Behavior Analysis Exam 1

The study of fundamental relationships between behavior and context

The environment

Objects, people, events, etc

• Overt: physically visible
• Covert: cannot be seen directly

• Experimental
• Theoretical/Conceptual
• Behavior Modification (Applied Behavior Analysis)

To understand how it is that behavior relates to environment

To put things together to come up with a theory of how behavior works

• 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

• Primitive Adaptions
• Coordinated Adaptions
• More Complex 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)

• 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

• Classical Conditioning (Respondent/Pavlovian)
• Instrumental Learning
• Operant Conditioning
• Observational Learning

• Step 1: Define the target behavior
• Step 2: Choose Observers
• Step 3: Choose Settings
• Step 4: Choose Methods
• Step 5: Avoid Problems

• Use operational definitions; They are:
• specific
• observable
• quantifiable
• objective & unambiguous

• Self
• Others (parents, teachers, clinicians, etc)

• Natural or contrived
• At times and places the behavior is likely to occur naturally

• Direct Observation
• Indirect Observation
• Combinations

• Continuous Recording
• Product Recording
• Interval Recording

• 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

• 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

• Frequency counts within intervals
• Duration recording within time-sampled intervals
• Trait ratings across different observation periods

• Problems with indirect observation
• Problems with direct observation

• Memory
• Exaggeration
• Response bias
• Observer bias
• Observer's basis for comparison

• 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)

• 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

When things happen in a study over an interval

• 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)

• To discover the relationships between variables
• In behavioral interventions: does the type of treatment affect the frequency, duration, or latency of the behavior?

• Experimental
• Non-experimental

• Independent variables (IV)
• Dependent variables (DV)
• Control variables

• "Predictor" variable
• "Outcome" variable
• Problem: "confounds"

• Subject characteristics
• Maturation/Change over time
• Demand Characteristics (Subject Reactivity)
• Expectancy Effects (Experimenter Bias)

• 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

• Reversal/Withdrawal Designs (ABA, ABAB)
• Multiple Baseline Designs
• Combinations

• 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

• 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"

• Multiple methods control for many extraneous variables
• Ex: Return to baseline for each subject; treatment

• X-axis (IV)
• Y-axis (DV)
• Axis titles and labels
• Phase labels
• Graph title
• Line and bar graphs

Edward Thorndike

• 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

B.F. Skinner

• 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

• 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

• 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

A specific behavior is followed by a specific contingent consequence, and the future outcome is increased in likelihood of behavior

A specific behavior is followed by a specific contingent consequence, and the future outcome is decreased in likelihood of behavior

Albert Bandura

• 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

• Immediacy
• Contingency
• Motivating operations (establishing operations; abolishing operations)
• Characteristics of the consequences
• Schedules of reinforcement (continuous; intermittent)

• Fixed Interval (FI)
• Variable Interval (VI)
• Fixed Ratio (FR)
• Variable Ratio (VR)

it has a scalloped graph

it has a diminished scalloped effect on the graph

it has a leveling effect on the graph

it had a much steeper leveling effect on the graph

• If the behavior is being reinforced, change the consequence to a punishment.
• If the behavior is being punished, change the consequence to reinforcement.

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

• 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

• 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

• Reinforcement (+/-)
• Punishment (+/-)
• Extinction

• It's a redefinition of Skinner's ABC's
• S^D: Discriminative Stimulus (Antecedent)
• R: Response (Behavior)
• S^R/S^P: 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

The process of reinforcing a behavior only when the S^D is present, not when other antecedents (S) are present

• 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)

The reinforced behavior becomes more likely to occur in the presence of S^D or in the presence of stimuli that are similar to S^D

• 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

Ivan Pavlov

• 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

• US (naturally) → UR
• NS → No UR
• US (with NS) → UR
• NS becomes CS
• CS (alone) → CR

When the CR occurs only in response to a specific CS

When the CR occurs in response to the CS or to similar stimuli

• 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

• He focused on the development of fears
• Little Albert developed a fear of white furry objects

• 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)

• He used systematic desensitization
• He focused on the treatment of fears

• When a NS is paired with a previously conditioned stimulus
• The NS becomes a new CS and elicits all by itself

It's when the natural response (UR) is an emotion

• 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

• Pavlov's Dogs
• Watson: Little Albert
• Garcia: Taste aversion
• Ader: Conditioned immune responses

• 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