Unit 1

Applied behavior analysis is

the science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied systematically to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for behavior change.

ABA's natural science approach

to discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and developing a technology to take practical advantage of those discoveries offers humankind its best hope for solving many of its problems.

The first published report of the application of operant conditioning with a human subject

was a study by Fuller (1949),in which an arm-raising response was conditioned in an adolescent with profound retardation.

Descriptive studies yield

yield a collection of facts about the observed events that can be quantified,classified,and examined for possible relations with other known facts.

Different types of scientific investigations

yield knowledge that enables the description, prediction, and/or control of the phenomena studied.

Skinner wrote extensively about a philosophy

for a science of behavior he called radical behaviorism. Radical behaviorism attempts to explain all behavior, including private events such as thinking and feeling.

Radical Behaviorism has three major assumptions regarding the nature of "private events," (perhaps better known as "thoughts and feelings"). Which of the following is NOT one of those assumptions?

homo sapiens is the only species that experiences private events.

Positive punishment is called positive because

An event or activity occurs or begins (is added to the situation) as a consequence of the response

Occam's Razor also called Law of Parsimony

"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything" (Mole, 2003).

Doable

'doing ABA' requires far more than learning to administer a few simple procedures, it is not prohibitively complicated or arduous

The branch of behavior analysis that concentrates on development of a technology to improve behavior that is of personal and/or social significance is called:

Applied Behavior Analysis

Skinner's behaviorism makes three major assumptions regarding the nature of private events

(a) Private events such as thoughts and feelings are behavior; (b) behavior that takes place within the skin is distinguished from other ("public") behavior only by its inaccessibility; and (c) private behavior is influenced by (i.e., is a function of) the same kinds of variables as publicly accessible behavior.

Optimistic: reasons analysis have to be optimistic

1. Suggests that all individuals process roughly equal potential (Strain & Joseph) 2. Direct and continuous measurement enables practitioners to detect small improvements in performance that might otherwise be overlooked 3. The more often a practitioner uses behavioral tactics with positive outcomes (the most common result of behaviorally based interventions), the more optimistic she becomes about the prospects for future success 4. A's peer-reviewed literature provides many examples of success in teaching students who had been considered unteachable

Radical Behaviorism has three major assumptions regarding the nature of "private events," (perhaps better known as "thoughts and feelings").

1. private behavior is influenced by the same kinds of variables as publicly accessible behavior. 2. behavior that takes place within the skin is distinguished from other behavior only by its inaccessibility, 3. private events such as thoughts and feelings are behavior.

explanatory fiction

A fictitious variable that often is simply another name for the observed behavior that contributes nothing to an understanding of the variables responsible for developing or maintaining the behavior The key ingredient in "a circular way of viewing the cause and effect of a situation" that give a false sense of understanding

Skinner founded the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB)

A natural science approach for discovering orderly and reliable relations between behavior and various types of environmental variables of which it is a function

Defining Characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and capable of appropriately generalized outcomes The seven dimensions they posed continue to serve as the primary criteria for defining and judging the value of applied behavior analysis.

Baer,Wolf,and Risley (1968,1987) stated that a research study or behavior change program should meet seven defining dimensions to be considered applied behavior analysis:

Applied—investigates socially significant behaviors with immediate importance to the subject(s). Behavioral—entails precise measurement of the actual behavior in need of improvement and documents that it was the subject's behavior that changed. Analytic—demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior—that is, if a functional relation is demonstrated. Technological—the written description of all procedures used in the study is sufficiently complete and detailed to enable others to replicate it. Conceptually systematic—behavior change interventions are derived from basic principles of behavior. Effective—improves behavior sufficiently to produce practical results for the participant/client. Generality—produces behavior changes that last over time, appear in other environments, or spread to other behaviors.

