all fields of psych study behavior. we study behavior to determine why it happens, not as a hypothetical construct.

why is it important to consider the scientist is a behaving organism?

the act of doing science is a behavior and falls under some kind of control, so we should understand that it falls under the same principled of stimulus control as any other behavior

what is the ultimate goal of any behavior-analytic study?

to identify functional relations between behavior and its controlling variables

the dependant variable in any behavioral psychological study is always some type of what?

behavior

define negative reinforcement

a PROCEDURE in which a stimulus is removed CONTINGENT upon a response and there is an INCREASE in the probability of that response

define positive punishment

PROCEDURE in which a stimulus is presented CONTINGENT upon a response and there is a DECREASE in the probability of that response 

what is the role of an antecedent stimulus with respect to operant behavior?

sets the occasion for a response to occur and be followed by a particular consequence 

what are the types of antecedent stimuli that can influence operant behavior 

S^D

S^Δ 

S^CAS

Define S^D, S^Δ, and S^CAS

S^D sets the occasion for a response to occur and be followed by a reinforcer

S^Δ sets the occasion for a response to occur and be followed by extinction

 S^CAS sets the occasion for a response to occur and be followed by punishment

What are sources of control over the development of the experimental question? 

•  personal history
• graduate school
• previous literature
• interest to society
• extraexperiemtnal contingencies

what are 4 functions of the experimental question for guiding experiemntal procedures? 

1. general experimental concerns
2. response class
3. independant variable (IV)
4. experimental comparisons 

what is meant by separating the truly valuable questions from those that arew simply interesting or entertaining?

valuable questions reveal functional relationships that are socially beneficial 

what is the difference between questions that focus on methods/procedures versus those that focus on behavior for the sake of exploration?

research for behaviors sake discovers new principles 

What is a 'unit of analysis'? 

serves as a basis for scientific study 

what is a topographical response definition?  

defines a response as it looks in its three depths of space 

what is a functional response definition? 

describes what happens in the behavior 

what is specificity? 

explains which responses are in the response class 

what are issues with sensitivity when defining a response class? 

• need a sufficent range of variability
• can't be too suceptable to extraneous variables 

what is an absolute measure? 

measurement whose meaning or value is defined in a fixed or unvarying manner

is a score on a standardized assessment tool an absolute measure? 

no 

define property 

fundamental quality of a phenomenon 

define quantitative dimension 

quantitative aspect of a property. can have a number assigned to it 

define unit of measure 

amount of the dimensional quality of the phenomenon being measured 

give the quantitative dimension and unit of measure associated with each property:

1. temporal locus
2. temporal extent
3. repeatability
4. temporal locus & repeatability

1. latency - time units
2. duration - time units
3. count - number of cycles
4. rate - cycle/time
   celleration - (cycle/time)/tim
   IRT - time/cycle

what are three time sampling procedures? 

1. partial interval time sampling
2. whole interval time sampling
3. momentary time sampling 

what are three issues to consider when setting up observational periods for collecting data? 

• who or what is present
• where should the observations take place
• when should the observations take place
• how often you should conduct the sessions
• how long the sessions should last

what are three goals to consider when setting up observing procedures? 

1. TRANSDUCTION!
2. complete and accurate results
3.  create a record of data that will exert stimulus control over the scientist and the consumer

 what are the parts of a research paper?

 abstract

introduction

methods - participants, apparatus, procedure

 results

discussion

 references

what are the goals of a response class? 

•  has to answer experimental question
• has to be sensitive to the variable you're using
•  not suceptible to too much control by extraneous variables
• how easy does it return to baseline 

what is a functional response class? 

two or more responses that are controlled the same way by the same stimuli 

what do you need to be able to do in any study? 

• describe
• compare
• predict 

Are likert scales absolute units of measure? 

No because they are not precise 

Define TRANSDUCTION 

act of assinging a numeric value to what you observed and turning it into a permanent record 

What should you transduce? 

Only the features of the behavior and environment that are important to your study 

What are types of transducers? 

human and machine 

what are advantages of machine transducers? 

 record specific behaviors repeatedly

exact recordings, more precise

no distractions

speed: can record at a rate humans cant

more complex meaures

can detect smaller changes

what are advantages of human transducers? 

humans are able to experience physiological changes

humans are more sensitive to to unanticipated but important events

humans can record in situations where machine transduction is not feasible

is there indirect measurement in behavior analysis? 

no, only direct measurement

with transduction, is there a difference between what happened and what is recorded?

yes 

what do you want to do to arrive at an accurate measure? 

minimize the difference between the true measure of the state of nature and the recorded measure

define accuracy 

the extent to which you measure truly reflects the true state of nature 

define reliability 

the extent to which accuracy remains the same over repeated measures  

which is better - accuracy or reliability? 

reliability

in behavior is there a concern with validity? 

no, what we measure is what we measure. there are no indirect measures 

how do you calibrate? 

take measuers using a completely different device and compare them to the measurement device you wish you use in your study

what is the quality of a measurement device based upon? 

accuracy and reliability 

can you calibrate interobserver agreement? 

no 

what is the three term contingency? 

the relationship between a particular behavior and those features of the environment that precede/follow it  

does a discriminative stimulus (S^D) make a behavior more or less likely to occur? 

more 

what is johnston's definition of behavior? 

"the behavior of an organism is that protion of an orgnaisms interaction with its enviornmet that is characterized bt the detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism and that results in a measurable change in at least one aspect of the enviornmment"

what can be used to guide experimental procedures? 

strategy

selecting subjects

choosing a response class

designing measurement procedures

selecting IV's

creating experimental comparisons

define temporal locus 

property of any phenomenon that occurs in time.

latency 

define temporal extent 

property of any phenomenon that occurs in time.

duration 

what is believability? 

the extent to which the researcher can convince others to believe that the data represent what they are intended to represent and thus warrant interpretation, even though there is no unambiguous evidence for this propositon. 

what are two components of a contingency? 

type of stimulus

relationship stimulus has to the response 

what are two types of relationships? 

positive

negative

what are two types of consequential stimuli? 

reinforcer

aversive