Unit 1-ABA Study Guide PDF

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Unit 1 exam study guide....

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Unit 1 Pierce/Cheney Ch. 1 1. What is learning? What is an important aspect of human learning? Learning refers to the acquisition, maintenance, and change of an organism’s behavior as a result of lifetime events. Experiences arranged by other people are important to human learning (ex: rational argument, bribes, rewards, threats, and force) 2. What kind of causes have human behavior been attributed to? What is the trouble with most of these accounts? Human behavior has been attributed to internal causes such as metaphysical entities like the soul to hypothetical structures of the NS and external causes like the moon and tides, arrangement of stars, whims of gods. Many of these accounts are not scientifically valid and do not hold up to objective testing, replication, and scrutinization by scientists following the scientific method 3. According to behavior theory, what would the causes of behavior be? All behavior is due to a complex interaction between genetic influence and environmental experiences 4. What is behavior analysis and what are its primary objectives? Behavior analysis is a comprehensive, natural-science approach to the study of the behavior of organisms. Its primary objectives are the discovery of principles and laws that govern behavior, the extension of these principles across species, and the development of an applied technology for the management of behavior 5. What is the difference between experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis? Experimental analysis of behavior is the fundamental method used to establish the principles for a science of behavior while applied behavior analysis is the use of behavior principles to solve practical problems. 6. Define reflex and explain why this behavior had survival value A reflex is when an unconditioned stimulus elicits an unconditioned response (involves respondent behavior elicited by a biologically relevant stimulus) 7. What is the role of natural selection in the evolution of conditioning (respondent and operant)? Read the section on Charles Darwin in Jack Michael’s book (p.98)

8. Read the selection of Behavior Analysis and Neuroscience and be able to discuss how the two areas are related. The two areas are related in that our understanding of an organism’s action of neurons and neural systems gives us a more complete account of their behavior. Behavioral neuroscience is gaining interest as a field of study and its areas of interest are important to how we look at and understand learning. 9. How does behavior analysis define culture? Give an example on how culture may affect behavior. Behavior analysts define culture as all the conditions, events, and stimuli arranged by other people that regulate human action. If a person is raised in an Englishspeaking culture, they learn to speak in accord with the verbal practices of that community. 10. What were Pavlov’s main contributions? Pavlov’s major contributions were the conditional reflex and conditioned reflexes. He looked at the fact anticipatory reflexes are learned and conditioned. 11. What was Watson’s main argument? What did not have a place in a scientific analysis of behavior? Read the section on Watson in Jack Michael’s book (p. 100). Watson believed that psychology should be a science based on observable behavior—not “invent” unobservable mental associations to account for human/animal behavior 12. What was Thorndike’s main discovery and how do we call it today? Read the section on Thorndike in Jack Michael’s book (99) Thorndike’s main discovery was the law of effect which stated that, after multiple attempts, an organism will be “stamp in” impulses leading to the successful act by “the resulting pleasure.” Today we call this the principle of reinforcement. 13. Skinner was the founder of what is now called the field of behavior analysis. He called his philosophy of science “radical behaviorism”. He used the term behaviorism because he argued that Psychology should be the study of behavior and its relationship with the environment. This approach diverges from that of psychologists who think the proper subject matter of Psychology is the mind. Make sure you understand Skinner’s philosophical perspective (see section on Skinner p. 11 and then again p.18-19)

From Pierce and Cheney -,Chapter 2 14. Distinguish between functional and structural approaches Structural approach categorizes behavior by age to infer stages of development (e.g., object permanence) while functional approach looks at the environment and its place in these choices--> history of reinforcement. Structural approach tends to have circular reasoning. 15. When would you use the term elicited and the term emitted? How about “evoked?” Elicited is used when speaking about respondent behavior. Emitted can be used when the behavior occurs at some frequency based on the organism’s genetic endowment. Evoked can be used as a catchall—both operant and respondent behavior 16. Define response class A response class refers to all the topographic forms that have a similar function 17. When does an event have a stimulus function? When the occurrence of that event changes the behavior of an organism 18. When are stimuli said to be part of the same class? When stimuli vary across a physical dimension, but have common effects on behavior, they are said to be part of the same stimulus class 19. How do you achieve generality using single-subject research designs? The generality of the effect in a behavioral experiment is established by replication of the effect 20. Read the sections on pages 44-46, this should be a review from 171 21. Learn the purpose and history of both JEAB and JABA (p. 102, 103). Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (1958)--began because operant researchers were continually seeing their research rejected for differing from mainstream psychological research (smaller subject pools, less statistical analyses, descriptive) Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (1968)--began as a way for applied behavioral analysis to have its own journal—dealt with behavior problems of social importance 22. What is considered to be inherited or innate in any particular species? (p. 106). Also read the section on “athletic ability” (p. 107) Inherited or innate: 1) Unconditioned reflexes, 2) Complex environment-behavior relations (previously “instinctive,” now “released” behavior; ex: nest building, species mating behavior), and 3) capabilities to be changed behaviorally by the environment

Athletic ability: We are born differently, but environment also plays a role --> reduced differences between speed of runners if all trained from birth (ex) 23. How is response probability measured? What are some other measures commonly used in experimental Psychology (p.113) Response probability is measure by frequency or rate of responding Other commonly used measures in experimental psych: latency, reaction time, time to complete a task, number or errors made, number of trials to a criterion 24. Be able to describe the main characteristics of Skinner’s approach as stated in the chapter’s conclusion (p.120)    

