Part -1:
THE ABA TERMINOLOGY GAME
Unit 1 Terms
ANTECEDENT
A stimulus or event that precedes the target behavior.
APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS
The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior, and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for the improvement of behavior.
AUTOMATICITY
The modification of behavior by its consequences, irrespective of the person's awareness.
AVERSIVE STIMULUS
A stimulus change or condition that functions to evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past, as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or as a reinforce when withdrawn following behavior.
BEHAVIOR
The activity of living organisms, or what a person does and says.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE TACTIC
A technologically consistent behavior modification method that possesses sufficient generality across subjects, settings, and/or behaviors to warrant its codification and dissemination.
BEHAVIORISM
The philosophy or science that examines the activity of living organisms.
CONDITIONED PUNISHER
A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more punishers.
CONDITIONED REFLEX
A learned stimulus-response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the response it elicits.
CONDITIONED REINFORCER
A previously neutral stimulus that has been paired a number of times with an established reinforcer and consequently functions as a reinforce itself.
CONDITIONED STIMULUS
A formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
CONSEQUENCE
A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest.
CONTINGENCY
A relationship between a response and a consequence in which the consequence is presented if and only if the response occurs.
DEPRIVATION
The state of an organism with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a particular type of reinforcer.
DETERMINISM
The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion.
DISCRIMINATED OPERANT
An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than others.
DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULUS
A stimulus in the presence of which responses of some type have been reinforced, and in the absence of which the same type of responses have occurred and have not been reinforced.
EMPIRICISM
The objective observation of the phenomena of interest.
ENVIRONMENT
The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referred part of an organism exists.
ESTABLISHING OPERATION
A motivating operation that increases the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer.
EXPERIMENT
A carefully 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.
EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR
The scientific study of behavior and the types of environmental events that are functionally related to the occurrence of behavior.
EXPLANATORY FICTION
A hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account or understanding of the phenomenon.
EXTINCTION
The process by which, when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer followed by the reinforcing consequences, the frequency of the behavior decreases in the future.
FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP
A relationship between a behavior and an environmental event (or events) in which the occurrence of the behavior is controlled by the occurrence of the environmental event.
HABITUATION
A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus.
HIGHER-ORDER CONDITIONING
Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing a neutral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus.
HISTORY OF REINFORCEMENT
An inclusive term referring in general to all of a person's learning experiences, and more specifically to past conditioning with respect to particular response classes or aspects of a person's repertoire.
HYPOTHETICAL CONSTRUCT
A presumed but unobserved process or entity.
MENTALISM
An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that an "inner" dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension, and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior.
METHODOLOGICAL BEHAVIORISM
A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot by publicly observed as outside the realm of science.
MOTIVATING OPERATION
An antecedent stimulus or event that alters the value of a reinforcer and alters the probability of the behavior that produces that reinforcer.
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
A type of reinforcement in which the occurrence of the behavior is followed by the removal or avoidance of an aversive stimulus.
NEUTRAL STIMULUS
A neutral change that does not elicit respondent behavior.
ONTOGENY
The history of the development of an individual during its lifetime.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Occurs when a behavior in a particular situation is followed by a reinforcing consequence, thus making the behavior more likely to occur in similar circumstances in the future.
PARSIMONY
The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.
PHILOSOPHICAL DOUBT
An attitude that the truthfulness or validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned.
PHYLOGENY
The history of the natural evolution of a species.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
A type of reinforcement in which, contingent on the behavior, a stimulus or event is presented and the probability of the behavior increases in the future.
PRINCIPLE OF BEHAVIOR
A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behavior, and time.
PUNISHER
A stimulus or event that, when presented contingent on the occurrence of a behavior, decreases the future probability of the behavior.
PUNISHMENT
The process in which a behavior is followed by a consequence that results in a decrease in the future probability of the behavior.
RADICAL BEHAVIORISM
A thoroughgoing form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior-including private events such as thoughts and feelings-in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person and species.
REFLEX
A stimulus-response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits.
REINFORCEMENT
Occurs when a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behavior in similar conditions.
REPERTOIRE
All of the behaviors that a person can do, or a set of behaviors relevant to a particular setting or task.
REPLICATION
Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity.
RESPONDENT BEHAVIOR
Behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli.
RESPONDENT CONDITIONING
A process in which a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, which elicits an unconditioned response.
RESPONDENT EXTINCTION
The process by which, when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned stimulus gradually ceases to elicit the conditioned response.
RESPONSE
A single instance of an occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior.
RESPONSE CLASS
A group of responses of varying typography, all which produce the same effect on the environment.
SATIATION
Progressive (and ultimately total) loss of effectiveness of a reinforcer.
SCIENCE
A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophical doubt as its guiding conscience.
SELECTION BY CONSEQUENCES
The fundamental principle underlying operant conditioning; the basic tenet is that all forms of behavior, from simple to complex, are shaped, selected, and maintained by their consequences during an individual's lifetime.
STIMULUS
An environmental event that can be detected by one of the senses.
stimulus class
A group of stimuli that all have the same functional effect on a particular behavior. For example, each stimulus in a stimulus class may function as a discriminative stimulus for a particular behavior.
STIMULUS CONTROL
The outcome of stimulus discrimination training.
STIMULUS-STIMULUS PAIRING
A procedure in which two stimuli are presented at the same time, usually repeatedly for a number of trials, which often results in one stimulus acquiring the function of the other stimulus.
THREE-TERM CONTINGENCY
The antecedent that is present when the behavior occurs, the behavior, and the reinforcing consequence.
UNCONDITIONED PUNISHER
A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it, irrespective of the organism's learning history with the stimulus.
UNCONDITIONED REINFORCER
A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it, irrespective of the organism's learning history with the stimulus.
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS
The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning.
REFERENCES
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. (2 ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Miltenberger, R. G. (2012). Behavior modification, principles and procedures. (5th ed.). Wadsworth Pub Co.
Part -2:
Methods to identify and define targets for behavior change*
Identify relevant factors that may inform or influence intervention
Five Phases of Assessment
Screening
Defining problem or criteria for achievement
Pinpointing target behaviors
Monitoring progress
Following-up
Pre-assessment Considerations
Ethical considerations
Authority
Permission
Resources
Social validity
Interviewing the Individual
Identify list of potential target behaviors
What and when
Avoid ‘why'
Identify primary concerns
Verified through further data collection
Direct observation
Use of questionnaires or self-monitoring
Interviewing Significant Others
Develop behavioral descriptions
What, when, how
Avoid ‘why'
Move from general to specific
Determine participation
Use open ended questions avoid yes/no responses
Checklists
Descriptions of specific behaviors and conditions under which each should occur
Alone or with interview
Checklists
Typically Likert-scale assessments
Ask about antecedents and consequences
Child Behavior Checklist
Adaptive Behavior Scale - School
Adaptive Behavior Scale - Residential and Community
Standardized Tests
Consistent administration
Compares performance to specified criteria
Norm-referenced
Limitations
Do not specify target behaviors
Do not provide direct measure of behavior
Licensing requirements
Features of ABC recording
Descriptive
Temporally sequenced
Description of behavior patterns
Full attention, 20 - 30 min
Observations only, no interpretations
Repeat over several days
Data on individual and environment
Physical features
Interactions with others
Home
Reinforcement history
Evaluate amount of descriptive data required to address current need
Effects of assessment on behavior being assessed
Obtrusive assessment great impact
Self-monitoring most obtrusive
Reduce reactivity
Unobtrusive methods
Repeat observations
Take effects into account
Behavior Cusp
Behaviors that open person's world to new contingencies
Crawling, reading
Socially valid
Generativeness
Determining Habilitation
Competes with inappropriate responses
Degree that others are affected
Age appropriateness
Normalization
Philosophy of achieving greatest possible integration of people with disabilities into society
Replacement behaviors
Cannot eliminate or reduce a behavior without teaching a replacement
Defining Target Behaviors
Role and Importance of Definitions
Definitions required for replication
Replication required to determine usefulness of data in other situations
Necessary for research
Reasons to Use Topography-based Definitions
Behavior analyst does not have direct, reliable, or easy access to functional outcomes
Cannot rely on function of behavior because each occurrence does not produce relevant outcome
When the relevant outcome is sometimes produced by undesirable variations of the response class
E.g., A basketball player scores with a sloppy shot from the free throw line
Definition should encompass all response forms that produce relevant outcomes