Concepts and Principles of Behavior Analysis (Unit 6)

A comprehensive vocabulary review of core Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) concepts including motivating operations, stimulus control, consequences, measurement dimensions, respondent conditioning, and philosophical foundations.

Establishing Operation (EO) for Reinforcement

An antecedent condition that increases the effectiveness of reinforcement (value-altering effect) and evokes behavior that has produced that reinforcer in the past (behavior-altering effect).

Abolishing Operation (AO) for Reinforcement

An antecedent condition that decreases the effectiveness of reinforcement (value-altering effect) and abates behavior that has produced that reinforcer in the past (behavior-altering effect).

Unconditioned Motivating Operation (UMO)

A motivating operation whose value-altering effect does not depend on a learning history and is rooted in phylogenic provenance (e.g., deprivation or satiation of food, water, sleep, sexual activity, and painful stimulation).

Conditioned Motivating Operation (CMO)

A motivating operation whose value-altering and behavior-altering effects are acquired through ontogenic provenance (individual learning history).

EO for Punishment

An environmental condition that increases the momentary effectiveness of punishment (value-altering effect) and abates behavior that has resulted in that punishment in the past (behavior-altering effect).

AO for Punishment

An environmental condition that decreases the momentary effectiveness of punishment (value-altering effect) and evokes behavior that has resulted in that punishment in the past (behavior-altering effect).

Surrogate CMO (CMO-S)

A conditioned motivating operation that acquires its value-altering and behavior-altering effects through pairing with another motivating operation.

Reflexive CMO (CMO-R)

An antecedent stimulus or condition that establishes or abolishes its own termination as an effective form of negative reinforcement ($S^{R-}$) or negative punishment ($S^{P-}$).

CMO-R (Threat)

A reflexive CMO that establishes its own termination as negative reinforcement ($S^{R-}$), typically warning of worsening conditions.

CMO-R (Promise)

A reflexive CMO that establishes its own termination as negative punishment ($S^{P-}$), typically signaling an impending loss of reinforcement.

Transitive CMO (CMO-T)

An antecedent condition that establishes or abolishes the reinforcing effectiveness of another stimulus, evoking or abating behavior that has produced that second stimulus in the past.

Behavior Chain

A specific sequence of discrete responses leading to the delivery of a terminal reinforcer upon completion of the final response.

Response Class Hierarchy

An ordering of responses within a response class based on the varying probabilities of their occurrence under particular environmental conditions.

Omnibus Terms

General terms in behavior analysis (such as 'aversive' and 'appetitive') that denote various functional effects of particular stimuli across reinforcement and punishment contingencies.

Discriminative Control

A state in which the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus systematically alters a dimension of a specific behavior.

Discriminative Stimulus for Reinforcement ($S^D$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with the availability of reinforcement that evokes a specific behavior due to a history of differential reinforcement in its presence.

Discriminative Stimulus for Extinction ($S^\Delta$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with the unavailability of reinforcement that abates a specific behavior due to a history of extinction (no reinforcement) in its presence.

Discriminative Stimulus for Punishment ($S^{DP}$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with the availability of punishment that abates a specific behavior due to a history of punishment in its presence.

Discriminative Stimulus for Recovery ($S^{\Delta P}$)

An antecedent stimulus correlated with the unavailability of punishment that evokes a specific behavior due to a history of no punishment in its presence.

Conditional Discrimination

A discrimination in which a response is reinforced only when more than one antecedent stimulus condition is present simultaneously.

Stimulus Generalization

The occurrence of the same behavior in the presence of different antecedent stimulus conditions that share similar properties.

Motivating Operation (MO)

An antecedent stimulus or environmental condition that alters the effectiveness of a consequence (value-altering effect) and alters the momentary frequency of relevant behavior (behavior-altering effect).

Value-Altering Effect

An effect of a motivating operation that either increases (establishing effect) or decreases (abolishing effect) the momentary effectiveness of a stimulus as a consequence.

Behavior-Altering Effect

An effect of an antecedent condition (such as an MO or SD) that temporarily increases (evokes) or decreases (abates) a dimension of behavior.

Evocative Effect (Evoke)

An increase in the momentary probability or frequency of a response produced by an antecedent stimulus or establishing operation.

Abative Effect (Abate)

A decrease in the momentary probability or frequency of a response produced by an antecedent stimulus or abolishing operation.

Deprivation

The state of an organism during or following a period of time without contact with or consumption of a particular reinforcer.

Satiation

The state of an organism during or following continued contact with or consumption of a particular reinforcer.

Reinforcement

An environmental change occurring immediately following a response that increases the future probability of that response under similar conditions.

Punishment

An environmental change occurring immediately following a response that decreases the future probability of that response under similar conditions.

Automaticity

The principle that reinforcement and punishment alter future behavior directly and automatically, without requiring conscious awareness or understanding by the organism.

Positive Reinforcement

A response-consequence relation where the presentation or magnification of an appetitive stimulus following a behavior increases the future probability of that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

A response-consequence relation where the termination, reduction, or postponement of an aversive stimulus following a behavior increases the future probability of that behavior.

Escape Behavior

A behavior that terminates or removes an ongoing aversive stimulus, maintained by negative reinforcement.

Avoidance Behavior

A behavior that terminates a warning stimulus and prevents or delays the onset of an impending aversive stimulus, maintained by negative reinforcement.

Positive Punishment

A response-consequence relation where the presentation or magnification of an aversive stimulus following a behavior decreases the future probability of that behavior.

Negative Punishment

A response-consequence relation where the removal or attenuation of an appetitive stimulus following a behavior decreases the future probability of that behavior.

Unconditioned Reinforcer

A stimulus that functions as a reinforcer due to biological importance and phylogenic history without requiring prior learning.

