Glossary
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*Artificial Reinforcer.Extrinsic reinforcer. It is an stimulus consequent to the behavior which originates in sources external to the behavior and increases the future probability of the behavior.
*Artificial Reinforcement. When an extrinsic or artificial consequence inorcreaces the probability of occurence of a behavior.
Autism.
Aversive stimulus. A stimulus whose termination immediately afterthe occurrence of a behavior, increases the frequency of the behavior. (Somethingunpleasant for the individual who receives it).
* Avoidance. Behavior which reduces or eliminates stimuli which in the past have been followed by punishment. The punishment then, does not occur. Avoidance is different than escape in that in avoidance we do not experience the punishment whereas in scape we get out ofpunishment that has already started.
*Baseline. The level of a particular behavior befor it was changed. Baseline is the same thing as operant level, starting level or pre-treatment level. If these are measured in rate, they are also equivalent to base rate.
Behavior. Any action of an organism whether it is observable or not by otherpeople.
Behavior Analysis.
Behavioral Anthropology.
* Behavioral Objectives. Statements of what students should be able to do at the end of a unit of study. They are also called performance objectives and terminal objectives.
Behavioral Psychology.
Behaviorethics.Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to a part of the science of behaviorthat studies moral behavior.
Behaviorism.Philosophy of the science of behavior. It states that we can study behaviorscientifically. It is necessary to separate methodological behaviorism fromradical behaviorism. See methodological behaviorism.
Behavioral Parents. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to all adults who in oneway or another have an influence in the behavior of the children.
Behaviorology. Term coined by Los Horcones (1974) to referto the natural science of behavior. Behaviorology emphasizes cultural analysisand change. Behaviorologists seek to change the culture more than adaptingpeople to a culture such as it is now.
Biological Parents.
*Chaining. The result when one response alters some of the variables which control another response. For example, the first number a student writes in solving a long division problem becomes part of the stimuli that control the next number she or he writes. Each number written alters the stimuli to which the student responds. The result is called chaining.
Classic Behaviorism
*Classic Conditioning.See conditioning.
Communitarian
Communitarian Behavior
*Concept. A property or group of properties of stimuli. For example, the concept "red" is a property shared by all the things we call "red".
*Conditioning. The strengthening of a particular behavior. In "respondent conditioning" repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus with a stimulus which already elicits a response, results in the nuetral stimulus gaining control over that response in a new reflex. In "operant conditioning" a kind of response becomes more likely in a particular situation when similar responses in similar situations have been reinforced.
Contingency. The relationship between behavior and the stimulus which precedesit and follows it.
*Contingency Management. The arranging of contingencies in order to produce specific behaviors.
*Contrived reinforcer. Artificial or extrinsic reinforcer.
*Contrived Reinforcement.Artificial or extrinsic reinforcement.
*Consequence.Event produced by the behavior whether it affects or not subsequent responding (Horcones, 1987).
Cultural Anthropology
Cultural Behaviorology. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to the science of behaviorapplied to the understanding of culture. We also call it "behavioralanthropology."
Cultural contingency. A concept analogous to macrocontingency. Cultural contingency is a contingency to which the behavior of an individualas a member of a culture is exposed. A concept analogous to the anthropological concept of cultural practice.
Delta Stimulus. Stimulus in whose presence a response is not likely to be reinforced.(something whose presence indicates that a response or action may not receivethe expected support).
*Deprivation. The reduced availability of a reinforcer. A student who has not been able to talk with other students for an hour has had an hour's deprivation of the social reinforcement of talking with peers.
*Dependent variable. What we are trying to "explain" in psychology., the dependent variable is some aspect of behavior that depends in other variables in a functional relationship.
Discriminative Stimulus (Sd). A stimulus in whose presence a response is likelyto be reinforced. See. Delta stimulus.
*Discrimination.The process of responding differently in hte presence of different stimuli.
*Elicit Produce as an invariable result. A puff of air in the eye elicits an eye blink.
*Emit. Produce, but not as an invariable result of any particular stimulus. A student in a class "emits" many responses which are not an automatic response to any preciding stimuli.
*Environment. Everything inside and outside of our skin which affects our behavior. The environment can be biological, physical, chemical or social (behavioral).
*Environment. From the environment.
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Experimental Ethics
Experimental Anthropology
Ethnocentric behavior
Extinction. The extinction of a particular behavior is produced when the reinforcementfor that behavior is discontinued.
Logical Positivism.
Macrocontingency. A cultural contingency.
Mentalism
Methodological Behaviorism. Behaviorism that states that we can study onlywhich can be observed by two independent observers. Therefore thoughts,dreams and feelings can not be scientifically studied. See Radical Behaviorism.
Microcontingency. A cultural contingency. It is a contingency that affects an individualas a member of a culture.
Natural reinforcer
Natural Reinforcement
Negative reinforcer. An aversive stimulus which increases the behaviorwhich terminates or reduces it.
Negative reinforcement. Increase in the frequency of a behavior that terminatesor reduces an aversive stimulus.
Operant behavior. Behavior shaped and maintained by its consequences.
PCBM. Personalized-Communitarian and Behavioral Model (model of educationproposed by Los Horcones).
Personocracy. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer toa governmental system based on the science of behavior.
PSI. Personalized System of Instruction. (Behavioral educational modeldeveloped by Fred. S. Keller and associates in 1964).
Positive reinforcer
Positive reinforcement
Punishment. Technical term of the science of behavior. Procedure in which abehavior is followed by an aversive stimulus and as a result the probabilityof occurrence of the behavior decreases.
Reinforcer. Any stimulus (any physical, chemical, biological or social event)which follows a behavior and as a result maintains or increase in the probabilityof occurrence of that behavior.
Reinforcement. It can consist on the presentation of a positive reinforcementor on the removal of an aversive stimulus.
Radical Behaviorism. Philosophy of the science of behavior. It statesthat inner behaviors can be scientifically studied.
Respondent behavior. A behavior controlled by the stimulus which precedesit.
Schedules of reinforcement. The ways in which reinforcement is contingent onbehavior. There are many schedules of reinforcement.
Shaping. The process of building a behavior by reinforcing successive approximationsto the target behavior.
Stimulus. Any event that affect the behavior of an organism including ourown behavior.
Teaching Society Model. Model designed by Los Horcones community whereit is being implemented. A desinstitutionalized educational model for childrenwith behavioral deficits where they learn the required behaviors mostlyin a natural social environment.
Walden Two.Novel written by B. F. Skinner in 1945, published by Macmillan in 1948.
Walden Two Community. A community designed based on the science of behavior. The membersof such community have a behaviorist philosophy about human behavior.
Last up-date: 2001
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