ABA Terms And Explanations

ABA Terms And Explanations. Abative Effect - a decrease in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same motivating operation. Ex: Food ingestion abates (decreases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food. Abolishing Operation - A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event. Ex: the reinforcing effectiveness of food is abolished as a result of food ingestion. Adjunctive Behavior / Schedule-Induced Behavior - Behavior that occurs as a collateral effect of a schedule of periodic reinforcement for other behavior: time filling or interim activities (doodling, idle talking, smoking, drinking) that are induced by schedules of reinforcement during times when reinforcement is unlikely to be delivered. Antecedent - Environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest. Antecedent Intervention - A behavior change strategy that manipulates contingency independent antecedent stimuli (motivating operations) 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. Arbitrary Stimulus Class - Antecedent stimuli that evoke the same response but do not resemble each other in physical form or share a relational aspect such as bigger or under (ex: peanuts, cheese, coconut milk are members of the same arbitrary stimulus class if the evoke the response "sources of protein".) Artifact - An outcome or result that appears to exist because of the way it is measured but in fact does not correspond to what actually occurred. Autoclitic - a secondary verbal operant in which some aspect of a speakers own verbal behavior functions as an Sd or MO for additional speaker verbal behavior. The autoclitic relation can be thought of as verbal behavior about verbal behavior. Automatic Reinforcement - Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others. Automacity of Reinforcement - Refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the person's awareness; a person does not have to recognize or verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know a consequence has occurred, for reinforcement to work. Aversive Stimulus - In general an unpleasant or noxious stimulus, more technically, a stimulus change or condition that functions (a) to evoke a behavior that has terminated it in the past; (b) as a punisher when presented following behavior, and/or (c) as a reinforcer when withdrawn following behavior. Backward Chaining - ...Treatment procedure in which a trainer completes all but the last behavior in a chain, which is performed by the learner, who then receivesreinforcement for completing the chain. When learner shows competence in performing the final step in the chain, the trainer performs al but the last two behaviors in the chain, the learner emits the final two steps to compelte the chain, and reinforcement is delivered. Back up reinforcers - ...Tangible objects, activiites or privledges that serve as reinforcers and that can be purchased with tokens Baseline - condition of an experiment in which the independent variable is not present Behavior - ...activity of living organisms. A portion of a humans interaction with their environment that is characterized by detectable displacement in space though time of some part of the organism and that results in a measurable change in at least one aspect of the environment. Behavior Altering Effect - ...an alteration in the current frequency of a behavior that has been reinforced by a stimulus that has been altered in effectiveness by the same motivating operation Behavioral Contrast - ... a phenomenon in which change in one component of a multiple schedule that increases or decreases the rate of responding on that component is accompanied by a change in the response rate in the opposite direction on the other, unaltered component of the schedule Behavioral Cusp - ...a behavior that has sudden and dramatic consequences that extend well beyond the idiosyncratic change itself because it exposes the person to new environments, reinforcers, contingencies, responses, and stimulus controls. Behavioral Momentum - A metaphor to describe a rate of responding and its resistance to change following an alteration in reinforcement conditions. Behaviorism - The philosophy of a science of behavior there are various forms of behaviorism. Component Analysis - ...an experiment designed to identify the active elements of a treatment condition, the relative contributions of different variables in a treatment package, and/or the necessary and sufficient components of an intervention. ....compares levels of responding across successive phases in which the intervention is implemented with one or more components left out Concurrent Schedule - ...a schedule of reinforcement in which two or more contingencies of reinforcement (elements) operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors Conditional Probability - The likelihood that a target behavior will occur in a given circumstance, computed by calculating the a)the proportion of occurrences of a behavior that were preceded by a specific antecedent variable and b) the proportion of occurrences of problem behavior that were followed by a specific consequence. The closer the conditional probability to 1.0 the stronger the relationship is between target behavior and the antecedent/consequence variable. Conditioned Motivating Operation - ...motivating operation whose value altering effect depends on a learning history Conditioned Punisher - ...previously neutral stimulus that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers Conditioned Reinforcer - stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers Conditioned Stimulus - ...The stimulus component of at conditioned reflex; a formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus or another CS Conflict of Interest - a situation in which a person in a position of responsibility or trust has competing professional or personal interests that make it difficult to fulfill his or her duties impartially. Confounding Variable - an uncontrolled factor known or suspected to exert influence on the dependent variable. Consequence - ...is a stimulus change that follows a behavior it can be Reinforcing, Punishing, or Neutral Contingency - Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables Contingency Contract - A mutually agreed upon document between parties (e.g., parent and child) that specifies a contingent relationship between the completion of specified behavior(s) and access to specified reinforcer(s). Contingency Reversal - Exchanging the reinforcement contingencies for two topographically different responses. Contingent Observation - A procedure for implementing time-out in which the person is repositioned within an existing setting such that observation of ongoing activities remains, but access to reinforcement is lost. COntinuous Measurement - Measurement conducted in a manner such that all instances of the response classes of interest are detected during the observation period. Continuous Reinforcement (CRF) - ...schedule of reinforcement that provides a reinforcer for each occurrence of a target behavior. Contrived Contingency - Any contingency of reinforcement (or punishment) designed and implemented by a behavior analyst or practitioner to achieve the acquisition, maintenance, and/or generalization of a targeted behavior change. Cumulative Record - ...A type of graph on which the cumulative number of responses emitted is represented on the vertical axis; the steeper the slope of the data path, the greater the response rate. Dependent Variable - ...The variable in an experiment measured to determine if it changes as a result of manipulations of the independent variable (represents some measure of socially significant behavior). Deprivation - ...The state of an organizm with respect to how much time has elapsed since it has consumed or contacted a partcular type of reinforcer (procedure for increasing effectiveness of a 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. Differential Reinforcement - ...Reinforcing only those responses within a response class that meet a specific criterion along some dimension (frequency, topography, duration, latency, magnitude) and placing all other responses in the class on extinction. DRA - ...A procedure for increasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that serves a s a desireable alternative to the behavior targeted for reduction and withheld following instances of problem behavior. DRD - ...A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is provided at the end of a predetermined interval contingent on the number of responses emitted during the interval being fewer than a gradually decreasing criterion based on the individual's performance in previous intervals (fewer than 5 responses per minute). DRH - ...is the reinforcement of responses lower than a predetermined criterion. DRI - ...A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is delivered for a behavior that is topographically incompatible witht he beahviro targeted for reduction and witheld following instances ofthe problem behavior. DRL - ...is the reinforcement of responses higher than a predetermined criterion. DRO - ...A procedure for decreasing problem behavior in which reinforcement is contingent on the absence of the problem behavior Discriminative Stimulus - ...A stimulus in the presence of whic hresponses of some type have been reinforced in the absence of which the same type of responses have occureed and not been reinforced Duration - ...A measure of the total extent of time in which a behaivor occurs. Echoic - ...an elementary verbal operant involving a response that is evoked by a verbaldiscriminative stimulus that has point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity with the response. Empiricism - ...The objective observation of the phenomena of interest, objective observations are "independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist....Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone's observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist. Environment - ...The conglomorete of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in its absence. We offer online tutoring and help with assignments for all modules with guaranteed pass. For further assistance contact alpha tutors: