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SOLUTION MANUAL
Applied Behavior Analysis 3rd Edition
by John Cooper, Timothy Heron
AP
LU
S0
01
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, Dfghjkl;
Chapter 1: Definition and Characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis
Chapter Summary
The word “science” is often used as a noun, conflated with its products—as in “What does science tell us?”—but
those products are outcomes of the behavior of large numbers of inquisitive individuals who engage in a systematic
approach for seeking and organizing information about the natural world. Science really has one overall goal: to
achieve a thorough understanding of the phenomena under study, which, in the field of applied behavior analysis, is
socially important behavior that is meaningfully associated with an individual’s quality of life.
Different types of scientific investigation yield different degrees of understanding that represent progressively
greater ability to influence given phenomena. Description refers to a scientist collecting facts about entities or
events, which can raise interesting questions and establish hypotheses for further study. Prediction is the outcome of
more systematic observation when a scientist finds that two events often covary; when correlations are demonstrated
in this manner, the probability of one event occurring can be more confidently predicted given the presence of the
other event, although at this level the scientist cannot refer to the relationship between the two events as a causal
AP
one. When a scientist actually manipulates events, however, and shows that a change they make in one event (an
“independent variable”) repeatedly results in some change in a second event (a target or “dependent variable”)—and
when they have accounted for and reduced the likelihood that some other variable is responsible for that change—
when, in other words, they have demonstrated a functional relationship between these variables, they have achieved
experimental control of the phenomena being studied. Behavior analysts consider control to be the most desirable
level of understanding because functional relations are the potential basis for developing applied techniques for
behavior change. In this respect, behavior analysis is characterized by pragmatism, the philosophical position that
the “truth” of scientific findings is to be judged by the extent to which they lead to effective action.
LU
The pursuit of scientific understanding of natural phenomena—including behavior—is characterized by an
overriding set of assumptions and values: determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, and
philosophic doubt. Determinism—the notion that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all events occur
as the result of other events—is the assumption upon which scientific endeavors are predicated. Indeed, if events
were not determined in a reasonably orderly fashion—if phenomena randomly occurred simply as a matter of
chance—then there would be no basis for viable technologies of behavior change. The development of useful
behavior change techniques, in other words, rests on the belief that all behavior is the result of specifiable conditions
S0
and that these conditions, once identified, can be managed in a way that will influence the future probability of
behavior. Other qualities that guide success in science include thoroughness, curiosity, perseverance, diligence,
ethics, and honesty.
John B. Watson—one of the first and best known individuals to identify as a “behaviorist” early in the 20 th
century—departed from psychology’s focus at the time on introspection and mental processes, and suggested that
human behavior could be studied using the observational tactics of natural science. His behaviorism, which came to
01
be known as S-R psychology—and also came to be known for fantastic claims—could not account for apparently
“spontaneous” acts: for behavior, in other words, that lacked obvious antecedents. Numerous efforts to fill these
explanatory gaps once again elevated mental states and constructs to causal status with respect to human behavior.
B. F. Skinner, in contrast, remained focused on environmental events and eventually showed, through what he called
the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), that much behavior is changed and maintained by the consequences it
produces. Thus Skinner identified operant behavior and elaborated Watson’s formulation with a new paradigm
called the three-term contingency (S-R-S), a model that remains the fundamental unit of study and focus of practice
in the four domains of modern behavior analysis: behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior, applied
behavior analysis (ABA), and behavior analytic practice. Skinner’s conceptual formulation of behaviorism—the
philosophical domain of behavior analysis—is known as radical behaviorism because it maintains that thoughts and
feelings (what he called “private events” that occur “inside the skin”) are simply less accessible forms of behavior
that otherwise can be understood in the same terms and studied by the same means as overt behavior, without
appealing to intervening hypothetical constructs.
rtyuiofghjk
, Dfghjkl;
One of the first studies to apply the principles of operant behavior to humans was published in 1949 by Fuller. The
field of behavior analysis grew in the 1950’s and 1960’s as researchers replicated with humans in naturalistic
settings the methods and principles that had been developed in laboratories with non-humans. The study regarded as
the cornerstone of applied behavior analysis—in which the agents of behavior change were nurses rather than
researchers—was conducted by Ayllon and Michael in 1959. The field continued to grow and formally came into its
own in 1968 with the publication of the inaugural issue of The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, which
included the now classic article “Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis” by Donald M. Baer,
Montrose M. Wolf, and Todd Risley. With that article, Baer, Wolf, and Risley set forth what they considered to be
the defining characteristics of the nascent domain of behavior analysis—that it is applied, behavioral, analytic,
technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and capable of generalized outcomes—and these remain the
standard today. Certainly, the field of applied behavior analysis possesses additional characteristics—it is
accountable, public, doable, empowering, and optimistic, for example—but over many decades and myriad
applications to matters of real-world consequence, from ADHD to zoo animal welfare, it has remained above all a
science with the dual goals of understanding socially significant human behavior and improving people’s quality of
life.
