Aba Whitebook Terms

Front 1

Count

Back 1

The number of responses emitted during an observation period

Front 2

Rate/Frequency

Back 2

A ratio of count per observation time; often expressed as count per standard unit of time (e.g., per minute, per hour, per day)

Front 3

Celeration

Back 3

The change (acceleration or deceleration) in rate of responding over time

Front 4

Duration

Back 4

The amount of time that a behavior occurs

Front 5

Response Latency

Back 5

The point in time when a response occurs with respect to the occurence of an antecendent stimulus

Front 6

Interresponse Time (IRT)

Back 6

The point in time when a response occurs with respect to the occurence of the previous response

Front 7

Percentage

Back 7

A proportion, expressed as a number of parts per 100; typically expressed as a ratio of the number of responses of a certain type per total number of responses (or opportunities or intervals in which such a response could have occurred)

Front 8

Trials to Criterion

Back 8

Number of responses, instructional trials, or practice opportunities needed to reach a predetermined performance criterion

Front 9

Topography

Back 9

The form or shape of behavior

Front 10

Magnitude

Back 10

The strength, intensity, or force of behavior

Front 11

Measurement

Back 11

The process of assigning numbers and units to particular features of objects or events...[It] involves attaching a number representing the observed extent of a dimensional quantity to an appropriate unit. The number and the unit together constitute the measure of the object or event

Front 12

Repeatability

Back 12

(also called countability)

Instances of a response class can occur repeatedly through time (i.e., behevaior can be counted)

Front 13

Temporal Extent

Back 13

Every instance of behavior occurs during some amount of time (i.e., the duration of behavior can be measured)

Front 14

Temporal Locus

Back 14

Every instance of behavior occurs at a certain point in time with respect to other events (i.e., when behavior occurs can be measured)

Front 15

A-B design

Back 15

A two-phase experimental design consisting of a pre-treatment baseline condition(A) followed by a treatment condition (B)

Front 16

A-B-A design

Back 16

A three-phase experimental design consisting of an initial baseline phase (A) until steady state responding (or countertherapeutic trend) is obtained, an intervention phase in which the treatment condition (B) is implemented until the behavior has changed and steady state responding is obtained, and a return to baseline conditions (A) by withdrawing the independent variable to see whether responding "reverses" to levels observed in the initial baseline phase

Front 17

A-B-A-B design

Back 17

An experimental design consisting of (1) an initial baseline phase (A) until steady state responding (or countertherapeutic trend) is obtained, (2) an initial intervention phase in which the treatment condition (B) is implemented until the behavior has changed and steady state responding is obtained, (3) a return to baseline conditions (A) by withdrawing the independent variable to see whether responding "reverses" to levels observed in the initial baseline phase, and (4) a second intervention phase (B) to see whether initial treatment effects are replicated (also called reversal design, withdrawal design)

Front 18

abative effect (of a motivating operation)

Back 18

A decrease in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, food ingestion abates (decreases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food

Front 19

ABC recording

Back 19

See anecdotal observation

Front 20

abolishing operation (AO)

Back 20

A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event. For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is abolished as a result of food ingestion

Front 21

accuracy (of measurement)

Back 21

The extent to which observed values, the data produced by measuring an event, match the true state, or true values, of the event as it exists in nature. (See observed value and true value)

Front 22

adjunctive behavior

Back 22

Behavior that occurs as a collateral effect of a schedule of periodic reinforcement for other behavior, time-filling or interim activities (e.g., doodling, idle talking, smoking, drinking) that are induced by schedules of reinforcement during times when reinforcement is unlikely to be delivered. Also called schedule-induced behavior.

Front 23

affirmation of the consequent

Back 23

A three-step form of reasoning that begins with a true antecedent-consequent (if-A-then-B) statement and proceeds as follows: (1) If A is true, then B is true; (2) B is found to be true; (3) Therefore, A is true. Although other factors could be responsible for the truthfulness of A, a sound experiment affirms several if-A-then-B possibilities, each one reducing the likelihood of factors other than the independent variable being responsible for the observed changes in behavior.

Front 24

alternating treatments design

Back 24

An experimental design in which two or more conditions (one of which may be a non-treatment control condition) are presented in rapidly alternating succession (e.g., on alternating sessions or days) independent of the level of responding; differences in responding between or among conditions are attributed to the effects of the conditions (also called concurrent schedule design, multielement design, multiple schedule design)

Front 25

alternative schedule

Back 25

Provides reinforcement whenever the requirement of either a ratio schedule or an interval schedule--the basic schedules that makeup the alternative schedule--is met, regardless of which of the component schedule's requirements is met first.

Front 26

anecdotal observation

Back 26

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 ABC recording).

Front 27

antecedent

Back 27

An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest.

Front 28

antecedent intervention

Back 28

A behavior change strategy that manipulates contingency-independent antecedent stimuli (motivating operations). (See noncontingent reinforcement, high-probability request sequence, and functional communication training)

Front 29

antecedent stimulus class

Back 29

A set of stimuli that share a common relationship. All stimuli in an antecedent stimulus class evoke the same operant behavior, or elicit the same respondent behavior (See arbitrary stimulus class, feature stimulus class)

Front 30

applied behavior analysis (ABA)

Back 30

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.

Front 31

arbitrary stimulus class

Back 31

Antecedent stimuli that evoke the same response but do not resemble each other in physical form or share a relational aspect such as bigger or under (e.g., peanuts, cheese, coconut milk, and chicken breasts are members of an arbitrary stimulus class if they evoke the response "sources of protein"). (Compare to feature stimulus class).

Front 32

artifact

Back 32

An outcome or result that appears to exist because of the way it is measured but in fact does not correspond to what actually occurred.

Front 33

ascending baseline

Back 33

A data path that shows an increasing trend in the response measure over time. (Compare with descending baseline).

Front 34

audience

Back 34

Anyone who functions as a discriminative stimulus evoking verbal behavior. Different audiences may control different verbal behavior about the same topic because of a differential reinforcement history. Teens may describe the same event in different ways when talking to peers versus parents.

Front 35

autoclitic

Back 35

A secondary verbal operant in which some aspect of a speaker's own verbal behavior functions as a discriminative stimulus or an MO for additional speaker verbal behavior. The autoclitic relation can be thought of as verbal behavior about verbal behavior.

Front 36

automatic punishment

Back 36

Punishment that occurs independent of the social mediation by others (i.e., a response product serves as a punisher independent of the social environment).

Front 37

automatic reinforcement

Back 37

Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (e.g., scratching an insect bite relieves the itch).

Front 38

automaticity (of reinforcement)

Back 38

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" (Contrast with automatic reinforcement)

Front 39

aversive stimulus

Back 39

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

Front 40

avoidance contingency

Back 40

A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of a stimulus (compare with escape contingency)

Front 41

B-A-B design

Back 41

A three-phase experimental design that begins with the treatment condition, After steady state responding has been obtained during the initial treatment phase (B), the treatment variable is withdrawn (A) to see whether responding changes in the absence of the independent variable. The treatment variable is then reintroduced (B) in an attempt to recapture the level of responding obtained during the first treatment phase.

Front 42

backup reinforcers

Back 42

Tangible objects, activities, or privileges that serve as reinforcers that can be purchased with tokens.

Front 43

backward chaining

Back 43

A teaching procedure in which a trainer completes all but the last behavior in a chain, which is performed by the learner, who then receives reinforcement for completing the chain. When the learner shows competence in performing the final step in the chain, the trainer performs all but the last 2 behaviors in the chain, the learner emits the final 2 steps to complete the chain, and reinforcement is delivered. This sequence is continued until the learner completes the entire chain independently.

Front 44

backward chaining with leaps ahead

Back 44

A backward chaining procedure in which some steps in the task analysis are skipped; used to increase the efficiency of teaching long behavior chains when there is evidence that the skipped steps are in the learner's repertoire.

