Applied Behavior Analysis - Concepts and Principles

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering basic principles of Applied Behavior Analysis, including behavior definitions, stimulus classes, conditioning types, reinforcement schedules, verbal behavior, and complex behavioral phenomena.

Behavior

The activity of living organisms, including everything people do, such as how they move, say, think, and feel.

Response

A specific instance or one occurrence of a behavior.

Response Topography

The physical shape or form of a behavior, such as the specific arm and finger movements used to fold a shirt.

Response Class

A group of topographically different responses that generate the same consequence or serve the same function.

Repertoire

The collection of all behaviors a person can do, often denoting skills relevant to particular settings or tasks.

Stimulus

Anything that a person can experience through their senses, including things seen, heard, smelled, felt, or tasted.

Stimulus Class

A group of antecedent stimuli that have a common effect on an operant class and tend to evoke or abate the same response class.

Formal Class

A stimulus class in which stimuli share physical features such as size, shape, weight, color, or general appearance.

Temporal Class

A stimulus class defined by when they occur with respect to a behavior of interest, categorized as antecedents or consequences.

Functional Class

A stimulus class in which stimuli share a similar effect on behavior, regardless of physical similarity.

Feature Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that belong to the same category and share a similar physical feature, such as all things that are the color red.

Arbitrary Stimulus Class

A group of stimuli that belong to the same category but do not share common physical features, such as different sources of protein.

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that is elicited by the antecedent stimuli.

Respondent Conditioning

Occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus; also known as Pavlovian or classic conditioning.

Higher-Order Conditioning

Occurs when a second conditioned stimulus becomes associated with an initial conditioned stimulus and evokes a response by itself.

Operant Behavior

Any behavior determined primarily by its history of consequences.

Operant Conditioning

The process of learning through reinforcement and punishment where behaviors are strengthened or weakened based on consequences.

Reinforcement

When a response is followed by a stimulus change that results in responses occurring more often in the future.

Positive Reinforcement

The introduction of a desirable or pleasant stimulus after a behavior that makes the behavior more likely to reoccur.

Positive Reinforcer

A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an aversive stimulus after a behavior to increase the likelihood of that behavior in the future.

Negative Reinforcer

A stimulus whose termination or reduction in intensity functions as reinforcement.

Aversive Stimulus

A term used for stimulus conditions whose termination functions as reinforcement.

Punishment

When a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring less often.

Positive Punishment

Adding an aversive stimulus to the environment as a consequence to decrease an undesirable behavior.

Negative Punishment

Removing a desirable stimulus from the environment as a consequence to decrease an undesirable behavior.

Automatic Contingency

A contingency where behaviors produce their own consequences without another person changing the environment.

Socially Mediated Contingency

A contingency delivered in whole or in part by another person.

Unconditioned Reinforcers

Reinforcers that work without prior learning because living things are born with a biological need for them, such as food or water.

Conditioned Reinforcers

Reinforcers that become reinforcing only after a learning history and are not directly driven by biological needs.

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers

A consequence paired with many different reinforcing consequences until it took on reinforcing properties itself, making it less susceptible to satiation.

Backup Reinforcers

Reinforcers with which a stimulus is deliberately associated to become a conditioned reinforcer.

Unconditioned Punishers

Punishment that works without prior learning, built into biology to be avoided, such as painful stimulation or extreme temperatures.

Conditioned Punishers

A previously neutral stimulus that functions as a punisher after being paired a number of times with an established punisher.

Generalized Conditioned Punishers

A conditioned punisher that has been paired with a variety of other punishers, such as the word 'no' or social disapproval.

Continuous Reinforcement

A schedule where the desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs, best for initial stages of learning.

Intermittent Reinforcement

A schedule where reinforcement is provided for some, but not all, correct responses to maintain behavior over time.

Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule

Reinforcement is delivered after a specified number of correct responses.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

Reinforcement is delivered based on an average number of correct responses, keeping responding constant.

Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule

Reinforcement is provided for the first response following a specified amount of time.

Variable Interval (VI) Schedule

Reinforcement is provided for the first response following an average amount of time.

Concurrent (conc) Schedule

Two or more schedules of reinforcement, each with a correlated $S^{D}$, that operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors.

Multiple (mult) Schedule

Two or more basic schedules for the same behavior that operate successively, each correlated with an $S^{D}$.

Chained (chain) Schedule

Two or more basic schedules, each correlated with an $S^{D}$, that operate in a specified sequence.

Mixed (mix) Schedule

Two or more basic schedules presented successively in random sequence without correlated $S^{D}$ signals.

Tandem (tand) Schedule

Two or more basic schedules operating in a specified sequence without an $S^{D}$ associated with each component.

Alternative (alt) Schedule

Reinforcement obtained by meeting the response requirements of any of two or more simultaneously available component schedules.

Conjunctive (conj) Schedule

Reinforcement follows the completion of response requirements for two or more simultaneously operating schedules.

Respondent Extinction

The procedure of repeatedly presenting a conditioned stimulus (CS) without the unconditioned stimulus until the CS no longer elicits a response.

Operant Extinction

The process of decreasing behaviors by withholding reinforcement until the behavior effectively reaches pre-reinforcement levels.

Stimulus Control

When a behavior occurs more often in the presence of a stimulus than in its absence, effectively triggered by that stimulus.

Stimulus Discrimination

The process of learning to respond only to the original stimulus and not to other similar stimuli.

Stimulus Generalization

When several stimuli that share similar physical characteristics with the controlling stimulus evoke the same behavior.

Response Generalization

When a learner emits untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to the trained target behavior in the presence of the same stimulus.

Response Maintenance

The retention of learned skills over time, or procedures used to ensure acquired skills are not lost.

Motivating Operations (MO)

Environmental variables that alter the effectiveness of a stimulus as a reinforcer and alter the current frequency of all behavior reinforced by that stimulus.

Establishing Operation (EO)

A motivating operation that increases the current effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as reinforcement.

Abolishing Operation (AO)

A motivating operation that decreases the current effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as reinforcement.

Value-altering Effect

An increase or decrease in the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus.

Behavior-altering Effect

An increase or decrease in the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced by a particular stimulus.

Evocative Effect

An increase in the current frequency of behavior due to a motivating operation.

Abative Effect

A decrease in the current frequency of behavior due to a motivating operation.

Unconditioned MO (UMO)

A motivating operation that has a value-altering effect without any prior learning, typically related to biological survival.

Conditioned MO (CMO)

A motivating operation that is learned and depends on the person's history and context.

CMO-R (Reflexive)

A conditioned motivating operation that signals a worsening or improving of conditions.

CMO-T (Transitive)

An environmental variable that establishes or abolishes the effectiveness of another stimulus as a reinforcer.

CMO-S (Surrogate)

A stimulus that acquired its effectiveness as an MO by being paired with another, previously established, MO.

Rule-Governed Behavior

Behavior that is under the control of verbal descriptions of behavior-consequence relationships without requiring direct experience of the contingency.

Contingency-Shaped Behavior

Behavior learned from actual experiencing of the consequences of a given behavior.

Mand

A verbal operant in which the learner requests or communicates what they want or need.

Tact

A verbal operant in which the learner labels or names something within their environment.

Echoic

A verbal operant in which the learner repeats what they have heard.

Intraverbal

A verbal operant in which the learner responds to another person conversationally.

Convergent Multiple Control

Occurs when a single response is controlled by more than one antecedent variable.

Divergent Multiple Control

Occurs when a single antecedent variable controls more than one response.

Reflexivity

A stimulus-to-stimulus relation in which the learner, without training, selects a comparison stimulus identical to the sample stimulus ($A = A$).

Symmetry

A stimulus-to-stimulus relation in which the learner demonstrates the reversibility of matched stimuli ($A = B$, then $B = A$) without prior training.

Transitivity

An untrained stimulus-stimulus relation (e.g., $A = C$) that emerges as a product of training two other relations ($A = B$ and $B = C$).

Generative Learning

A behavioral effect where previously acquired skills enable the acquisition of other skills without direct teaching or reinforcement.

Joint Control

Occurs when two separately established antecedents evoke the same response typography simultaneously, combining verbal skills like echoic and tact repertoires.

Behavioral Momentum

The tendency of a behavior to persist following a change in environmental conditions, especially after the discontinuation of reinforcement.

Response Persistence

How consistently and persistently a behavior is exhibited, particularly in the face of challenges, obstacles, or disruptions.

Matching Law

A principle stating that in concurrent schedules, response allocation is proportional to the relative reinforcer rates associated with each alternative.

Imitation

Behavior caused by a model that has formal similarity, follows the model closely in time, and is primarily controlled by the model.

Observational Learning

Learning from indirect contact with consequences experienced by others by detecting their behavior and its results.