 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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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. |
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Definition
| 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 increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions. |
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Definition
| A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with genrality across organisms, species, setting,s behaviors, and time; an empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same functional relation. |
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Definition
| A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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Definition
| 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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Definition
| A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent 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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Term
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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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Definition
| A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. |
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Definition
| All of the behaviors a person can do; or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task (e.g., gardening, mathematical problem solving). |
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Definition
| The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli. |
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Term
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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 (also called Classical Conditioning). |
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Term
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Definition
| The repeated presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) in the absence of 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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Term
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Definition
| A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior. Technical definition: an "action of an organism's effector. An effector is an organ at the end of an efferent nerve fiber that is specialized for altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or in terms of other energy changes. |
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Definition
| A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment. |
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Term
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Definition
| 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 consequences during an individual's lifetime. |
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Definition
| "An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells" |
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Definition
| A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration or amplitude of behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus. |
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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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Term
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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, behavior, and consequence. |
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Term
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Definition
| 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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Term
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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. They are products of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny), meaning that all members of a species are more or less susceptible to them. |
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Term
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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. They are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny). |
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Term
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Definition
| The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning. |
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Definition
| Skinner's concept of ______ by consequences is parallel to Darwin's concept of natural selection of genetic structures in the evolution of species. |
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