Applied behavior analysis - ABA

A science devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behavior A scientific approach for discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and for developing a technology of behavior change that takes practical advantage of those discoveries

Prediction

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

science

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena—as evidenced by description, prediction, and control—that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its prime directive, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as its necessary requirement for believability, parsimony as its conservative value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience. A systematic approach for seeking and organizing knowledge about the natural world.

Public

ABA should raise its value in fields such as education,parenting and child care, employee productivity, geriatrics, health and safety, and social work—to name only a few—whose goals, methods, and outcomes are of vital interest to many constituencies

Experimentation

Basic strategy of most sciences A carefully conducted comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another.

In Radical Behaviorism, which of the following is NOT a characteristic of behavior?

Behavior is always overt

What do the B. and the F. stand for in B. F. Skinner?

Burrhus Frederic

A distinctive and original feature of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior is the concept that the particular stimuli and responses are elements of functional _______________.

Classes

Descriptive knowledge

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 necessary and important activity for any scientific discipline

A major strength of Applied Behavior Analysis is its method of proof. What method of proof is that?

Controlled experimentation

Mentalism

Defined as an approach to the study of behavior which assumes that a mental or "inner" dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension Hypothetical constructs and explanatory fictions are the stock and trade of mentalism

Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)

Defn: Analysis of operant behavior "with its unique relation to the environment presents a separate important field of investigation Formally began in 1938 with the publication of B. F. Skinner's The Behavior of Organisms Two kinds of behavior: respondent and operant. Skinner was "interested in giving a scientific account of all behavior Skinner found that the S-R paradigm could not explain a great deal of behavior,particularly behaviors for which there were no apparent antecedent causes in the environment Skinner continued to look in the environment for the determinants of behavior that did not have apparent antecedent causes

The assumption upon which science is predicated is

Determinism

The behavior of scientists in all fields is characterized by a common set of assumptions and attitudes:

Determinism—the assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur as a result of other events. Empiricism—the objective observation of the phenomena of interest. Experimentation—the controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another. Replication—repeating experiments (and independent variable conditions within experiments) to determine the reliability and usefulness of findings Parsimony—simple,logical explanations must be ruled out, experimentally or conceptually, before more complex or abstract explanations are considered. Philosophic doubt—continually questioning the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge

Structuralism and methodological behaviorism

Do reject all events that are not operationally defined by objective assessment Structuralists avoid mentalism by restricting their activities to descriptions of behavior. They make no scientific manipulations; accordingly,they do not address questions of causal factors. Methodological behaviorists differ from the structuralists by using scientific manipulations to search for functional relations between events.

The practice of the objective observation of events, without influence by individual prejudices, tastes, or private opinions is known as:

Empiricism

Analytic

Experimenter must be able to control the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior Sometimes, however, society does not allow the repeated manipulation of important behaviors to satisfy the requirements of experimental method Applied behavior analysts must demonstrate control to the greatest extent possible,given the restraints of the setting and behavior; and then they must present the results for judgment by the consumers of the research

Behavioral

First, not just any behavior will do; the behavior chosen for study must be the behavior in need of improvement Conduct studies of behavior,not studies about behavior Second,the behavior must be measurable; the precise and reliable measurement of behavior is just as critical in applied research as it is in basic research Must meet the challenge of measuring socially significant behaviors in their natural settings Third, when changes in behavior are observed during an investigation, it is necessary to ask whose behavior has changed Not merely good technique,but a prime criterion of whether the study was appropriately behavioral

6 components of ABA definition

First, the practice of applied behavior analysis is guided by the attitudes and methods of scientific inquiry. Second, all behavior change procedures are described and implemented in a systematic,technological manner. Third, not any means of changing behavior qualifies as applied behavior analysis: Only those procedures conceptually derived from the basic principles of behavior are circumscribed by the field. Fourth, the focus of applied behavior analysis is socially significant behavior. The fifth and sixth parts of the definition specify the twin goals of applied behavior analysis: improvement and understanding

1968: formal beginning of contemporary applied behavior analysi

First,the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) began publication. JABA was the first journal in the United States to deal with applied problems that gave researchers using methodology from the experimental analysis of behavior an outlet Second, the publication of the paper, "Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis"by Donald M. Baer,Montrose M. Wolf, and Todd R. Risley. Authors, the founding fathers of the new discipline,defined the criteria for judging the adequacy of research and practice in applied behavior analysis and outlined the scope of work for those in the science.

Empowering

Gives practitioners real tools that work Knowing how to do something and having the tools to accomplish it instills confidence in practitioners

Operant behavior

Influenced by stimulus changes that have followed the behavior in the past

Behaviorism of Watson

John B. Watson is widely recognized as the spokesman for a new direction in the field of psychology Watson argued that the proper subject matter for psychology was not states of mind or mental processes but observable behavior Objective study of behavior should consist of direct observation of the relationships between environmental stimuli (S) and the responses (R) they evoke Watsonian behaviorism thus became known as stimulus-response (S-R) psychology

Generality

Lasts over time, appears in environments other than the one in which the intervention that initially produced it was implemented, and/or spreads to other behaviors not directly treated by the intervention Continues after the original treatment procedures are withdrawn has generality Desirable generalized behavior changes are important outcomes of an applied behavior analysis program because they represent additional dividends in terms of behavioral improvement

The fundamental fact that behavior is affected by its consequences is called the:

Law of Effect

Conceptually Systematic

Meaning the procedures for changing behavior and any interpretations of how or why those procedures were effective should be described in terms of the relevant principle(s) from which they were derived Analysis concerns the types of interventions used to improve behavior

Effective

Must improve the behavior under investigation to a practical degree Must produce behavior changes that reach clinical or social significance

"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything." This is a statement of __________________.

Occam's Razor

Fuller (1949)

One of the first studies to report the human application of principles of operant behavior 18-year-old boy with profound developmental disabilities who was described as a "vegetative idiot." Within four sessions the boy was moving his arm to a vertical position at a rate of three times per minute.

ABA's natural science approach to

discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and developing a technology to take practical advantage of those discoveries offers humankind its best hope for solving many of its problems.

Behaviorism

Philosophy of the science of behavior, basic research is the province of the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), and developing a technology for improving behavior is the concern of applied behavior analysis (ABA)

Hypothetical constructs

Presumed but unobserved entities that could not be manipulated in an experiment Theoretical terms that refer to a possibly existing,but at the moment unobserved process or entity Can neither be observed nor experimentally manipulated

ABA

Principles of behavior are applicable to human behavior Can be traced to the 1959 publication of Ayllon and Michael's paper titled "The Psychiatric Nurse as a Behavioral Engineer." University programs in applied behavior analysis were begun in the 1960s and early 1970s at Arizona State Uni and others

Skinner had great success using which key dependent variable in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior?

Rate of response

EAB is characterized by these methodological features:

Rate of response is the most common dependent variable. Repeated or continuous measurement is made of carefully defined response classes. Within-subject experimental comparisons are used instead of designs comparing the behavior of experimental and control groups. The visual analysis of graphed data is preferred over statistical inference. A description of functional relations is valued over formal theory testing.

Respondent behavior

Reflexive behavior as in the tradition of Ivan Pavlov Respondents are elicited, or "brought out," by stimuli that immediately precede them

One of the definitive characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis is that it is technological, meaning that its procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity that ____________________ is feasible and practical.

Replication

Parsimony

Requires that all simple, logical explanations for the phenomenon under investigation be ruled out, experimentally or conceptually Help scientists fit their findings within the field's existing knowledge base

philosophic doubt

Requires the scientist to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact

Determinim

Science is predicated on the assumption of determinism Presume that the universe, or at least that part of it they intend to probe with the methods of science, is a lawful and orderly place in which all phenomena occur as the result of other events

Empiricism

Scientific knowledge is built on,above all, empiricism The practice of objective observation of the phenomena of interest Objective = independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist

A basic tenet of ____________ is that all forms of life, from single cells to complex cultures, evolve as a result of selection with respect to function.

Selectionism

Applied

Signals ABA's commitment to affecting improvements in behaviors that enhance and improve people's lives Researcher or practitioner must select behaviors to change that are socially significant for participants: social, language, academic, daily living, self-care, vocational, and/or recreation and leisure behaviors that improve the day-to-day life experience of the participants and/or affect their significant others (parents, teachers, peers, employers) in such a way that they behave more positively with and toward the participant

Through thousands of laboratory experiments,

Skinner and his colleagues and students discovered and verified the basic principles of operant behavior that provide the empirical foundation for behavior analysis today.

When a strong puff of air is directed at a person's eye, the person will invariably blink. The air puff is said to _____________ the blink.

elicit

Skinner's Radical Behaviorism

Skinner did not object to cognitive psychology's concern with private events Incorporated private events into an overall conceptual system of behavior Includes and seeks to understand all human behavior Radical = far-reaching and thoroughgoing, connoting the philosophy's inclusion of all behavior, public and private Observe = coming into contact with Radical is also an appropriate modifier for Skinner's form of behaviorism because it represents a dramatic departure from other conceptual systems in calling for Consider private events such as thinking or sensing the stimuli produced by a damaged tooth to be no different from public events such as oral reading or sensing the sounds produced by a musical instrument

EAB 2

Skinner recorded the rate at which a single subject (he initially used rats and later,pigeons) emitted a given behavior in a controlled and standardized experimental chamber Skinner noted that the first three times that food followed a response "had no observable effect" but that "the fourth response was followed by an appreciable increase in rate showing a swift acceleration to a maximum" Discovered and verified the basic principles of operant behavior that continue to provide the empirical foundation for behavior analysis today

Methodological behaviorists

Some early behaviorists either denied the existence of "inner variables"or considered them outside the realm of a scientific account Usually acknowledge the existence of mental events but do not consider them in the analysis of behavior Restrictive because it ignores areas of major importance for an understanding of behavior.

A behavior change is said to have generality if it ___________________________.

Spreads to other behaviors not directly treated by the intervention, Appears in environments other than the one in which the intervention that initially produced it was implemented, & lasts over time

Description

Systematic observation enhances the understanding of a given phenomenon by enabling scientists to describe it accurately

Reflex

The antecedent stimulus (e.g.,bright light) and the response it elicit (e.g., pupil constriction)

Technological

When all of its operative procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity "such that a reader has a fair chance of replicating the application with the same results A behavior change method will be of little value if practitioners are unable to replicate it A good check of the technological adequacy of a procedural description is to have a person trained in applied behavior analysis carefully read the description and then act out the procedure in detail

Accountable

The commitment of applied behavior analysts to effectiveness, their focus on accessible environmental variables that reliably influence behavior, and their reliance on direct and frequent measurement to detect changes in behavior yield an inescapable and socially valuable form of accountability

Replication

The repeating of experiments (as well as repeating independent variable conditions within experiments) Only after an experiment has been replicated a number of times with the same basic pattern of results do scientists gradually become convinced of the findings Primary method with which scientists determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings and discover their mistakes

correlation

When systematic covariation between two events is found, this relationship Can be used to predict the relative probability that one event will occur, based on the presence of the other event.

