ABA Final Vocab

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

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

Different from automatic reinforcement

An unpleasant or noxious stimulus

A stimulus change or condition that function to evoke a behvior that has terminatied it in the past or as a punisher when presented following behavior and/or as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior

The activity of living organisms

"That portion of an organism's interaction with its enviroment 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"

A technologically consistent method for changing behavior derived from one or more principles of behavior, possesses sufficient generality across subjects, settings, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination

A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher becuase of prior pairing with one or more other punishers; sometimes called secondary or learned punisher

A learned stimulus-responce functional relation consisting of an antecendent stimulus and the response it elicits

Each person's repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment

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

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

A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interests

Some consequences, especially those that are immediate and relevant to current motivational states ahve significant influence on future behavior while others have little effect

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

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

The state of an organism with repect 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

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

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 hte behavior

The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists

Behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment

A motivating operation that establishes (increases) the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer

The discontinuring of a 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

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 withing-session changes in operant behavior

Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a nuetral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus

Also called secondary conditioning

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

An environmental variable that alters the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event and alters the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimuls, object, or event

A stimulus whose termination functions as reinforcement

A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior

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

The basic process by which operant learning occurs

Consequences result in an increased or decreased frequency of the same type of behavior under similar motivational and environmental conditions in the future

The history of the natural evoltuion of a species

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

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

An empirical generalization inferred from many experiments demonstrating the same functional relation

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

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

A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits

Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes protect against harmful stimuli, help regulate the internal balance and economy of the organism, and promote reprodcuction

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

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

All of the behaviors a person can do

Or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task

The response component of a reflex

Behavior that is elicited or induced by antecedent stimuli

A stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimuls is presented with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response

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

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

"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."

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

A decrease in the frequency of operant behavior presumed to be the result of continued contact with or consumption of a reinvorcer that has followed the behavior

Also refers to a procedure for reducing the effectiveness of a reinforcer

The fundamental principle underlying operant conditiong

The basic tenet is that all forms of (operant) behavior, from simple to complex, are selceted, shaped, and maintained by their consequences during an individual's lifetime

Skinner's concept of selection by consequences is parallel to Darwin's concept of natural selection of genetic structures in the evolution of species

An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells

A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal, temporal, and/or functional dimensions

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

A procedure in which two stimuli are presented at the same time, usually repeatedly for a number of trails, which often results in one stimulus acquiring the function of the other stimulus

A-B-C

The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior

Encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecendent stimulus, behavior, and consequences

The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex

A stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning

A stimulus change that increases the feequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism's learning history with the stimulus

Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evelutionary development of the species

A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism's learning history eith the stimulus

Unconditioned punishers are products of the evolutionary development of the species, meaning that all members of a species are more or less susceptivle to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punishers

A three phase experimental desing consisting of an intial baseline phase, an intervention phase, and a return bot baseline conditions

Can repeat this pattern (ABAB desingn)

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

A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimuli, object, or event

An experimental desging in which two or more conditions are presented in rapidly alternating succession independent of the level of responding

Differences in responding between or among conditions are attributed to the effects of the conditions

a beahvior change stragegy that manipulates contingency-dependent antecedent stimuli

The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for the improvement of behavior

a data path that shows an increasing trend in the response measure over time

an unpleasant or noxious stimulus

a three phase experimental desing that begins with the treament condition, treatment is withdrawn, and then the treatment is reintroduced

A teaching procedure in which a trainer completes all but the last behavior in a chain, which is performed by the learner, who then recieves reinforcement for completing the chain.

When the learner shows competence in performing hte final step in the chain, the trainer then performs all but the last two steps and so on.

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 sequence of responses in which each response produces a stimulus change that functions as condiditioned reinfrocement for that response and as a discriminative stimulus for the next response in the chain

An interrelated community of contingencies of reinforcment that can be especially powerful, producing substantial and long-lasting behavior changes

A metaphor to describe a rate of responding and its resistance to change following an alteration in reinforcement conditions

the change in rate of responding over time

An experimental desing in which an intiail baseline phase is followed by a series of treatment phases consisting of successive and gradually changing criteria for reinforcement or punishment

a motivating operation whose value-altering effect depends on a learning history

A type of graph on shich the cumulative number of responses emitted is represented on the vertical axis

The steeper the slope of the data path, the greater the response rate

the variable in an experiement meausred to determine if it changes as a result of manipulations of the independet variable

In ABA it represents some emasure of a socially significant behavior

A data path that shows a decreaseing trend in the response measure over time

reinforcing only those repsonses within a response class that meet specific criteria along some dimensions and palcing all other responses in the class on extinction

A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that serves as a diesirable alternative to the behavior targeted for reduction

A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that is topographically incompatible with the behavior targeted for reduction

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcment 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

A procedure for decreasing problem bheavior in which reinforcement is contingent on the absence ofthe problem behavior during or at specific times

Any operant whose response rate is controlled by a given opportunity to emit the response

An experimental technique that demonstrates the effects of reinforcement; it uses DRI/DRA as a control condition instead of a no-reinforcement condition

an experiemntal technique for demonstrating the effects of reinforcement by using DRO as a control condition instead of a no-reinforcement condition

a motivating operation that establishes the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer

Statements that provide quidelines for memebers of professional associations when deciding a course of action or conducting professional duties

An increse in the current frequency of behavior that has been renforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectivness by the same motivating operation

A procedure for implementing time-out in which contingent on the occurrence of a target behavior the person is removed physically from the current environment for a specified period

An increase in the frequency of responding when an extinction procedure is initially implemented

A procedure for transferring stimulus control in which features of an antecendent stimulus controlling a behavior are gradually changed to a new stimulus while maintaining the current behavior

A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered for the first repsonse emitted following the passage of a fixed duration of time since the last response was reinforced

a schedule of reinforcment requiring a fixed number of responses for reinforcement

a schedule for the delivery of non-contingenet stimuli in which a time interval remains the same from one delivery to the next

A method for teaching beahvior chains that begins with the learner being prompted and taught to perform the first behavior inthe task analysis; the trainer completes the remaining steps in the chain

A ratio of count per observation time

An analysis of the purposes of problem behavior wherein antecedents and consequences representing those in the person's natural routines are arranged within an experimental design so that their seperate effects on problem behavior can be observed and measured

A systematic method of assessment for obtaining information about the purposes (functions) a problem behavior serves for a person; results are used to guide of an intervention for decreasing the problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior

An antecedent intervention in which an appropriate communicative behavior is taught as a replacement behavior for problem behavior usually evoked by an establishing operation (EO)

Serving the same function or purpose; different topographies of behavior are functionally equivalent if they produce the same consequences

a generic term for a variety of behavioral processes and behavior change outcomes

an antecedent intervention in which two to fice easy tasks with a know history of learner compliance (the high-p requests) are presented in quick succession immediately before requesting the target task (the Low-p request)

An inclusive term referring in general to all of a person's learning experiences andmore specifically to past conditioning with respect to particular response classes or aspects of a person's repertoire

A behavior controlled by any physical movement that serves as a novel model excluding vocal-verbal behavior, has formal similarity witht the model, and immediately follows the occurrence of the model

An imitative behavior is a new behavior emitted following a novel antecedent event

The variable that is systematically manipulated by the researcher in an experiment to see whether changes in the independent variable produce reliable changes in the dependent variable

Structured interviews, checklists, rating scales, or questionnaires used to abtain information from people who are familiar with the person exhibiting the problem behavior

Used to identify conditions or events in the natural environment that correlate with the problem behavior

when the potential recipient of services or participant in a research study givels his explicit permission before any assessment or treatment is provided

Full disclosure of effects and side effects must be provided

To give consent, ther person muct demonstrate the capacity to decide, do so voluntarily, and have adequate knowledge of all salient aspects of the treatment

A contingency of reinforcement in which some but not all occurrences of the behavior produce reinforcement

The degree to which two or more independent observers report the same observed values after measuring the same events

A measure of temporal locus; defined as the elapsed time between two successive responses

A situation that occurs when the level of responding observed in a previous phase cannot be reproduced even thoughthe experimental conditions are the same as they were during the earlier phase

The force or intensity with which a repsonse is emitted

The extent to which the learner continues to perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention has been terminated; a dependent variable or characteristic of behavior

And a condition in which treatment has been discontinued or partially withdrawn an independent variable or experimental condition

An elementary verbal operant that is evoked by an MO and followed by specific reinforcement

A self-directed behavior change technique in which the person forces himself to perform an undesired behavior repeatedly which sometimes decreases the furture frequency of the beahvior

The allocation of respsonses to choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcment received from each choice alternative

A method of measuring behavior after it has occured by recording the effects that the behavior produced onthe environment

A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement that occur in an alternating (usually random) sequence

No discriminative stimuli are correlated with the presence or ansence of each element of the schedule and reinforcment is delivered for meeting the response requirements of the element in effect at any time

A measurement method in which the presence or absence of behaviors are recorded at precisely specified time intervals

An experimental design that begins with the concurrent measurement of two or more behaviors in a baseline condition, followed by the application of the treatment variable to one of the behaviorswhile basline conditions remain ineffect for the other behavior

A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedule of reinforcment that occur in an alternating (usaually random) sequence

A disciminative stimulus is correlated with the presence or absence of each element of the schedule, and reinforcment is delivered for meeting the response reuirements of the element in effect at any time

Any experimental design that uses the experimental methods and logic of the reversal tactic to compare the effects of two or more experimental conditions to baseline and/or one another

A reponse behavior is followed immediatley 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

A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior

A procedure in which stimuli with known reinforcing properties are presented on fixed-time or variable-time schedules completely independent of behavior; often used as an antecedent intervention to reduce problem behavior

An experimental control technique that demonstrates the effects of reinforcement by using oncontingent reinforcement as a control condition instead of a no-reinforcement condition

A procedure for implementing time-out in which, contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior, the person remains within the setting but does not have access to reinforcment, for a specified period

Philosophy and principle--the belief that people with disabilities should to the maximum extent possible be physically and socially integrated into the mainstream of society regardless of the degree or type of disability

Approach to Intervention--the use of progressibely more typical settings and procedures to establish and/or maintain persoanl behaviors which are as culturally normal as possible

A beahvior change tactic based on positibe 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

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

A time sampling method for measuring behavior in which the observation period is dvided into a series of brief time intervals

The observer records whether the target bheavior occurred at any time during the interval

Tends to overestimate the proportion of the observation period that the behavior actually occurred

A variation of momentary time sampling in which the observer records whether each person in a group is engaged in the target behavior at specific points in time

A procedure for implementing time-out in which social reinforcers--usually attention, physical contact, and verbal interaction--are withheld for a brief period contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior

A form of overcorrection in which, contingent on an occurrence of the target behavior the learner is required to repeated a correct form of the behavior, or a behavior incompatible with the problem behavior, a specified number of times

A behavior is followed immediatley by the presnetation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior

Improvements in performance resulting from opportunities to perform a behavior repreatedly so that baseline measures can be obtained

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

Grandma's Rule

A behavioral effect associated with abrupt increases in ratio requirements when moving from denser to thinner reinforcement schedules

Common effects include avoidance, aggression, and unpredicatable pauses or cessation in responding

The occurrence of a previously punished type of response without its punishing consequence. This procedure is analogous to the ectinction of previously reinforced behavior and has the effect of undoing the effect of the punishment

The relative frequency with which operant behavior is emitted during extinction

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 behabior

The contingent loss of reinforcers producing a decrease of the frequency of behavior; a form of negative punishment

Any experimental design in which the researcher attempts to verify the effect of the independent variable by reversing responding to a level obtained in a previous condition; encompasses experimental designs in which the independent variable is withdrawn or reversed in its focus

A rule specifying the environmental arragements and response requirements for reinforcement

Changing a contingency of reinforcement by gradually increasing the response ration or the extent of the time interval

A person's ability to delat gratification by emitting a reponse that will produce a larger delayed reward over a response that produces a smaller but immediate reward

A person's behaving in a certain way so as to change a subsequent behavior

A procedure in which a person compares his performance of a target behavior with a predetermined goal or standard

Self-generated verbal responses (cover or overt) that function as rules or response prompts for a desired behavior

The personal application of behaivor change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior

A procedure wherby a person systematically observes his behavior and records the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a target behavior

The process by which behaviors maintained by automatic renforcement are placed on extinction by masking or removing the sensory consequence

the effects on a subject's behavior in a given condition that are the result of the subject's experience with a prior condition

Using differential reinforcement to produce a series of gradually changing response classes

Each response class is a successive approximation toward a terminal behavior

Members of an exisitng response class are selected for differential reinforcement because they more closely resemble the terminal behavior

a wide variety of research designs that use a form of experimental reasoning called basline logic to demonstrate the effects of the independent variable on the behavior of individual subjects

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

A line drawn through a series of graphed data points that shows the overall trend in the data; drawn though the intersections of the vertical and horizontal middles of each half of the charted data and then adjusted up or down so that half of all the data points fall on or above and half fall on or below the line

A behavioral effect associated with extinction in which the behavior suddenly begins to occur after its frequency has decreased to its prereinforcment level or stopped entirely

A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has not produced reinforcement inthe past

A behavior therapy treatment for anxieties, fears, and phobias that involves sustituting one response, generally muscle relaxation, for the unwanted behavior

The client pracitices relazing while imagingin anxiety-producing situations in a sequence from the least fearful to the most fearful

The response class selected for intervention; can be defined either functionally or topographically

The process of breaking a complex skill or series of behaviors into smaller, teachable units; also refers to the results of this process

The contingent withdrawal of the opportunity to earn positive reinforcement or the loss of access to positive reinforcers for a specified time

A form of negative punishment

A procedure for implementing nonexclusion time-out in which a child wears a ribbon or wristbad that becomes discriminative for receiving reinforcment

Contingent on misbehavior the ribbon is removed and access to social and other reinforcers are unavailable for a specific period

When time-out ends, the ribbon or band is returned to the child and time-in begins

a measurement of the presence or absence of behavior within specific time intervals. It is most useful with continuous and high-rate behaviors

A system whereby participants earn generalized conditioned reinforcers as an immediate consequence for specific behaviors

Participants accumulate tokens and exchange them for items and activities form a menu of backup reinforcers

The physical form or shape of a behavior

A variation of forward chaingin in which the learner receives training on each behavior in the chain during each session

A motivating operation whose value-altering effect does not depend on a learning history

A schedule of reinforcement requiring a varying number of responses for reinforcement

The number of responses required varies around a rondom number: the mean number of responses required for reinforcement is used to describe the schedule

A schedule for the delivery of noncontingent stimuli in which the interval of time from one delivery to the next randomly varies around a given time

A systematic approach for interpreting the results of behavioral research and treatment programs that entails visual inspection of graphed data for variability, level, and trend within and between experiemental conditions

A time sampling method for measuring behavior in which the observation period is divided into a series of brief time intervals

At the end of each interval, the observer records whether the target behavior occurred throughout the entire interval

Tends to underestimate the proportion of the observation period that many behaviors actually occurred