ABA Definitions Flashcards
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What are the philosophical assumptions of ABA?
Determinism Empiricism Experimentation Replication Parsimony Philosophical Doubt
Determinism
Determinism- Assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not willy nilly.
Empiricism
Practice of objective observation of the phenomena of interest.
Parsimony
All simple, logical, explanations for the phenomenon under investigation be ruled out, experimentally or conceptually, before more or complex or abstract explanation are considered.
Lawfulness of Behavior
They are related in systematic ways to other factors, which are themselves physical phenomena amendable to scientific investigation.
Mentalism
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.
Environment al Explanation of Behavior
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Generality
Behavior has this, it last over time, appears in environments other than the one in which the intervention that initially produced it was implemented, and/or spreads to other behaviors not directly treated by the intervention. Evident when changes in target behavior occur in nontreatment settings or situations as a function of treatment procedures.
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in it own right founded by BF Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within-subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graph data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing.
Applied Behavior Analysis
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.
Behaviorism
The philosophy of science of behavior; there are various forms of behaviorism. E.g, methodological behaviorism, radical behaviorism.
Effective
One defining characteristics of ABA. Effective application of behavioral techniques must improve the behavior under investigation to a practical degree.
Private events in behavioral terms.
Thinking or sensing. E.g, stimuli produced by a damaged tooth to be no different from public events such as oral reading or sensing sounds. “What is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness, mind or mental life but the observer’s own body.” SkinnerPrivate events such as thoughts and feelings are behavior; behavior takes place within the skin is distinguished from (public) behavior only by its inaccessibility;and private behavior is influenced by (i.e., is the function of ) the same kinds of variability as publicity accessible behavior.
What is behavior?
The activity of living organisms; human behavior includes everything that people do.
Technological
One of the characteristics of ABA. When all operative procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity “such that a reader has a fair chance of replicating the application with the same results.”
Conceptually Systematic
Not an explicit defying characteristic of ABA. This also means procedures for changing behavior and any interpretation of how or why those procedures were effective should be described in terms of the relevant principle(s) from which they derived.
7 Dimensions of ABA
Get A CabApplied, Behavioral, Analytic, Technological, Conceptually Systematic, Effective, Generality.
Applied
Investigates socially significant behaviors with immediate importance to the subject(s).
Behavioral
Entails precise measurement of actual behavior in need of improvement and documents that it was the subject’s behavior that changed.
Analytical
Demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and no occurrence of the behavior–that is, if a functional relation is demonstrated.
Behavior
Technical definition: “the 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.”
Response Class
A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment.
Response
A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior. Technical definition: an action of an organism’s effector. An effector organ at the end of an efferent nerve fiber that is specialized for altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or it terms of other energy changes
Stimulus
An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells.
Stimulus Class
A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along elements along formal (e.g., size, color), temporal (e.g, antecedent or consequent), and/or functional (e.g., discriminative stimulus) dimensions.
Positive Reinforcement
Occurs when a behavior if followed by the presentation of a stimulus that increases the future frequency of the behavior in similar conditions. (Contrast to negative reinforcement)
Negative Reinforcement
A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as a reinforcement. (Contrast with positive reinforcer)
Reinforcer
A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. (See conditioned reinforcer, unconditioned reinforcer)
Reinforcement
Occurs when a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions.
Conditioned Reinforcement
A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcer; sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.
Unconditioned Reinforcement
A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evolutionary development of the spices (phylogeny). Also called primary or unlearned reinforcer. (Compared with condoned reinforcer)
Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers
A conditioned reinforcer that 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.
Positive Punishment
A behavior is followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior; sometimes called Type I punishment.
Negative Punishment
A behavior is followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus (or decrease in the intensity of the stimulus), that decreases the future frequency of similar responses under similar conditions; sometimes called type II punishment.
Conditioned Punishment
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.
Unconditioned Punisher
A stimulus change the decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned punishers are products of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny), meaning all members of species are more or less susceptible to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punishers (also called primary or unlearned punishers).
Stimulus Control
A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedents stimulus.
Motivating Operation
An environmental variable that (a.) alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing effectiveness of stimulus, object, or event; and (b)alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that have been reinforced by that stimulus.
Behavior- altering effect (of a motivating operation)
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.
Value-altering effect (of motivating operation)
An alteration in the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, of event as a result of a motivating operation. For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is altered as a result of food deprivation and food ingestion.
Establishing Operation (EO)
A motivating operation that establishes (increases) the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer. For example, food deprivation establishes food as an effective reinforcer.
Abolishing Operation (AO)
A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event. For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is abolishing as a result of food ingestion.
Evocative Effect (of motivating operation)
An increase in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, food deprivation evoke (increases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food.
Abative Effect (of a motivating operation)
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.
Contingency
Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variable.
Functional Relation
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 even (the dependent variable) can be produced by manipulating another even (the independent variable), and that change in the dependent variable was unlikely the result of other factors (confounding variables).
Extinction (operant)
The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., responses no longer produced reinforcement); the primary effect is a decreased in the frequency of the behavior until it reaches a prereinforced level or ultimately ceases to occur.
Escape Extinction
Behaviors maintained with negative reinforcement are placed on escape extinction when those behaviors are not followed by termination of the aversive stimulus; emitting the target behavior does not enable the person to escape the aversive situation.
Side effects of extinction
- Behaviors undergoing extinction are usually associated with predictable characteristics in rate and topography of response. 2. Produces a gradual reduction in behavior.3. General effect—immediate increase in the frequency of the response after the removal of the positive, negative, or automatic reinforcement. –Extinction Burst 4. Spontaneous recovery–behavior that diminishes during the extinction process recurs even through the behavior does not produce reinforcement.
Generalization
A generic term for a variety of behavioral processes and behavior change outcomes.
Maintenance
Two different meaning in applied behavior analysis: (a) the extent to which the learner continues perform the target behavior after a portion or all of the intervention has been terminated (i.e., response maintenance), a dependent variable or characteristic of behavior; and (b) a condition in which treatment has been discontinued or partially withdrawn, an independent variable or experimental condition.
Respondent Conditioning
A stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus because a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response. (AKA classical conditioning).
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without prior learning.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
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.
Un/conditioned Response (Reflex)
Unconditioned Response- AKA Unconditioned reflex. An unlearned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g, food in mouth) that elicits the response (e.g., salvation); a product of the phylogenic evolution of a given species; all biologically intact members of a species are born with similar repertoires of unconditioned reflexes. Conditioned Response (Reflex)- 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, salvation); each person’s repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny).
Operant Conditioning
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.
Three Term Contingency
Temporal and possibly dependent relations among: Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequence–basic until of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior.
Echoic
An elementary verbal operant involving response that is evoked by a verbal discriminative stimulus that has point by point correspondence and formal similarly with the response.
Mand
An elementary verbal operant that is evoked by an MO and followed by specific reinforcement.
Tact
An elementary verbal operant evoke by a nonverbal discriminative stimulus and followed by generalized conditioned reinforcement.
Intraverbal
An elementary verbal operant that is evoked by a verbal discriminative stimulus and that does not have point-to-point correspondence with that verbal stimulus.
Contingency Shaped Behavior
Selected and maintained by controlled, temporally close consequence. Behavior that is primarily controlled by direct exposures to the contingencies.• For example operating the Blu-ray Disc Playerby just pushing the buttons and adjusting whatyou push because of the consequences without“paying attention” to what you are doing.
Rule Governed Behavior
Behavior controlled by a rule;enables human behavior to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable but potentially significant consequence. Behavior is primarily controlled by a verbal description of a contingency of reinforcement or punishment.• The description usually describes the behavior, the SD for this behavior and the typical consequence for this behavior in the presence of the SD.• Using a manual to operate a Blu-ray Disc Player is an example of complex rule-governed behavior.
Descriptive Assessment
Descriptive functional behavior assessment- direct observation of problem behavior and the antecedent and consequent events under naturally occurring conditions.
Scatterplot
A two-dimensional graph that shows the relative distribution of individual measures in a data set with respect to the variables depicted by x and y axes. Data points on a scatterplot are not connected.
Functional Analysis
An analysis of the purposes (function) of problem behavior, wherein antecedents and consequences representing those in the person’s natural routines are arranged within an experimental design so that their separate effects on a problem behavior can be observed and measured; typically consists of four conditions: three test conditions—contingent attention, contingent escape, and contingent alone–and a control condition in which problem behavior is expected to be low because reinforcement is freely available and no demands are place on the person.
FA–Control Condition and Logic
Play—Preferred activities continuously available, social attention provided, and no demands are placed on the person. Behavior is expected to occur less because no demands are placed and attention is given.
FA-Demand condition and logic
Contingent Escape- Task demands are delivered continuously using a three step prompting procedure. (e.g, 1. You need to fold the towels, 2. model folding towel. 3. provide hand over hand assistance to fold the towel.) -Behavior occur here- escape maintained.
FA Attention condition and logic
Attention is diverted or withheld from the person. - Behavior occur here–attention maintained
FA- Alone/No interaction condition and logic
Low level of environment stimulation (i.e, therapist, task materials, and play materials are absent). -If behaviors occur here they are automatically reinforced.
FA- Tangible condition and logic
When attention/ tangibles are given when problem behavior occur.