Applied Behavior Analysis - Chapter 1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering core definitions, scientific attitudes, domains, historical figures, and dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis from Chapter 1.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

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

Three levels of understanding

description, prediction, and control.

Description

A level of scientific understanding involving a collection of facts about observed events that can be quantified, classified, and examined for relations with other known facts.

Prediction

A level of scientific understanding that occurs when repeated observations reveal that two events covary with each other (correlation).

Control

The highest level of scientific understanding, achieved when specific manipulations of one event (independent variable) reliably produce a change in another event (dependent variable).

Functional Relation

change in one event is reliably produced by specific manipulations of another event

Science

is a systematic approach for seeking and organizing

knowledge

T

Determinism

The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur as the result of other events, and behavior is determined by natural laws.

Empiricism

The practice of objective observation and measurement based on evidence.

Experimentation

A controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time differs from one condition to another.

Replication

The repeating of experiments; the primary method with which scientists determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings and discover mistakes.

Parsimony

The practice of ruling out all simple, logical explanations for the phenomenon under investigation before considering more complex or abstract explanations.

Philosophic Doubt

An attitude requiring the scientist to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact.

Radical Behaviorism

The philosophical domain of behavior analysis that seeks to understand all human behavior, including private events such as thoughts and feelings.

Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)

The basic research branch of behavior analysis consisting of experiments, mostly in laboratory settings across species, to discover, extend, and clarify fundamental principles of behavior.

Behavior Service Delivery

The domain of professional practice where practitioners design, implement, and evaluate behavior change programs using technologies derived from behavior analysis to solve problems for clients.

Stimulus-Response (S-R) Psychology

John B. Watson's approach to psychology asserting that objective study should consist of direct observation of the relationships between environmental stimuli and the responses they evoke.

Respondent Behavior

Involuntary or reflexive behavior that is elicited by antecedent stimuli that immediately precede it.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that is not elicited by preceding stimuli, but is voluntary or spontaneous and influenced by stimulus changes that have followed the behavior in the past.

Mentalism

An approach to the study of behavior that assumes a mental or 'inner' dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension.

Hypothetical Constructs

Presumed but unobserved entities that could not be manipulated in an experiment, such as conscience, cognitive processes, drives, and free will.

Explanatory Fictions

Fictitious variables that contribute nothing to an understanding of the variables responsible for developing or maintaining behavior.

Circular Reasoning

Faulty logic where the effect that is observed is mistaken as the cause of the behavior.

Private Events

Thoughts and feelings that take place within the skin, distinguished from public behavior only by their inaccessibility, but influenced by the same variables.

Fuller (1949)

The first study to report human application of principles of operant behavior, conditioning an 18-year-old boy with profound developmental disabilities using a sugar-milk solution as a reinforcer.

Applied (Dimension)

ABA's commitment to effecting improvements in behaviors that enhance and improve people's lives by selecting behaviors that are socially meaningful for participants.

Behavioral (Dimension)

The requirement that the exact behavior chosen must be the behavior in need of improvement, must be measurable, and must monitor whose behavior changed.

Analytic (Dimension)

Demonstration of a functional relation in which the experimenter can control the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior.

Technological (Dimension)

Identifying and describing operative procedures with sufficient detail and clarity so that a reader has a fair chance of replicating the application with the same results.

Conceptually Systematic (Dimension)

Describing procedures for changing behavior and interpretations of effectiveness in terms of the relevant basic principles from which they were derived.

Effective (Dimension)

Improving the target behavior under investigation to a practical degree, producing changes that reach clinical or social significance.

Generality (Dimension)

A characteristic of behavior change where the change lasts over time, appears in nontreatment environments, or spreads to other behaviors not directly treated.

Accountable

A characteristic of ABA wherein direct and frequent measurement enables behavior analysts to identify successes and failures to make necessary adjustments.

Public

A characteristic of ABA meaning everything about the interventions and methods is visible, explicit, and straightforward.

Doable

A characteristic of ABA indicating that procedures are pragmatic and not prohibitively complicated or arduous to carry out.

Empowering

A characteristic of ABA that gives practitioners real, practical tools that work effectively to alter behavior.

Optimistic

A characteristic of ABA based on the view that all individuals possess roughly equal potential, enabling practitioners to detect small improvements and maintain confidence in future achievements.