Behavior Modification Unit 1 Exam (ch 1 & 2)

1. Focus on overt behaviors
2. Focus on behaviors of applied (social or clinical) significance
3. Focus on one or a small number of individuals over time
4. Assess behavior through direct observation, as in counting the frequency of responses
5. Assess behavior continuously over time (several days per week) to identify stable patterns of performance under various conditions
6. Search for current causes or factors that may be maintaining the behavior
7. Use of environmental (and observable) events to influence the frequency of behavior
8. Identify, evaluate, and demonstrate the factors (antecedents, consequences) that are responsible for behavior change
9. Search for marked intervention effects that make a clear difference in the everyday functioning of the individual

Four goals of science

1. Describe
2. Explain
3. Predict (this is what psychologists want to do the most)
4. Control (also what they want to do the most)

ABCs of behaviorAntecedents Behavior ConsequencesPromptsrefer to specific antecedents that directly facilitate and guide performance of specific behaviorsSetting Eventsrefer to contextual factors or conditions that influence behavior. They are broad in scope and set the stage for the behaviors and consequences that follow. They are readily distinguished from prompts which are more specific directives to guide behavior directly.Establishing operationsincreases the current effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as reinforcement.Abolishing operationsdecrease the current effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as reinforcement.Discriminative stimuliA stimulus whose presence has been associated with reinforcement. They set the occasion for behaviors that have been reinforced in their presence in the past.Non-discriminative stimuliA stimulus whose presence has been associated with non-reinforcementHow does shaping differ from chaining?Some uses for the shaping technique include teaching a child how to sleep in one's bed all night, how to clean his room, how to write his name, language development, and much more. With chaining, you take a multi-step task and break it down into a sequence of smaller tasksHow does forward chaining differ from backward chaining?Forward chaining starts from known facts and applies inference rule to extract more data unit it reaches to the goal. Backward chaining starts from the goal and works backward through inference rules to find the required facts that support the goal.What is the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment?Negative reinforcement increases the target behavior by taking away something aversive. Negative punishment decreases the target behavior by taking away something preferred.How are avoidance and escape behaviors similar and different?Avoidance is characterized by responding where a mouse actively avoids the oncoming shock by moving to the opposite compartment after the CS is presented. Escape is characterized by responding where a mouse does not respond to the CS, but responds to the US by escaping to the opposite compartment.How does extinction differ from negative reinforcement or punishment?In both, extinction and punishment, the behavior is decreased but the difference is that in extinction the reinforcement to exhibit the response is stopped, while in punishment something pleasurable is taken away or something aversive is applied to stop the negative behavior.What is discrimination?When behavior is performed in the presence of some stimuli (SD) but not in the presence of others (S), the individual is said to have made a discrimination. Discrimination refers to the fact that the individual responds differently under different stimulus conditions.How do stimulus generalization and response generalization differ?The key difference between stimulus generalization and response generalization is that stimulus generalization occurs when multiple stimuli can generate the same response, while response generalization occurs when the same stimulus can generate multiple similar responses.Operant ConditioningOperants are distinguished by virtue of being controlled (influenced) by their consequences, i.e., what follows after the behavior is performed. Ex: A mouse presses a button because he knows he will get food if he does.Observational LearningOccurs when an individual observes another person (referred to as a model) engage in a particular behavior.Rational BehaviorismRefers to learning and performance of novel responses that have not been directly trained.See page 65, table 2-3on negative reinforcementAntecedents of behaviorPrompts, setting events, discriminative stimuli, and stimulus controlBehaviorsReinforced practice, shaping, and chaining,ConsequencesPositive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction