Behavior Analysis Exam 1

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  1. What is behavior analysis?
    The study of fundamental relationships between behavior and context
  2. What is adaptive behavior "controlled" by?
    The environment
  3. What does the environment include?
    Objects, people, events, etc
  4. What are the two characteristics of behavior?
    • Overt: physically visible
    • Covert: cannot be seen directly
  5. What are the three branches of behavior analysis?
    • Experimental
    • Theoretical/Conceptual
    • Behavior Modification (Applied Behavior Analysis)
  6. What is the goal of the experimental branch of behavior analysis?
    To understand how it is that behavior relates to environment
  7. What is the goal of the theoretical/conceptual branch of behavior analysis?
    To put things together to come up with a theory of how behavior works
  8. What is the goal of the behavior modification (applied behavior analysis) branch of behavior analysis?
    • To apply fundamental principles to practical issues
    • To discover the environmental causes in individual cases
    • To develop or change behavior by changing environment
    • To contribute to understanding
  9. What are the three functional relationships between behavior and environment?
    • Primitive Adaptions
    • Coordinated Adaptions
    • More Complex Adaptions
  10. What are examples of primitive adaptions?
    • They are genetically determined and reflexive
    • Kinesis: movement in response to environmental stimulation (rolypolies become more active in dry areas and less active in humid areas)
    • Taxis: directed movement in response to environmental stimulation (trout automatically swim upstream for food)
  11. What are examples of coordinated adaptations?
    • Fixed Action Pattern (FAP): a sequence of unlearned, innate behavior. It's stereotyped; once initiated, it's usually carried to completion; it's triggered by an external sensing stimulus ("the sign-stimulus")
    • ex: nest-building
    • ex:male stickleback fish have a red underside & attack when they see anything with a red underside
  12. What are examples of more complex adaptations?
    • Classical Conditioning (Respondent/Pavlovian)
    • Instrumental Learning
    • Operant Conditioning
    • Observational Learning
  13. What are the steps of behavioral assessment?
    • Step 1: Define the target behavior
    • Step 2: Choose Observers
    • Step 3: Choose Settings
    • Step 4: Choose Methods
    • Step 5: Avoid Problems
  14. What do you do when you define the target behavior?
    • Use operational definitions; They are:
    • specific
    • observable
    • quantifiable
    • objective & unambiguous
  15. Who are the possible observers in a behavioral assessment?
    • Self
    • Others (parents, teachers, clinicians, etc)
  16. What are the possible settings in a behavioral assessment?
    • Natural or contrived
    • At times and places the behavior is likely to occur naturally
  17. What are the possible methods in a behavioral assessment?
    • Direct Observation
    • Indirect Observation
    • Combinations
  18. How is direct observation conducted?
    • Continuous Recording
    • Product Recording
    • Interval Recording
  19. What does interval recording consist of?
    • Event Recording: mark whenever it occurs; better for countable behavior
    • Duration Recording: mark only if it occurred throughout the interval; better for uncountable behavior (ex. crying)
    • Terminal Event Recording: mark only if it occurs at the end of the interval
    • Time Sampling: observation of subject in every other interval
  20. How is indirect observation conducted?
    • Gather information about the behavior
    • Trait ratings - ask the target person or observer to give a number to rate a trait
    • Self-report questionnaires
    • Informant reports
    • Interviews
  21. How are combinations of direct and indirect observations conducted?
    • Frequency counts within intervals
    • Duration recording within time-sampled intervals
    • Trait ratings across different observation periods
  22. What problems should be avoided in a behavioral assessment?
    • Problems with indirect observation
    • Problems with direct observation
  23. What are possible problems with indirect observation?
    • Memory
    • Exaggeration
    • Response bias
    • Observer bias
    • Observer's basis for comparison
  24. What are possible problems with direct observation?
    • Developing a coding instrument
    • Training observers
    • Checking reliability (agreement that the behavior occurred - intraobserver and interobserver)
    • Subject reactivity
    • Ethics (privacy, confidentiality, and use of information)
  25. What is the difference between privacy and confidentiality?
    • Privacy: people should be able to have private behaviors that aren't usually publicly observed
    • Confidentiality: the observed are assured that the recorded stuff will not be made public
  26. When it is appropriate to create research designs?
    When things happen in a study over an interval
  27. What is a variable?
    • A characteristic that differs across people, settings, and times
    • They can be: manipulated (assigned), measured, pre-existing (subject variables), controlled or held constant, "confounded" (an alternative explanation of results; ways that the group differs)
  28. What is the goal of research?
    • To discover the relationships between variables
    • In behavioral interventions: does the type of treatment affect the frequency, duration, or latency of the behavior?
  29. What are the categories of research designs?
    • Experimental
    • Non-experimental
  30. What variables are involved in experimental research designs?
    • Independent variables (IV)
    • Dependent variables (DV)
    • Control variables
  31. What variables are involved in non-experimental research designs?
    • "Predictor" variable
    • "Outcome" variable
    • Problem: "confounds"
  32. What are possible problems with experimental controls?
    • Subject characteristics
    • Maturation/Change over time
    • Demand Characteristics (Subject Reactivity)
    • Expectancy Effects (Experimenter Bias)
  33. What do group comparison research designs consist of?
    • Characteristics: Each group is assigned to a different condition; DV is measured during or after treatment
    • Methods of Experimental Control: Randomly assign subjects to groups or equalize groups
    • Example: Juvenile delinquents are randomly assigned to one of three treatments; DV: Recidivism
  34. What do small-n and single-subject research consist of?
    • Reversal/Withdrawal Designs (ABA, ABAB)
    • Multiple Baseline Designs
    • Combinations
  35. What do reversal designs consist of?
    • A: Baseline measurement of DV
    • B: Treatment phase
    • A: Return to baseline conditions
    • Methods: Return to baseline controls for maturation effects; subject is own control
    • ex: Child is observed for "crying behavior"; treatment of "no attention"; return to baseline conditions of "attention" for crying
  36. What do multiple baseline designs consist of?
    • Staggered onset of treatment across: subjects, settings, behaviors
    • Methods: Compare treated subject with not-yet treated subject; Compare subject's treated behavior with not-yet treated behavior
    • Ex: Treatment for "hitting behavior" introduced at a later time than treatment for "crying behavior"
  37. What do combinations of reversal and multiple baseline designs consist of?
    • Multiple methods control for many extraneous variables
    • Ex: Return to baseline for each subject; treatment
  38. What are the basic graph components?
    • X-axis (IV)
    • Y-axis (DV)
    • Axis titles and labels
    • Phase labels
    • Graph title
    • Line and bar graphs
  39. Who is associated with instrumental conditioning?
    Edward Thorndike
  40. What are the components of instrumental conditioning?
    • Theory: Behavior that is rewarded will be repeated (Law of Effect)
    • Method: Cats learn to escape a puzzle box; measure of latency
    • Conclusion: behavior is strengthened by favorable consequences
  41. Who is associated with operant conditioning?
    B.F. Skinner
  42. What are the components of operant conditioning?
    • Theory: Behavior depends on both antecedents and consequences (ABC's)
    • Method: "Skinner boxes" with pigeons/rats/humans; cumulative frequency graphs
    • Conclusion: Behavior is strengthened in situations in which the behavior has previously been rewarded & behavior is hindered in situations in which the behavior has previously been punished
  43. What are Skinner's ABC's of behavior?
    • Antecedent: stimuli preceding a specific behavior
    • Behavior: the individual's response
    • Consequence: stimuli that follow and are contingent on the behavior
    • Outcome: as a result of the consequence, the behavior is either more likely or less likely to occur again
  44. How do you know if a consequence is contingent?
    • A specific environmental consequence occurs only after a specific behavior
    • The consequence doesn't occur after the absence of the behavior or after other behaviors
    • Contingent behaviors are categorized into different outcomes
  45. What is reinforcement?
    A specific behavior is followed by a specific contingent consequence, and the future outcome is increased in likelihood of behavior
  46. What is punishment?
    A specific behavior is followed by a specific contingent consequence, and the future outcome is decreased in likelihood of behavior
  47. Who is associated with observational learning?
    Albert Bandura
  48. What are the components of observational learning?
    • Theory: social/cognitive learning; behavior, thoughts, emotions can be learned vicariously; reciprocal determinism
    • Method: humans in laboratory settings; "Bobo dolls" and aggression
    • Conclusions: Modeled behavior may be imitated by observers; "personality" results from an ongoing, reciprocal interaction of environment, behavior, and cognition
  49. What factors influence reinforcement and punishment?
    • Immediacy
    • Contingency
    • Motivating operations (establishing operations; abolishing operations)
    • Characteristics of the consequences
    • Schedules of reinforcement (continuous; intermittent)
  50. What are the types of intermittent schedules of reinforcement?
    • Fixed Interval (FI)
    • Variable Interval (VI)
    • Fixed Ratio (FR)
    • Variable Ratio (VR)
  51. What does a cumulative frequency graph of a fixed interval schedule look like?
    it has a scalloped graph
  52. What does a cumulative frequency graph of a variable interval schedule look like?
    it has a diminished scalloped effect on the graph
  53. What does a cumulative frequency graph of a fixed ratio schedule look like?
    it has a leveling effect on the graph
  54. What does a cumulative frequency graph of a variable ratio schedule look like?
    it had a much steeper leveling effect on the graph
  55. What are the possible approaches to reversing the effects of contingent consequences?
    • If the behavior is being reinforced, change the consequence to a punishment.
    • If the behavior is being punished, change the consequence to reinforcement.
  56. What is the best approach to reversing the effects of contingent consequences?
    Extinction: a previously reinforced or punished behavior is no longer followed by the specific contingent consequence, and the future outcome is changed in likelihood of behavior
  57. What are the types of extinction?
    • A previously reinforced behavior: the reinforcer no longer follows the behavior; likelihood of behavior decreases
    • A previously punished behavior: the punisher no longer follows the behavior; likelihood of behavior increases
  58. What are the factors to consider when reversing the effects of contingent consequences?
    • Extinction burst: things get worse before they get better
    • Schedule of reinforcement or punishment: a behavior on a variable schedule is harder to extinguish
    • Spontaneous recovery: sometimes, long after a behavior has been extinguished, the behavior will occur again
    • Concurrent schedules of reinforcement: there might be something else that is reinforcing the behavior
    • Ignoring: is appropriate only if the behavior was originally reinforced with attention
  59. What are the operant principles?
    • Reinforcement (+/-)
    • Punishment (+/-)
    • Extinction
  60. What is stimulus control?
    • It's a redefinition of Skinner's ABC's
    • SD: Discriminative Stimulus (Antecedent)
    • R: Response (Behavior)
    • SR/SP: Reinforcer/Punisher (Consequence)
    • A target behavior is under stimulus control when the probability of the behavior is increased in the presence of the specific antecedent or of stimuli from the same category
  61. What is stimulus discrimination training?
    The process of reinforcing a behavior only when the SD is present, not when other antecedents (S) are present
  62. How does extinction occur in a behavior that is under stimulus control?
    • The contingent reinforcer or punisher that was previously available in the presence of a specific antecedent is no longer available in the presence of that antecedent
    • ex: grandma used to give the boy candy, but not anymore (just like mom)
  63. How does generalization occur in a behavior that is under stimulus control?
    The reinforced behavior becomes more likely to occur in the presence of SD or in the presence of stimuli that are similar to SD
  64. How did Professor Ballard establish stimulus control in her cats?
    • Notice behaviors cats normally do
    • Give a signal before behavior naturally occurs, then give the reinforcer
    • When the signal is given, don't give the reinforcer unless the behavior occurs
    • If the behavior occurs after the signal is given, give the reinforcer
  65. Who is associated with classical/respondent conditioning?
    Ivan Pavlov
  66. What are the components of classical/respondent conditioning?
    • Theory: learned associations; natural responses to one stimulus may become learned responses to a paired stimulus
    • Method: Dogs, digestive system, and serendipity
    • Conclusion: Behavior results from learned associates between stimuli
  67. What is the process of classical conditioning?
    • US (naturally) → UR
    • NS → No UR
    • US (with NS) → UR
    • NS becomes CS
    • CS (alone) → CR
  68. What is discrimination in classical conditioning?
    When the CR occurs only in response to a specific CS
  69. What is generalization in classical conditioning?
    When the CR occurs in response to the CS or to similar stimuli
  70. What does the generalization gradient suggest?
    • Stimuli that are close to the CS:
    • will elicit a similar response
    • but the strength of the response depends on how similar the stimulus is
  71. How did John B. Watson apply classical conditioning?
    • He focused on the development of fears
    • Little Albert developed a fear of white furry objects
  72. How did Mary Cover-Jones apply classical conditioning?
    • She was the first behavior therapist
    • She focused on "unlearning"
    • She used counter conditioning: extinction (no longer letting the NS get paired with the US)
  73. How did John Wolpe apply classical conditioning?
    • He used systematic desensitization
    • He focused on the treatment of fears
  74. What is higher order conditioning?
    • When a NS is paired with a previously conditioned stimulus
    • The NS becomes a new CS and elicits all by itself
  75. What is a conditioned emotional response?
    It's when the natural response (UR) is an emotion
  76. What factors influence classical/respondent conditioning?
    • Strength of the uncontrolled stimulus
    • "Natural" connection between US and CS
    • Temporal relation between US and CS
    • Contingency
    • Number of pairings
    • Previous exposure to CS
  77. What are some examples of classical/respondent conditioning?
    • Pavlov's Dogs
    • Watson: Little Albert
    • Garcia: Taste aversion
    • Ader: Conditioned immune responses
  78. What are the differences between classical/respondent and operant conditioning?
    • Classical/Respondent Conditioning: Behavior is elicited by stimuli; primarily involves involuntary responses
    • Operant Conditioning: Behavior is controlled by its consequences; antecedent does not control behavior

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Behavior Analysis Exam 1
2014-09-30 06:06:10
suny geneseo behavior analysis psych220

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