ABA Terminology Flashcards

A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B.F. Skinner. Its methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within-subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graphed data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing.

A thoroughgoing form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior-including private events such as thoughts and feelings-in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person and species.

Occurs when a behavior in a particular situation is followed by a reinforcing consequence, thus making the behavior more likely to occur in similar circumstances in the future.

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.

A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behavior, and time.

A process in which a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, which elicits an unconditioned response.

A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science.

The philosophy of a science of behavior.

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophical doubt as its guiding conscience.

An approach to psychology focused on the relationship between stimuli and responses and the objective study of behavior, also known as Watsonian behaviorism.

A goal of scientific understanding that consists of a collection of facts about the observed events that can be quantified, classified, and examined for possible relations with other known facts.

A level of scientific understanding which causes an event to occur or to assume certain characteristics.

A level of scientific understanding that occurs when repeated observations reveal that two events consistently covary with each other.

When a well-controlled experiment demonstrates that a specific change in one event (the dependent variable) is reliably produced by specific manipulations of another event (the independent variable), and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely to be the result of other extraneous factors (confounding variables).

A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time differs from one condition to another.