Learning Quiz 1

What are the 7 dimensions of ABA?

Generality, Effective, Technological, Applied, Conceptually Systematic, Analytic, Behavioral

What are the six attitudes of science?

Determinism, Empiricism, Experimentation, Replication, Parsimony, Philosophical Doubt

7 Dimensions; Generality

Results are durable and long-lasting; Extends behavior change across time, settings, or other behaviors

7 Dimensions; Effective

Behavioral techniques result in socially significant change; Improves behavior in a practical manner, not simply making a change that is statistically significant

7 Dimensions; Technological

Procedures are clear and replicable; Defines procedures clearly and in detail so they are REPLICABLE (like a recipe)

7 Dimensions; Applied

Make a difference of social importance; ABA improves everyday life of clients; Improves SOCIALLY SIGNIFICANT BEHAVIORS; Also helps significant others so that they behave more positively towards the client

7 Dimensions; Conceptually Systematic

Relate procedures to behavioral principles; All procedures used should be tied to the basic principles of behavior analysis from which they were derived

7 Dimensions; Analytic

Prove relationships between behavior and the environment; A FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP IS DEMONSTRATED; Ultimate issue is believability: is the experimental control sufficient to prove a reliable functional relation?; When the experimenter has demonstrated a functional relation between the manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of the targeted behavior

7 Dimensions; Behavioral

Focus on observable and measurable behavior; Observable events; The behavior one chooses must be the behavior in need of improvement

6 Attitudes; Determinism

Cause and effect; Lawfulness: If/then statements; Lawfulness: given perfect experimental control, you would always get same result; The world is ordery and predictable

6 Attitudes; Empiricism

Facts; Experimental, data-based scientific approach, drawing upon observation and experience; Requires objective quantification and detailed description of events; Behavior quantified, thoroughly described, objective observation of behavior

6 Attitudes; Experimentation (Experimental Analysis)

The basic strategy of most sciences, Requires manipulating variables so as to see the effects on the dependent variable (DV); An assessment to determine if one event caused another event; Requires that all variables be controlled except the DV.

6 Attitudes; Replication

Repeating experiments; The method that scientists use to determine the RELIABILITY and usefulness of their findings; How scientists discover their mistakes, thus making science a self-correcting enterprise

6 Attitudes; Parsimony

The simplest theory; Fewest assumptions; All simple and logical explanations must be ruled out before considering more complex explanantions; Helps scientists fit findings within the field's existing knowledge base

6 Attitudes; Philosophical Doubt

Having healthy skepticism and a critical eye about the results of studies and your work with clients

ABA

Applied Behavior Analysis; the scientific study of behavior, term coined by B.F. Skinner, science of understanding and treating human/non-human behavior, focuses on: objective description, quantification, controlled experimentation, finding causes of behavior

Learning is

• the development of behaviors in one’s repertoire

• how the environment shapes your behavior/cognition

• information processing

• acquiring new knowledge based on past experience and information

• changing your behavior or way of thinking in reaction to a stimulus

• a form of imitation

• acquiring a behavior

• coming to an understanding about a process or a concept

• defining “right” or “wrong”

• happens consciously and subconsciously

• a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience

Behavior analysts are…

• focused on observable, measurable behavior

• interested in identifying current environmental variables that maintain the behavior

• committed to designing behavioral programs that promote effective learning of adaptive skills and reducing behaviors that interfere with learning to significantly improve peoples’/social organisms’’ lives

Mentalism

• an approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental or “inner” dimension (not observable) exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior, if not at all

• concentrates on neural, psychic, spiritual, subjective, conceptual, or hypothetical properties

• says that the above dimensions cause behavior or mediate some, if not all, behavior

• says that any explanation of behavior must address these constructs

Hypothetical Construct

a formally unexplained phenomenon, unobserved…but it might (?) exist

• freud “id, ego, super-ego”

• astrology

can’t be observed or experimentally manipulated

Explanatory Fiction

a story; the rat presses the level because it “knows” it will get food; also can’t be observed or experimentally manipulated

Response

an instance of behavior

Operant Learning

behavior is controlled by its consequences

Repertoire

the behaviors an organism emits