Front 45

Bar Graph

Back 45

A simple and versatile graphic format for summarizing behavioral data; shares most of the line graph's features except that it does not have distinct data points representing successive response measures through time. Also called a histogram.

Front 46

Baseline

Back 46

A condition of an experiment in which the independent variable is not present; data obtained during baseline are the basis for determining the effects of the independent variable; a control condition that does not necessarily mean the absence of instruction or treatment, only the absence of a specific independent variable of experimental interest.

Front 47

Baseline logic

Back 47

A term sometimes used to refer to the experimental reasoning inherent in single-subject experimental designs; entails three elements: prediction, verification, and replication (see steady state strategy).

Front 48

Behavior

Back 48

The activity of living organisms; human behavior includes everything that people do. 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" (Johnson & Pennypacker, 1993a, p. 23.) (See operant behavior, respondent behavior, response, response class)

Front 49

Behavior-altering effect (of a motivating operation)

Back 49

An alteration in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is altered in effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, the frequency of behavior that has been reinforced with food is increased or decreased by food deprivation or food ingestion.

Front 50

Behavior chain

Back 50

A sequence of responses in which each response produces a stimulus change that functions as conditioned reinforcement for that response and as a discriminative stimulus for the next response in the chain; reinforcement for the last response in a chain maintains the reinforcing effectiveness of the stimulus changes produced by all previous responses in the chain.

Front 51

Behavior chain interruption strategy

Back 51

An intervention that relies on the participant's skill in performing the critical elements of a chain independently; the chain is interrupted occasionally so that another behavior can be emitted.

Front 52

Behavior chain with a limited hold

Back 52

A contingency that specifies a time interval by which a behavior chain must be completed for reinforcement to be delivered.

Front 53

Behavior change tactic

Back 53

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, settings, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination.

Front 54

Behavior checklist

Back 54

A checklist that provides descriptions of specific skills (usually in hierarchical order) and the conditions under which each skill should be observed. Some checklists are designed to assess one particular behavior or skill area. Others address multiple behaviors or skill areas. Most use a Likert scale to rate responses.

Front 55

Behavior trap

Back 55

An interrelated community of contingencies of reinforcement that can be especially powerful, producing substantial and long-lasting behavior changes. Effective behavior traps share 4 essential features: (a) they are "baited" with virtually irresistable reinforcers that will "lure" the student to the trap, (b) only a low-effort response already in the student's repertoire is necessary to enter the trap, (c) once inside the trap, interrelated contingencies of reinforcement motivate the student to acquire, extend, and maintain targeted academic and/or social skills; and (d) they can remain effective for a long time because students show few, if any, satiation effects

Front 56

Behavioral assessment

Back 56

A form of assessment that involvews a full range of inquiry methods (observation, interview, testing, and the systematic manipulation of antecedent or consequence variables) to identify probably 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

Front 57

Behavorial contract

Back 57

see Contingency contract

Front 58

Behavioral contrast

Back 58

The phenomenon in which a change in one component of a multiple schedule that increases or decreases the rate of responding on that component is accompanied by a change in the response rate in the opposite diection on the other, unaltered component of the schedule

Front 59

Behavioral cusp

Back 59

A behavior that has sudden and dramatic consequences that extend well beyone the idiosyncratic change itself because it exposes the person to new environments, reinforcers, contingencies, responses, and stimulus controls (see pivotal behavior)

Front 60

Behavioral momentum

Back 60

A metaphor to describe the rate of responding and its resistance to change following an alteration in reinforcement conditions. The momentum metaphor has also been used to describe the effects produced by the high-probability (high-p) request sequence

Front 61

Behaviorism

Back 61

The philosophy of a science of behavior; there are various forms of behaviorism. (See methodological behaviorism, radical behaviorism)

Front 62

Believability

Back 62

The extent to which the researcher convinces herself and others that the data are trustworthy and deserve interpretation. Measures of interobserver agreement (IOA) are the most often used index of believability in applied behavior analysis (See interobserver agreement, IOA)