Science and technology of behavior NOT: antiphysiological, antigenetic, or antitheoretical Does not exclude private stimuli and covert behavior Acknowledges behavior change by instruction and description of contingencies

25. Define phylogenetic behavior. Behavior relations that are based on genetic endowment of an organism and are present on the basis of species history. 26. What are fixed action patterns? Be able to describe one of the examples. They are sequences of behavior that are phylogenetic in origin; all members of a particular species engage in the FAP when the appropriate releasing stimuli are present EX: M Sticklebacks will engage in aggressive displays and movements if another M Stickleback enters its territory during mating season 27. What are reaction chains? How do they differ from fixed action patterns? What would happen if the stimulus that evokes behavior were removed? Reaction chains are similar to behavior except that each set of responses in a reaction chain requires an appropriate stimulus to set it off; if the stimulus that evokes behavior were to be removed, it would disrupt the sequence of behavior 28. What is a reflex? A reflex is an unlearned (innate, inherited, inborn) functional relation between a specific type of stimulus (S) and a specific response (R). When an unconditioned stimulus elicits an unconditioned response, the relationship is called reflex. That the S-R relation is unlearned/unconditioned means that the organism shows that relation without the necessity of any learning history. Memorize this definition. (See also JM p. 7)

29. Humans (and other organisms) are born with an array of responses that are elicited by specific stimuli, or reflexes. Table 1 (JM 10, 11) shows various human reflexes. You should memorize table 1.

30. List the three primary laws of reflex The law of the threshold, the law of intensity-magnitude, and the law of latency 31. When does habituation occur? Be able to explain the example given by the authors. Habituation occurs when an unconditioned stimulus repeatedly elicits an unconditioned response and the response gradually declines in magnitude Ex: The volcano in Montserrat—when the volcano first became active, people would run away out of fear, after they had become used to the sound and the ash, they stopped running and instead just look 32. What is the difference between ontogenetic and phylogenetic behaviors? Phylogenetic behavior is behavior due to genetic endowment while ontogenetic behavior is behavior that has to do with an organism’s unique experiences and history of conditioning (learning) 33. Respondent conditioning: If one presents a neutral stimulus and then a second or so later presents an unconditioned stimulus (US) for a reflex response, the neutral stimulus when later presented alone may elicit a type of response similar to the response elicited by the US. The once neutral stimulus is called conditioned stimulus (CS). The response elicited by the US is called an unconditioned response (UR); a similar response elicited by the CS is called conditioned response (CR). Memorize this definition (See all JM 1617)

34. Read the description of Pavlov’s experiment. Be able to summarize his experiment with dogs. Tip: Memorize the table (fig. 3.3).

35. Could you teach a rat to press a lever using respondent conditioning? (JM, 18, 4) No, this would be operant conditioning—voluntary responses, pairing of behavior and response (not two two stimuli like with respondent conditioning) 36. What do the authors mean by “the CS-CR relation does not follow the laws of reflex?” (p.64) The CS-CR relation is specific to the original conditioning and does not follow the laws of the reflex

37. What does respondent extinction as a procedure involve? Respondent extinction involves repeatedly presenting the CS but not presenting the US 38. What is spontaneous recovery? How do behavior analysts explain this phenomenon? – This will certainly be on the exam. Spontaneous recovery is the observation of an increase in the CR after respondent conditioning has occurred. A behavior analyst would explain this by saying the CS-CR relation is weakened by extinction, but the contexts or features in general maintain some level of control over the conditioned response 39. What is respondent generalization? When an organism shows a conditioned response to values of the CS that were not trained during acquisition 40. When does respondent discrimination occur? When an organism shows a conditioned response to one value of the stimulus but not to others 41. Be able to reproduce Fig. 3.7 and explain it. For example, with Delayed conditioning the CS is presented a few seconds before the US occurs, etc. See also JM 22,5-23,2.

42. Be able to describe the Preparatory-response model (pp.73-76) and give the “heroin overdose” example The preparatory response model states that certain conditioned stimuli work together to sort of prepare the body for intake of the drug. For instance, if a drug increases HR, eventually the body will begin to decrease the individual’s HR to prepare for drug intake if certain stimuli are present (drug paraphernalia, a person, or a room)

Ex: rats given heroin for thirty days in same room (increasing slightly each day), given drug in same room at lethal dose 32% survived, different room over 60% died, control group 90% died) 43. Describe the conditioning effect known as overshadowing A compound stimulus is arranged consisting of two or more simple stimuli at the same time 44. Describe the conditioning effect known as blocking (also JM 27,4-6), CS1 when followed by the US blocks a subsequent CS2-US association. One stimulus is repeatedly followed by the unconditioned stimulus until the conditioned response reaches maximum strength. Following this conditioning, a second stimulus is presented at the same time as the original stimulus. This compound stimulus is followed by the unconditioned stimulus. When test trials are run, the original CS evokes the conditioned response, but the second CS does not. 45. Describe the effect known as conditioned suppression A previously CS is paired with an aversive stimulus. After several pairings, the originally CS becomes a conditioned aversive stimulus. Once the CSave is conditioned, its onset suppresses ongoing operant behavior...