Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Concepts Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering core Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) terms and definitions directly from Chapters 1 through 6 of the lecture transcript.

Repertoire

All the behaviors a person can do.

Response

A single instance of behavior.

Response Class

A group of behaviors that have the same function and meet the same need.

Stimulus

Anything in an individual's environment that affects their behavior.

Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that physically share a set of common elements and have a common effect on a response class.

Formal Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that share certain physical features or topographies.

Temporal Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli related by their place and time.

Functional Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that are related by their effect on a behavior.

Feature Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that share an infinite number of possible common topical forms and evoke the same response.

Arbitrary Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that evoke the same response but do not share any common stimulus features.

Respondent Behavior

Reflexive, involuntary behavior elicited without any prior learning, inherited through phylogenic evolution and controlled by antecedents only.

Unconditioned Stimulus

A stimulus that elicits a reflexive response without prior learning history.

Neutral Stimulus

A stimulus that does not elicit a reflexive response prior to respondent conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus

A previously neutral stimulus that was paired with an unconditioned stimulus and now elicits a conditioned response.

Conditioned Response

A reflexive response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus after pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

Operant Behavior

Learned behavior that is emitted and evoked, controlled by consequences that modify its future occurrence.

Reinforcement Contingency

A stimulus change that follows a behavior and results in the behavior occurring more in the future or maintaining.

Positive Reinforcement

The addition of a desirable stimulus that increases or maintains the future occurrence of that and similar behaviors under similar conditions.

Negative Reinforcement Contingency

The immediate reduction or removal of an aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases or maintains its future occurrence.

Escape Contingency

A negative reinforcement contingency where a behavior leads to the termination of an ongoing aversive stimulus or unpleasant situation.

Avoidance Contingency

A contingency where behavior prevents or postpones an aversive stimulus before it occurs, which can be discriminated (signaled) or free operant (unsignaled).

Positive Punishment

The addition of an aversive stimulus immediately following a behavior that results in a decrease in future occurrence.

Negative Punishment Contingency

The immediate removal or decrease in intensity of a preferred stimulus following a response, resulting in a decrease in future occurrence.

Automatic Reinforcement

Behavior evoked, shaped, or maintained by environmental variables that are not delivered or controlled by another person.

Automatic Punishment

Punishment that occurs as a product of an individual's own behavior without social mediation by others.

Socially Mediated Contingency

A contingency where antecedents and consequences are presented by another person.

Unconditioned Reinforcers

Primary reinforcers that are naturally reinforcing because they provide a survival benefit, requiring no prior conditioning.

Conditioned Reinforcers

Secondary reinforcers that become reinforcing through repeated association with unconditioned or previously conditioned reinforcers rather than biological need.

Unconditioned Punisher

A primary punisher that is naturally aversive and requires no conditioning because avoidance is necessary for survival.

Conditioned Punisher

A neutral stimulus that is identified as a punisher after pairing it with unconditioned or other conditioned punishers.

Generalized Reinforcer

A conditioned reinforcer paired with multiple reinforcers across many situations that retains its reinforcing ability over time.

Generalized Punisher

A punisher that is associated with multiple other punishers across many situations.

Continuous Reinforcement

A schedule where reinforcement is delivered every time the target behavior occurs.

Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement

A schedule where some but not all instances of target behaviors are reinforced.

Forward Chaining

A method of teaching steps of a behavior chain in order, beginning with the first step and moving sequentially as each step is mastered.

Total Task Chaining

A chaining variation where the entire behavior chain is present and taught in every trial/session.

Backward Chaining

A chaining procedure in which the last step in a behavior chain is taught first, producing natural reinforcement through task completion.

Backward Chaining with a Leap Ahead

A variation of backward chaining where the client performs some previously mastered steps without training to save time.

Task Analysis

Taking a multifaceted task and breaking it down into smaller, manageable units that can be taught in a sequence.

Operant Extinction

A process in which maintaining reinforcement for a target behavior is discontinued, resulting in zero reinforcement and the behavior stopping.

Respondent Extinction

Unpairing a conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) after respondent conditioning, resulting in the CS becoming neutral again.

Discriminative Stimulus (SD)

A stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement for a specific behavior.

Stimulus Delta (S-delta)

A signal that reinforcement is not available for a specific behavior.

Stimulus Discrimination

Learning to respond to the discriminative stimulus (SD) and not the stimulus delta (S-delta).

Stimulus Generalization

When a response behavior occurs in the presence of untrained stimuli that are similar to the trained stimulus.

Response Generalization

When a person exhibits novel, untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to their trained target responses.

Response Maintenance

The extent to which a behavior remains in a client's repertoire over time beyond training.

Motivating Operations

Environmental variables, desires, or feelings that affect the value of a reinforcer (value-altering effect) and alter the frequency of behavior (behavior-altering effect).

Establishing Operation

A motivating operation that increases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus (reinforcer establishing effect) and evokes behavior (evocative effect).

Abolishing Operation

A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus (reinforcer abolishing effect) and abates behavior (abative effect).

Unconditioned Motivating Operations

Motivating operations that are biologically or innately present without any type of learning history.

Surrogate Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-S)

A conditioned motivating operation created by pairing a neutral stimulus with another motivating operation.

Reflexive Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-R)

A conditioned motivating operation that signals a worsening or improving situation.

Transitive Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO-T)

A conditioned motivating operation associated with solving a problem or needing an intermediate object/event to access a reinforcer.

Rule-Governed Behavior

Behavior controlled by instructions or rules presented explicitly rather than discovered through direct experience with consequences.

Contingency-Shaped Behavior

Behavior learned resulting from direct reinforcement, reward, or punishment often through trial and error.

Mand

A verbal operant that serves as a request.

Echoic

A verbal operant involving vocal imitation.

Intraverbal

A verbal operant involving responding to questions or filling in the blank.

Tact

A verbal operant that involves labeling environmental stimuli via the senses.

Textual

A verbal operant that involves reading text.

Transcription

A verbal operant that involves writing or converting spoken words into written words.

Behavioral Momentum

The tendency of a behavior to persist despite interruptions such as background distractions, extinction, or changes in the task.