Front 63

Bonus response cost

Back 63

A procedure for implementing response cost in which the person is provided a reservoir of reinforcers that are removed in predetermined amounts contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior

Front 64

Calibration

Back 64

Any procedure used to evaluate the accuracy of a measurement system and, when sources of error are found, to use that information to correct or improve the measurement system

Front 65

Determinism

Back 65

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

Front 66

Empiricism

Back 66

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"

Front 67

Experiment

Back 67

A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomena of interst (the DV) under 2 or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the IV) differs from one condition to another

Front 68

Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)

Back 68

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 DV, 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

Front 69

Explanatory fiction

Back 69

A fictitious or hyptothetical 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

Front 70

Functional relation

Back 70

A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment (or group of related experiments)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 (the DV) can be produced by manipulating the other event (the IV), and that the change in the DV was unlikely the result of other factors (confounding variables)

Front 71

Hypothetical construct

Back 71

A presumed but unobserved process or entity (e.g., Freud's id, ego, and superego)

Front 72

Mentalism

Back 72

An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental, or "inner," dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that the phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of the behavior, if not all

Front 73

Methodological behaviorism

Back 73

A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science

Front 74

Parsimony

Back 74

The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations

Front 75

Philosophic doubt

Back 75

An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned

Front 76

Radical behaviorism

Back 76

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)

Front 77

Replication

Back 77

(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/or behaviors

Front 78

Science

Back 78

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

Front 79

Conditioned negative reinforcer

Back 79

A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a negative reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more negative reinforcers

Front 80

Conditioned punisher

Back 80

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

Front 81

Conditioned reflex

Back 81

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)

Front 82

Conditioned reinforcer

Back 82

A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called a secondary or learned reinforcer

Front 83

Conditioned stimulus

Back 83

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

Front 84

Consequence

Back 84

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

Front 85

Contingency

Back 85

Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables

Front 86

Contingent

Back 86

Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred

Front 87

Deprivation

Back 87

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., witholding a person's access to a reinforcer for a specified period of time prior to a session)

Front 88

Discriminated avoidance

Back 88

A contingency in which responding in the presence of a signal prevents the onset of a stimulus from which escape is a reinforcer

Front 89

Discriminated operant

Back 89

An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than others

Front 90

Discriminative stimulus

Back 90

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; this history of differential reinforcement is the reason an SD increases the momentary frequency of the behavior

Front 91

Discriminative stimulus for punishment

Back 91

A stimulus condition in the presence of which a response has a lower probability of occurrence than it does in its absence as a result of response-contingent punishment delivery in the presence of the stimulus

Front 92

Environment

Back 92

The conglamorate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment

Front 93

Escape contingency

Back 93

A contingency in which a response terminates (produces escape from) an ongoing stimulus

Front 94

Extinction

Back 94

The discontinuing of reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior; the primary effect is a decrease in the frequency of the behavior until it reaches a prereinforced level or ultimately ceases to occur

Front 95

Free-operant avoidance

Back 95

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

Front 96

Generalized conditioned punisher

Back 96

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

Front 97

Generalized conditioned reinforcer

Back 97

A conditioned reinforcer that as a result of having been paired with many other reinforcers does not depend on an EO for any particular form of reinforcement for its effectiveness

Front 98

Habituation

Back 98

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 the concept also applies to within-session changes in operant behavior

Front 99

Higher order conditioning

Back 99

Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS). A.K.A. secondary conditioning

Front 100

History of reinforcement

Back 100

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

Front 101

Motivating operation

Back 101

An environmental variable that

(a) alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event

and

(b) alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that have been reinforced by that stimulus, object, or event

Front 102

Negative punishment

Back 102

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; sometimes called Type II punishment

Front 103

Negative reinforcement

Back 103

A contingency where the occurence of a response produces the removal, termination, reduction, or postponement of a stimulus, which leads to an increase in the future occurence of that response

Front 104

Negative reinforcer

Back 104

A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as a reinforcement

Front 105

Neutral stimulus

Back 105

A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior

Front 106

Ontogeny

Back 106

The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime

Front 107

Operant behavior

Back 107

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 (ontogeny)

Front 108

Operant conditioning

Back 108

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

Front 109

Overcorrection

Back 109

A behavior change tactic based on P+ 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. Forms are restitutional ______ and positive practice _______.

Front 110

Phylogeny

Back 110

The history of the natural evolution of a species

Front 111

Positive practice overcorrection

Back 111

A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on an occurence of the target behavior, the learner is required to repeat a correct form of the behavior, or a behavior incompatible with the problem behavior a specified number of times; includes and educative component

Front 112

Positive punishment

Back 112

A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior; sometimes called Type I punishment

Front 113

Positive reinforcement

Back 113

Occurs when a behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions

Front 114

Positive reinforcer

Back 114

A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement

Front 115

Premack principle

Back 115

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 reinforcement for the low-frequency behavior

Front 116

Principal of behavior

Back 116

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, R+); an empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same functional relation

Front 117

Punisher

Back 117

A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it

Front 118

Punishment

Back 118

Occurs when stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions

Front 119

Reflex

Back 119

A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits (i.e., 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

Front 120

Reinforcement

Back 120

Occurs when a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions

Front 121

Reinforcer

Back 121

A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it

Front 122

Reinforcer assessment

Back 122

Refers to a variety of direct, empirical methods for presenting one or more stimuli contingent on a target response & measuring their effectiveness as reinforcers

Front 123

Repertoire

Back 123

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)

Front 124

Respondent behavior

Back 124

The response component of a relfex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli

Front 125

Respondent conditioning

Back 125

A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the NS has become a CS that elicits the conditioned response (a.k.a., Pavlovian or classical conditioning)

Front 126

Respondent extinction

Back 126

The repeated presentation of a CS in the absence of the US; the CS gradually loses its ability to elicit the conditioned response until the conditioned reflex no longer appears in the individual's repertiore

Front 127

Response

Back 127

A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior

Technical definition: an action of an organism's effector...

Front 128

Response blocking

Back 128

A procedure in which the therapist physically intervenes as soon as the learner begins to emit a problem behavior to prevent the completion of the targeted behavior

Front 129

Response class

Back 129

A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment

Front 130

Response-deprivation hypothesis

Back 130

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 enagagement

Front 131

Restitutional overcorrection

Back 131

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 engage in additional behavior to bring the environment to a condition vastly better than it was in prior to the misbehavior

Front 132

Satiation

Back 132

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 w/ copious amounts of a reinforcing stimulus prior to a session

Front 133

Selection by consequences

Back 133

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

Front 134

Stimulus

Back 134

An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells

Front 135

Stimulus class

Back 135

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

Front 136

Stimulus control

Back 136

A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus

Front 137

Stimulus preference assessment

Back 137

A variety of procedures used to determine the stimuli that a person prefers, the relative preference values (high vs. low) of those stimuli, the conditions under which those preference values remain in effect, and their presumed value as reinforcers

Front 138

Stimulus-stimulus pairing

Back 138

A procedure in which 2 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

Front 139

Three-term contingency

Back 139

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

Front 140

Unconditioned punisher

Back 140

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 the products of the evolutionary development of a species (phylogeny)

Front 141

Unconditioned reinforcer

Back 141

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). A.k.a. primary or unlearned reinforcer

Front 142

Unconditioned negative reinforcer

Back 142

A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforceras a result of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny); no prior learning is involved (e.g., shock, loud noise, intense light, extreme pressures against the body)

Front 143

Unconditioned stimulus

Back 143

The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning

Front 144

Access Behaviors

Back 144

A means of producing indirect benefits to clients. Ex: Learning appropriate behaviors for a mainstream classroom could lead to being placed in that class thereby increasing access to general education and instructional programs