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Key Terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Behavior | An individual living organisms activity, public or private, which may be influenced by external or internal stimulation |
| Behavior Analysis | A natural science that seeks to accurately predict behavior & identify functional variables that can be used to positively influence behavior. |
| Consequence | An observable stimulus change that happens after behavior occurs. |
| Contingency | A relation between operant behavior and its controlling variables. |
| Environmental Events | All of the things you experience through your senses (tastes, smells, sights, sounds, tactile sensations). |
| Functional Variable | A variable that, if changed, will reliably and systematically influence behavior. |
| Response | A single instance of behavior. |
| Determinism | The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion. |
| Mentalistic explanations of behavior | These “explanations” put the cause of behavior in the individual’s vaguely defined “mind.” |
| Stimulus (Stimulus events) | Something that you can see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. |
| Parsimony | An approach to scientific explanation that emphasizes simplicity and reliance on well-established knowledge |
| Independent variable | A publicly observable change, controlled by the experimenter, which is anticipated to influence behavior in a specific way. |
| Behavioral definition | A precise specification of the target behavior, allowing observers to reliably identify instances and non-instances. |
| Dimensions of Behavior | This includes frequency, latency, duration, and magnitude. |
| Falsifiable hypothesis | A testable explanation for a phenomenon that can be proven wrong by empirical observation or experiment. |
| Dependent variable | In a behavior-analytic experiment, this is the objectively measured target behavior. |
| Direct observation | When behavior is directly observed, the behavior is recorded as the behavior occurs, or a lasting product of the behavior is recorded at a later time. |
| Duration | A dimension of behavior – the interval of time between the start and the end of the behavior. |
| Duration recording | A direct-observation method used when measuring the latency or duration of a target behavior. |
| Event recording | Each instance of behavior is recorded at the moment it occurs. |
| Frequency | A dimension of behavior – the response count divided by time (response rate) or opportunity to respond. |
| Interobserver agreement (IOA) | The extent to which two independent observers’ data are the same after having directly observed the same behavior at the same time. |
| Latency | A dimension of behavior – the interval of time between the opportunity to respond and the response itself. |
| Magnitude | A dimension of behavior – the force or intensity of a behavior. |
| Outcome recording | Recording the distinct, observable, lasting product(s) of behavior, instead of the behavior itself. |
| Partial-interval recording | A direct-observation method used to estimate how frequently behavior occurs. Observers record whether the behavior occurs during any portion of each in a series of contiguous intervals. |
| Reactivity | Behavior changes because the individual is aware that they are being watched. |
| Whole-interval recording | A direct-observation method used to estimate how frequently behavior occurs. Observers record whether the behavior occurs throughout each in a series of contiguous intervals. |
| A-B-A design | Experimental design, 4 phases to test an intervention: establish steady baseline w/o treatment (A), apply the intervention until behavior changes (B), withdrawing to see if behavior returns to baseline (A), reapplying to confirm the original effects (B). |
| A-B design | A two-phase experimental design consisting of a pretreatment baseline condition (A) followed by a treatment condition (B). |
| Alternating-treatments design (AKA Multielement design) | In this single-subject design, the independent variable(s) is turned ON and OFF rapidly to evaluate if this systematically and repeatedly changes behavior. |
| Between-individuals replication | When a between-individuals replication is conducted, the experiment is repeated with additional subjects and the same result is obtained. |
| Comparison design | This single-subject design arranges two phases – a baseline phase (independent variable OFF) and an experimental phase (independent variable ON). This design cannot rule out confounds. |
| Confound | Variables that influence behavior within an experiment, but are not controlled by the researcher. Variables confounded with the independent variable may be responsible for a behavior change that would otherwise be attributed to the independent variable. |
| Experiment | In behavior analysis, experiments evaluate falsifiable hypotheses. They do this by manipulating an independent variable to see if this reliably produces a systematic change in behavior. |
| Group experimental designs | These designs evaluate if the behavior of a treatment group (independent variable ON) is statistically significantly different from that of a control group (independent variable OFF). If so, then the difference is attributed to the independent variable. |
| Internal validity | When an experiment provides clear evidence that a functional relation exists between the independent variable and behavior change, that experiment has internal validity. |
| Interval recording | A category of direct-observation methods. See partial-interval recording and whole-interval recording. |
| Level | The prevalence of the behavior during the stable portion of a phase/condition. |
| Multiple-baseline design | A single-subject design that evaluates the functional relation between an independent variable and behavior by conducting a series of time-staggered A-B comparisons either across behaviors, across situations, or across individuals. |
| Reversal design | A single-subject experimental design in which the individual’s behavior is evaluated in repeatedly alternating baseline and experimental phases. |
| Single-subject experimental designs | Sometimes called “single-case” experiments, these designs expose individuals to baseline (independent variable OFF) and experimental (independent variable ON) phases to determine if the independent variable systematically and reliably changes behavior. |
| Stable (stable behavior) | Behavior is stable when, over repeated observations, there is little “bounce” and no systematic trend. |
| Trend | A systematic change in behavior over time. |
| Visual analysis | 1 approach to answering - did behavior change when the IV was changed? In the visual analysis, the researcher looks at a graph of time-series single-subject behavior to evaluate if a convincing change occurred when the IV was introduced/removed. |
| Within-individuals replications | In an experiment, the independent variable is manipulated more than once and it produces the same effect on the individual’s behavior each time. |
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