Learning Ch. 2 Part 1

Functional analysis

An analysis of behavior in terms of its products or consequences. The 2 basic types r operant and respondent. Respondent defines behavior that increases/decreases because of the presentation of a stimulus/event that precedes the response. Such behavior is said to be elicited, bc it reliably occurs when the stimulus is presented. There’s a large class of behavior that doesn’t depend on an eliciting stimulus. This behavior is called emitted and spontaneously occurs at some frequency. When emitted behavior is strengthened or weakened by the events that follow the response, it is called operant behavior. Thus, operants are emitted responses that increase or decrease depending on the consequences they produce.

Structural approach

behavior is classified in terms of its form/topography. Ex, many developmental psychologists are interested in the intellectual growth of children. These researchers often investigate what a person does at a given stage of development. The _____ is emphasized because it is said to reveal the underlying stage of intellectual development. See also functional analysis.

Topography

Refers to the physical form or characteristics of the response. Ex, the way that a rat presses a lever with the left paw, the hind right foot, and so on. The ___ of response is related to the contingencies of reinforcement in the sense that the form of response can be broadened or restricted by the contingencies. The contingency of reinforcement may require only responses with the left paw rather than any response that activates the microswitch—under these conditions left paw responses will predominate. Generally, topography or form is a function of the contingencies of reinforcement.

History of Reinforcement

Refers to the reinforcement contingencies that an organism has been exposed to during its lifetime including the changes in behavior due to such exposure.

Respondent

____ is behavior that increases or decreases by the presentation of a conditioned stimulus that precedes the conditioned response. We say that the presentation of the CS regulates or controls the respondent (CR). ____ behavior is elicited, in the sense that it reliably occurs when the CS is presented. The notation system used with elicited behavior is CS → CR. The CS causes (arrow) the CR.

Elicited

Respondent (CR) and reflexive (UR) behavior are elicited in the sense that the behavior is made to occur by the presentation of a stimulus (CS or US).

Emitted

Operant behavior is emitted in the sense that it occurs at some probability in the presence of a discriminative stimulus (SD), but the SD does not force its occurrence.

Operant

An _____ is behavior that operates on the environment to produce a change, effect, or consequence. These environmental changes select the ____ appropriate to a given setting or circumstance. That is, particular responses increase or decrease in a situation as a function of the consequences they produced in the past. _____ behavior is emitted (rather than elicited) in the sense that the behavior may occur at some frequency before any known conditioning.

Response class

___ refers to all the forms of the performance that have a similar function (e.g., putting on a coat to keep warm). In some cases, the ____ in a ____have close physical resemblance, but this is not always the case. Ex, saying “Please open the door” and physically opening the door are members of the same ____ if both result in an open door

Response hierarchy

With regard to responses within a response class, a ____ refers to the order or likelihood of the response forms in the class based on response properties (effort) or probability of reinforcement in a given situation. For a child, the parents may have differentially reinforced shouting rather than quiet conversation at the dinner table and loud talk has a higher probability of occurrence at dinner than talk at less volume. For a free-choice or baseline assessment (Premack, 1962), the responses in different classes for a situation are arranged in a hierarchy (between response classes) by relative frequency or probability of occurrence. For a rat the probability of eating, drinking, and wheel running might form a hierarchy with eating occurring most often and wheel running least.

Environment

The functional ____ is all the events and stimuli that affect the behavior of an organism. The environment includes events “inside the skin” like thinking, hormonal changes, and pain stimulation

Stimulus function

When the occurrence of an event changes the behavior of an organism, we may say that the event has a ___. Both respondent and operant conditioning can create ____. During respondent conditioning, an arbitrary event like a tone comes to elicit a particular response, like salivation. Once the tone is effective, it is said to have a conditioned-stimulus function for salivation. In the absence of a conditioning history, the tone may have no specified function and does not affect the specified behavior.

Conditioned-stimulus function

An event or stimulus that has acquired its function to elicit a response on the basis of respondent conditioning. When a tone is followed by food in the mouth, the tone becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) for salivation.

Reinforcement function

Any event (or stimulus) that follows a response and increases its frequency is said to have a ___. If an infant’s babbling increases due to touching by the mother, we can say that maternal touching has a _____.

Discriminative Function

When an organism’s behavior is reinforced, those events that reliably precede responses come to have a ____. These events are said to set the occasion for behavior and are called discriminative stimuli. Discriminative stimuli acquire this function because they predict (have been followed by) reinforcement.

Discriminative stimuli

Refers to an event or stimulus that precedes an operant and sets the occasion for operant behavior (antecedent stimulus).

Stimulus Class

Stimuli that vary across physical dimensions but have a common effect on behavior belong to the same ____.

Positive reinforcement

____ is a contingency that involves the presentation of an event or stimulus following an operant that increases the rate of response.

Negative Reinforcers

A _____ is any event or stimulus that increases the probability (rate of occurrence) of an operant that removes or prevents it. See also negative reinforcement.

Context of Behavior

Refers to the fact that environment–behavior relationships are always conditional—depending on other circumstances.

Establishing Operation

Formally, an ____ is defined as any change in the environment that alters the effectiveness of some stimulus or event as reinforcement and simultaneously alters the momentary frequency of the behavior that has been followed by that reinforcement. Thus, an _____ has two major effects: (a) it increases the momentary effectiveness of reinforcers supporting operant behavior, and (b) it increases the momentary probability of operants that have produced such reinforcement. For example, the most common _____ is deprivation for primary reinforcement. This procedure has two effects. First, food becomes an effective reinforcer for any operant that produces it. Second, behavior that has previously resulted in getting food becomes more likely.

Abolishing operation

In contrast to the establishing operation, an ___ decreases the effectiveness of behavioral consequences, and momentarily reduces behavior that has resulted in those consequences in the past. Thus, providing frequent social attention for a period (noncontingent attention) functions as an ___. That is, a period of noncontingent attention subsequently decreases the effectiveness of attention as a social reinforcer, and reduces self-injurious behavior maintained by adult attention.

Motivational operation

To capture both the establishing and abolishing effects of events that precede reinforced behavior (or punishment), it is useful to introduce a more inclusive concept. The _____ refers to any event that alters the reinforcement effectiveness of behavioral consequences and changes the frequency of behavior maintained by those consequences.