Conditioned Reinforcer

A previously neutral stimulus that acquires reinforcing value through pairing with one or more existing reinforcers.

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer

A conditioned reinforcer that has been paired with a wide variety of other reinforcers and does not depend on a specific motivating operation for its effectiveness.

Unconditioned Punisher

A stimulus that functions as a punisher without prior learning, typically through biological mechanisms (e.g., stimuli causing physical pain).

Conditioned Punisher

A previously neutral stimulus that acquires punishing properties through conditioning by being paired with existing punishers.

Automatic Reinforcement

A contingency where the response itself directly produces the reinforcing consequence without being socially mediated by another person.

Socially Mediated Reinforcement

A contingency in which the delivery of reinforcement following a response is mediated by the actions of another individual.

Extinction Schedule (EXT)

A schedule in which reinforcement is completely withheld for a previously reinforced response, resulting in zero delivery of reinforcement.

Recovery from Punishment

The reemergence or increase in rate of a previously punished response when the punishing consequence is permanently discontinued.

Differential Reinforcement (DR)

A behavioral procedure that combines the reinforcement of one specific response class with the extinction of other response classes.

Differentiation

The behavioral outcome that occurs when differential reinforcement is applied across different response topographies, producing distinct forms of responding.

Response Generalization

The spread of the effects of reinforcement such that an organism emits novel, unreinforced response topographies that serve the same function as the target behavior.

Shaping

A procedure in which differential reinforcement is systematically used to reinforce successive approximations to gradually establish a target response topography or dimension.

Radical Behaviorism

A comprehensive philosophy of the science of behavior that includes and analyzes all forms of behavior, including private events such as thoughts, feelings, and verbal behavior.

Seven Dimensions of ABA

The seven defining criteria of applied behavior analysis summarized by the acronym GET A CAB: Generality, Effective, Technological, Applied, Conceptually systematic, Analytic, and Behavioral.

Behavior

The continuous interaction between an organism's biological actions and the environmental events that affect it.

Response Class

A collection of individual responses that may differ in physical topography but produce the same functional effect on the environment.

Topography

The physical form, shape, or configuration of a response.

Repeatability

A fundamental property of behavior based on countability, referring to the fact that a single response that occurs can reoccur repeatedly over time.

Temporal Locus

A fundamental property of behavior referring to the point in time at which a single response occurs relative to other environmental events.

Temporal Extent

A fundamental property of behavior referring to the fact that every single response occupies and extends through a duration of time.

Count (Countability)

A dimensional quantity representing the simple tally of the number of times a discrete response occurs, measuring repeatability.

Rate

A dimensional quantity defined as the ratio of response count over an observation duration, measuring both repeatability and temporal locus.

Celeration

A dimensional quantity defined as the rate of change in response frequency over time, measuring both repeatability and temporal locus.

Interresponse Time (IRT)

A dimensional quantity measuring the elapsed time between two successive responses, measuring both repeatability and temporal locus.

Latency

A dimensional quantity measuring the elapsed time between the onset of an antecedent stimulus and the initiation of a response, measuring temporal locus.

Duration

A dimensional quantity measuring the amount of time from the onset to the termination of a response, measuring temporal extent.

Determinism

The scientific presumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place where phenomena occur in systematic ways as results of other events.

Parsimony

The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations experimentally before adopting more complex, abstract explanations.

Explanatory Fiction

A circular explanation that treats hypothetical unobservable constructs inside the individual or future events as the causal explanation for behavior.

Functional Relation

A mathematically demonstrated relation showing that systematic manipulation of an independent variable ($IV$) reliably produces changes in a dependent variable ($DV$).

Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that share common formal physical features, temporal relations (antecedents or consequences), or functional effects on behavior.

Reflex

A functional relationship between an antecedent eliciting stimulus and an unlearned, involuntary response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

An antecedent environmental event that reliably elicits an involuntary respondent reflex without any prior learning history.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An involuntary, innate response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior learning.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that acquires the capacity to elicit a conditioned reflex response through respondent pairing with an unconditioned stimulus or established CS.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned involuntary reflex response elicited by a conditioned stimulus as a result of respondent conditioning.

Respondent Conditioning

A learning process involving repeated stimulus-stimulus ($S-S$) pairings of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus, converting the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus.

Respondent Extinction

The process and procedure of repeatedly presenting a conditioned stimulus ($CS$) in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus ($US$), weakening the conditioned reflex.

Respondent Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reemergence of an extinguished conditioned reflex after a period of rest following respondent extinction.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A respondent conditioning procedure in which a neutral stimulus is paired with an established conditioned stimulus ($CS$) rather than an unconditioned stimulus ($US$).

Habituation

A temporary reduction in the magnitude or frequency of a reflex response caused by the repeated presentation of its eliciting stimulus.

Potentiation

A temporary increase in the magnitude or frequency of a reflex response caused by the repeated presentation of its eliciting stimulus.

Sensitization

An increase in responsiveness where an eliciting stimulus triggers a reflex response only after that response was recently elicited by a different antecedent stimulus.

Adaptation

A reduction in the frequency or magnitude of a response that occurs as a result of prolonged, continuous exposure to a stimulus.

Short-Delay Conditioning

A respondent conditioning arrangement where the conditioned stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus by a brief delay, recognized as the most effective procedure for conditioning.

Backward Conditioning

A respondent conditioning procedure where the unconditioned stimulus is presented before the neutral stimulus, which is nearly always ineffective at producing conditioning.

Law of Effect

The fundamental principle stating that organisms learn through the consequences of their actions, with satisfying consequences strengthening behavior and annoying consequences weakening it.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences and is primarily selected, maintained, and modified by its history of consequences.

Operant Selection

The process through which repeated cycles of behavioral variability interact with environmental consequences, producing modifications in behavior over time.