AP
Chapter Key Terms
applied behavior analysis (ABA) explanatory fiction parsimony
behaviorism functional analysis philosophic doubt
determinism functional relation pragmatism
empiricism hypothetical construct radical behaviorism
experiment mentalism replication
experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) methodological behaviorism science
LU
Chapter Objectives
1. Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science: description, prediction, and control.
2. Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying behavior analysis: selectionism, determinism, parsimony, and
pragmatism.
S0
3. Explain behavior from the perspective of radical behaviorism.
4. Describe how Skinner improved upon Watson’s behaviorism.
5. State distinguishing features of mentalistic and environmental explanations of behavior.
6. Describe the different domains of behavior analytic practice—radical behaviorism, experimental analysis of
behavior, applied behavior analysis, and professional practice guided by behavior analysis—and the role of
translational research in bridging basic and applied research.
01
7. State and describe each of the dimensions of applied behavior analysis as discussed by Baer, Wolf, and Risley
in 1968.
Chapter Focus Questions
1. What are the 3 basic levels of scientific practice and the different kinds of knowledge statements to which they
can lead?
2. Describe the two ways in which the term “functional analysis” is used in the field of behavior analysis.
3. Explain the overarching “attitudes of science” (i.e., foundational assumptions of scientific practice) and their
importance).
4. Describe the 4 primary domains of contemporary behavior analysis? What is translational research?
5. What are key historical landmarks in the evolution of behavior analysis since the early 20th century?
rtyuiofghjk
, Dfghjkl;
6. Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) identified 7 defining dimensions of applied behavior analysis; name 4 additional
characteristics of the practice of behavior analysis.
7. Describe and compare, with reference to examples, the two main goals of behavior analysis, as set forth in the
definition of the field.
Chapter Suggested Reading
Ayllon, T., & Michael, J. (1959). The psychiatric nurse as a behavioral engineer. Journal of the Experimental
Analysis of Behavior, 2, 323-334.
One of the guiding articles that provide the basis for the foundation of applied behavior analysis, this study employs
the use of techniques based on reinforcement theory in a mental hospital. Psychiatric nurses implement a variety of
procedures with patients.
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91-97.
AP
This article provides the original 7 defining dimensions of applied behavior analysis that remain core tenets of the
field today.
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1987). Some still-current dimensions of applied behavior analysis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20(4), 313-327.
This article serves as a follow up to the authors’ original work in 1968 in which the defining characteristics are
reviewed and are argued as being functional within the contemporary field of applied behavior analysis. In addition,
LU
new tactics within the field are discussed.
Critchfield, T. S., & Reed, D. D. (2017). The fuzzy concept of applied behavior analysis research. The
Behavior Analyst, 40(1), 123-159.
The authors discuss the historical context from which Baer, Wolf, and Risley proffered the 7 dimensions of applied
behavior analysis, and persuasively argue that potentially important behavior analytic research goes unpublished—
or gets published in journals tangential to the field—because the 7 dimensions may be employed too rigidly as a
standard.
S0
Fuller, P. R. (1949). Operant conditioning of a vegetative human organism. The American Journal of
Psychology, 62, 587-590.
This study is one of the first to report the human application of the principles of operant behavior. An individual
with disabilities learns to make a physical response through operant conditioning. Note that it employs labels that
were particular to the time period and that are considered offensive today. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the study was
replicated by Boyle & Greer (1983).
01
Kimball, J. W. (2002). Behavior-analytic instruction for children with autism: Philosophy matters. Focus on
Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 17(2), 66-75.
The author offers a primer on empiricism, pragmatism, and selectionism, which comprise the epistemological
underpinnings of behavior analysis and the foundation for the three-term contingency, as an antidote to the
conflation by many educators of “ABA” with discrete trial instruction.
Mace, F. C. & Critchfield, T. S. (2010). Translational research in behavior analysis: Historical traditions and
imperative for the future. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 93(3), 293-312.
The authors make a case that collaboration between basic and applied researchers, synthesizing their questions,
literatures, and methods, can be mutually beneficial, lead to more effective problem-solving, and state that such
innovation may result in greater acceptance of behavior analysis.
Moore, J. & Cooper, J. O. (2003). Some proposed relations among the domains of behavior analysis. The
Behavior Analyst, 26(1), 69-84.
A cogent discussion of domains of behavior analytic endeavors and how they can and do inform each other.
rtyuiofghjk
SOLUTION MANUAL
Applied Behavior Analysis 3rd Edition
by John Cooper, Timothy Heron
AP
LU
S0
01
rtyuiofghjk
, Dfghjkl;
Chapter 1: Definition and Characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis
Chapter Summary
The word “science” is often used as a noun, conflated with its products—as in “What does science tell us?”—but
those products are outcomes of the behavior of large numbers of inquisitive individuals who engage in a systematic
approach for seeking and organizing information about the natural world. Science really has one overall goal: to
achieve a thorough understanding of the phenomena under study, which, in the field of applied behavior analysis, is
socially important behavior that is meaningfully associated with an individual’s quality of life.
Different types of scientific investigation yield different degrees of understanding that represent progressively
greater ability to influence given phenomena. Description refers to a scientist collecting facts about entities or
events, which can raise interesting questions and establish hypotheses for further study. Prediction is the outcome of
more systematic observation when a scientist finds that two events often covary; when correlations are demonstrated
in this manner, the probability of one event occurring can be more confidently predicted given the presence of the
other event, although at this level the scientist cannot refer to the relationship between the two events as a causal
AP
one. When a scientist actually manipulates events, however, and shows that a change they make in one event (an
“independent variable”) repeatedly results in some change in a second event (a target or “dependent variable”)—and
when they have accounted for and reduced the likelihood that some other variable is responsible for that change—
when, in other words, they have demonstrated a functional relationship between these variables, they have achieved
experimental control of the phenomena being studied. Behavior analysts consider control to be the most desirable
level of understanding because functional relations are the potential basis for developing applied techniques for
behavior change. In this respect, behavior analysis is characterized by pragmatism, the philosophical position that
the “truth” of scientific findings is to be judged by the extent to which they lead to effective action.
LU
The pursuit of scientific understanding of natural phenomena—including behavior—is characterized by an
overriding set of assumptions and values: determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, and
philosophic doubt. Determinism—the notion that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all events occur
as the result of other events—is the assumption upon which scientific endeavors are predicated. Indeed, if events
were not determined in a reasonably orderly fashion—if phenomena randomly occurred simply as a matter of
chance—then there would be no basis for viable technologies of behavior change. The development of useful
behavior change techniques, in other words, rests on the belief that all behavior is the result of specifiable conditions
S0
and that these conditions, once identified, can be managed in a way that will influence the future probability of
behavior. Other qualities that guide success in science include thoroughness, curiosity, perseverance, diligence,
ethics, and honesty.
John B. Watson—one of the first and best known individuals to identify as a “behaviorist” early in the 20 th
century—departed from psychology’s focus at the time on introspection and mental processes, and suggested that
human behavior could be studied using the observational tactics of natural science. His behaviorism, which came to
01
be known as S-R psychology—and also came to be known for fantastic claims—could not account for apparently
“spontaneous” acts: for behavior, in other words, that lacked obvious antecedents. Numerous efforts to fill these
explanatory gaps once again elevated mental states and constructs to causal status with respect to human behavior.
B. F. Skinner, in contrast, remained focused on environmental events and eventually showed, through what he called
the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), that much behavior is changed and maintained by the consequences it
produces. Thus Skinner identified operant behavior and elaborated Watson’s formulation with a new paradigm
called the three-term contingency (S-R-S), a model that remains the fundamental unit of study and focus of practice
in the four domains of modern behavior analysis: behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior, applied
behavior analysis (ABA), and behavior analytic practice. Skinner’s conceptual formulation of behaviorism—the
philosophical domain of behavior analysis—is known as radical behaviorism because it maintains that thoughts and
feelings (what he called “private events” that occur “inside the skin”) are simply less accessible forms of behavior
that otherwise can be understood in the same terms and studied by the same means as overt behavior, without
appealing to intervening hypothetical constructs.
rtyuiofghjk
, Dfghjkl;
One of the first studies to apply the principles of operant behavior to humans was published in 1949 by Fuller. The
field of behavior analysis grew in the 1950’s and 1960’s as researchers replicated with humans in naturalistic
settings the methods and principles that had been developed in laboratories with non-humans. The study regarded as
the cornerstone of applied behavior analysis—in which the agents of behavior change were nurses rather than
researchers—was conducted by Ayllon and Michael in 1959. The field continued to grow and formally came into its
own in 1968 with the publication of the inaugural issue of The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, which
included the now classic article “Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis” by Donald M. Baer,
Montrose M. Wolf, and Todd Risley. With that article, Baer, Wolf, and Risley set forth what they considered to be
the defining characteristics of the nascent domain of behavior analysis—that it is applied, behavioral, analytic,
technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and capable of generalized outcomes—and these remain the
standard today. Certainly, the field of applied behavior analysis possesses additional characteristics—it is
accountable, public, doable, empowering, and optimistic, for example—but over many decades and myriad
applications to matters of real-world consequence, from ADHD to zoo animal welfare, it has remained above all a
science with the dual goals of understanding socially significant human behavior and improving people’s quality of
life.
AP
Chapter Key Terms
applied behavior analysis (ABA) explanatory fiction parsimony
behaviorism functional analysis philosophic doubt
determinism functional relation pragmatism
empiricism hypothetical construct radical behaviorism
experiment mentalism replication
experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) methodological behaviorism science
LU
Chapter Objectives
1. Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science: description, prediction, and control.
2. Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying behavior analysis: selectionism, determinism, parsimony, and
pragmatism.
S0
3. Explain behavior from the perspective of radical behaviorism.
4. Describe how Skinner improved upon Watson’s behaviorism.
5. State distinguishing features of mentalistic and environmental explanations of behavior.
6. Describe the different domains of behavior analytic practice—radical behaviorism, experimental analysis of
behavior, applied behavior analysis, and professional practice guided by behavior analysis—and the role of
translational research in bridging basic and applied research.
01
7. State and describe each of the dimensions of applied behavior analysis as discussed by Baer, Wolf, and Risley
in 1968.
Chapter Focus Questions
1. What are the 3 basic levels of scientific practice and the different kinds of knowledge statements to which they
can lead?
2. Describe the two ways in which the term “functional analysis” is used in the field of behavior analysis.
3. Explain the overarching “attitudes of science” (i.e., foundational assumptions of scientific practice) and their
importance).
4. Describe the 4 primary domains of contemporary behavior analysis? What is translational research?
5. What are key historical landmarks in the evolution of behavior analysis since the early 20th century?
rtyuiofghjk
, Dfghjkl;
6. Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) identified 7 defining dimensions of applied behavior analysis; name 4 additional
characteristics of the practice of behavior analysis.
7. Describe and compare, with reference to examples, the two main goals of behavior analysis, as set forth in the
definition of the field.
Chapter Suggested Reading
Ayllon, T., & Michael, J. (1959). The psychiatric nurse as a behavioral engineer. Journal of the Experimental
Analysis of Behavior, 2, 323-334.
One of the guiding articles that provide the basis for the foundation of applied behavior analysis, this study employs
the use of techniques based on reinforcement theory in a mental hospital. Psychiatric nurses implement a variety of
procedures with patients.
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91-97.
AP
This article provides the original 7 defining dimensions of applied behavior analysis that remain core tenets of the
field today.
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1987). Some still-current dimensions of applied behavior analysis.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20(4), 313-327.
This article serves as a follow up to the authors’ original work in 1968 in which the defining characteristics are
reviewed and are argued as being functional within the contemporary field of applied behavior analysis. In addition,
LU
new tactics within the field are discussed.
Critchfield, T. S., & Reed, D. D. (2017). The fuzzy concept of applied behavior analysis research. The
Behavior Analyst, 40(1), 123-159.
The authors discuss the historical context from which Baer, Wolf, and Risley proffered the 7 dimensions of applied
behavior analysis, and persuasively argue that potentially important behavior analytic research goes unpublished—
or gets published in journals tangential to the field—because the 7 dimensions may be employed too rigidly as a
standard.
S0
Fuller, P. R. (1949). Operant conditioning of a vegetative human organism. The American Journal of
Psychology, 62, 587-590.
This study is one of the first to report the human application of the principles of operant behavior. An individual
with disabilities learns to make a physical response through operant conditioning. Note that it employs labels that
were particular to the time period and that are considered offensive today. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the study was
replicated by Boyle & Greer (1983).
01
Kimball, J. W. (2002). Behavior-analytic instruction for children with autism: Philosophy matters. Focus on
Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 17(2), 66-75.
The author offers a primer on empiricism, pragmatism, and selectionism, which comprise the epistemological
underpinnings of behavior analysis and the foundation for the three-term contingency, as an antidote to the
conflation by many educators of “ABA” with discrete trial instruction.
Mace, F. C. & Critchfield, T. S. (2010). Translational research in behavior analysis: Historical traditions and
imperative for the future. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 93(3), 293-312.
The authors make a case that collaboration between basic and applied researchers, synthesizing their questions,
literatures, and methods, can be mutually beneficial, lead to more effective problem-solving, and state that such
innovation may result in greater acceptance of behavior analysis.
Moore, J. & Cooper, J. O. (2003). Some proposed relations among the domains of behavior analysis. The
Behavior Analyst, 26(1), 69-84.
A cogent discussion of domains of behavior analytic endeavors and how they can and do inform each other.
rtyuiofghjk