Definition of Applied Behavior Analysis

The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied systematically to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for behavior change

Four Interrelated Domains of Behavior Analytic Science and Professional Practices Guided by That Science

The three branches of behavior analysis—behaviorism, EAB, and ABA—and professional practice in various fields that is informed and guided by that science A behavior analyst who pursues theoretical and conceptual issues is engaged in behaviorism Delprato's (2002) discussion of the importance of countercontrol (behavior by people experiencing aversive control by others that helps them escape and avoid the control while not reinforcing and sometimes punishing the controller's responses) toward an understanding of effective interventions for interpersonal relations and cultural design The experimental analysis of behavior is the basic research branch of the science (discovering and clarifying fundamental principles of behavior) Hackenberg and Axtell's (1993) experiments investigating how choices made by humans are affected by the dynamic interaction of schedules of reinforcement that entail short- and long-term consequences Discovering and clarifying functional relations between socially significant behavior and its controlling variables, with which they can contribute to the further development of a humane and effective technology of behavior change Tarbox,Wallace, and Williams (2003) on the assessment and treatment of elopement (running or walking away from a caregiver without permission),a behavior that poses great danger for young children and people with disabilities The delivery of behavior analytic professional services occurs in the fourth domain Behavior analysis practitioners design,implement,and evaluate behavior change programs that consist of behavior change tactics derived from fundamental principles of behavior discovered by basic researchers,and that have been experimentally validated for their effects on socially significant behavior by applied researchers Example is when a therapist providing home-based treatment for a child with autism embeds frequent opportunities for the child to use his emerging social and language skills in the context of naturalistic, daily routines and ensures that the child's responses are followed with reinforcing events None of the domains are, or should be, completely independent of and uninformed by developments in the others.

Some Additional Characteristics of ABA

These characteristics should help increase the extent to which decision makers and consumers in many areas look to behavior analysis as a valuable and important source of knowledge for achieving improvements Accountable, public, doable, empowering, and optimistic

Control

Third & highest level of scientific understanding Evidence of the kinds of control that can been derived from scientific findings in the physical and biological sciences surrounds us in the everyday

Other Important Attitudes and Values

Thoroughness, curiosity, perseverance, diligence, ethics, and honesty

Purpose of science

To achieve a thorough understanding of the phenomena under study—socially important behaviors, in the case of applied behavior analysis

Functional relations are

also correlations

ABA offers society

an approach toward solving many of its problems that is accountable, public, doable, empowering, and optimistic.

Negative punishment is called negative because

an event or activity is removed or terminated (is subtracted from the situation) as a consequence of the response.

A carefully conducted 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 is ___________________.

an experiment

Contemporary applied behavior analysis (ABA)

began in 1968 with the publication of the first issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA)

In Radical Behaviorism, conscious cognitions are ______________.

behavior

In Radical Behaviorism, which of the following IS a characteristic of behavior?

behavior has dimensions, behavior is lawful, & behavior can be observed, described, and recorded

Behavior analysis consists of three major branches

behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), and applied behavior analysis (ABA)

The formal beginnings of applied behavior analysis

can be traced to 1959 and the publication of Ayllon and Michael's article,"The Psychiatric Nurse as a Behavioral Engineer."

Behavior analysts work

in one or more of four interrelated domains: behaviorism (theoretical and philosophical issues), the experimental analysis of behavior (basic research),applied behavior analysis (applied research),and professional practice (providing behavior analytic services to consumers).

Watson espoused an early form of behaviorism

known as stimulus-response (S-R) psychology, which did not account for behavior without obvious antecedent causes

Methodological behaviorism is a philosophical

position that considers behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed to be outside the realm of the science.

Functional relations

primary products of basic and applied behavior analytic research Exists when a well controlled experiment reveals that a specific change in one event (the dependent variable) can reliably be 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).

Behavior that is elicited by antecedent stimuli is called

respondent behavior

Mentalism is an approach to understanding behavior

that assumes that a mental, or "inner," dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior; it relies on hypothetical constructs and explanatory fictions.

Knowledge gained from a study

that finds the systematic covariation between two events—termed a correlation— can be used to predict the probability that one event will occur based on the occurrence of the other event.

Results of experiments that show

that specific manipulations of one event (the independent variable) produce a reliable change in another event (the dependent variable), and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely the result of extraneous factors (confounding variables)— a finding known as a functional relation—can be used to control the phenomena under investigation