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| Operant Conditioning: | a type of conditioning in which the presentation of a reinforcer (stimulus) depends on the prior occurrence of a specified response. |
| Instrumental/Operant Behavior: | an activity that is effective in producing a particular consequence or reinforcer. |
| Reinforcement: | a process in which behavior is strengthened by an immediate consequence that follows its occurrence. |
| Law of Effect: | any response that leads to a satisfying state of affairs will be strengthened. Likewise, any response that leads to a dissatisfying state of affairs will be weakened. |
| Operants: | are responses that result in a change in the envioronment. |
| Operant Class: | a class of responses that result in the same envioronmental change. |
| Free Operant Method: | A method of instrumental conditioning that permits the uninterrupted repetition of an instrumental response. |
| Discrete Trial Method: | A method in instrumental conditioning in which the subject can perform the instrumental response only during specified periods, usually determined by the placement of the subject in an experimental chamber or by the presentation of a stimulus. |
| Free Operant Behavior: | any behavior that the organism is “free” to emit that can occur independent of experimenter intervention. |
| Discriminative Stimulus (Sd): | is an event that precedes an operant response and alters the likelihood that the response will occur.Thus, the Sd SETS THE OCCASION FOR BEHAVIOR.Discriminative stimuli change the probability that an operant will be emitted |
| S-Delta: | an antecedent stimulus that does not signal reinforcement. That is emitted behavior in the presence of the S-Delta decreases. |
| Contingency of Reinforcement: | defines the relationship between the events that set the occasion for behavior, the operant class, and the consequences that follow the behavior. |
| Positive Reinforcement: | involves an increase in rate of response as a result of the provision of a positive consequence. |
| Negative Reinforcement: | involves an increase in the rate of response as a result of the removal of an aversive stimulus. |
| Positive Punishment: | involves a decrease in rate of responding as a result of providing an aversive stimulus following the response. |
| Negative Punishment: | involves a decrease in response rate as a result of removing something reinforcing after the behavior has been emitted. |
| Immediacy: | The time between the occurrence of a behavior and the reinforcing consequence is important.For a consequence to be an effective reinforcer it should occur immediately after the behavior occurs. |
| Establishing Operations: | are events that change the value of a stimulus as a reinforcer. |
| Deprivation: | a type of establishing operation that increases the effectiveness of most unconditioned (primary) reinforcers and some conditioned reinforcers. |
| Satiation: | makes a stimulus less potent as a reinforcer. |
| Characteristics of the Consequence: | The likelihood of a consequence being a reinforcer varies from person to person, so it is important to determine that a particular consequence is, in fact, a reinforcer for a particular person. In addition, INTENSITY is related to the degree to which something is reinforcing. |
| Continuous Reinforcement Schedule (CRF): | is one in which each occurrence of a response is reinforced. |
| Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule: | each occurrence of a response is not reinforced. Instead, responses are occasionally or intermittently reinforced. |
| Acquisition: | the period in which the individual is acquiring a new behavior, typically characterized by the employment of a CRF schedule. |
| Maintenance: | once the individual has acquired the behavior, an intermittent schedule is employed in order to keep the individual performing the behavior. |
| Fixed Ratio (FR): | a specific, or fixed, number of responses must occur before a reinforcer is delivered. |
| Postreinforcement Pause (PRP): | a pause in responding that occurs following delivery of a reinforcer in fixed schedules of reinforcement. |
| Variable Ratio (VR): | delivery of a reinforcer is based on the number of responses that occur, but the number of responses required varies each time around an average number of responses. |
| Interval Schedules: | In interval schedules, a response is reinforced only after an interval of time has elapsed. |
| Fixed Interval (FI): | In the FI schedule, the interval of time is fixed, or stays the same, for every trial. |
| Fixed-Interval Scallop: | the pattern of responding that emerges in a FI schedule characterized by a pause or decreased responding immediately following delivery of a reinforcer and the subsequent increase in response rate as the end of the interval approaches. |
| Variable Interval: | In a variable interval schedule, the reinforcer is delivered for the first response that occurs after an average interval has elapsed. |
| Reinforcing Duration: | If a reinforcer is contingent on a particular duration of behavior, that duration of behavior is more likely to occur. |
| Reinforcing Intensity: | If the reinforcer is contingent on a particular intensity of behavior the behavior is more likely to occur with that intensity. |
| Reinforcing Latency: | If a reinforcer is contingent on decreasing the latency of a particular response, then decreased latency is strengthened. |
| Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement: | a situation in which more than one schedule of reinforcement is present for different response options. |
| The person will typically engage in one of the response options depending on: | 1) the schedule of reinforcement2) the magnitude of reinforcement3) the immediacy of reinforcement4) response effort |
| EXTINCTION: | A BEHAVIOR THAT WAS PREVIOUSLY REINFORCED IS NO LONGER REINFORCED AND STOPS OCCURRING. |
| Extinction occurs when: | 1) A behavior that has been previously reinforced 2no longer results in the reinforcing consequences 3and, therefore, the behavior stops occurring in the future. |
| Extinction Burst: | the phenomenon in which, when a behavior is no longer reinforced, the behavior temporarily increases in frequency, duration or intensity before it decreases. |
| Novel Behaviors in Extinction Bursts: | novel behaviors (behaviors that do not typically occur in the particular situation) may occur for a brief period when a behavior is no longer reinforced. |
| Behavioral Purpose of the Burst: | The extinction burst is a natural reaction to the termination of reinforcement. The increased frequency, duration or intensity, as well as the novel behaviors may be reinforced when occurring. Therefore the burst serves to increase the likelihood of reinforcement. |
| Spontaneous Recovery: | the tendency for an extinguished behavior to occur again in situations that are similar to those in which it occurred prior to extinction. |
| Two important factors influence the extinction process: | 1) The reinforcement schedule before extinction. 2) The occurrence of reinforcement after extinction. |
| THE SCHEDULE | WHEN A BEHAVIOR IS CONTINUOUSLY REINFORCED, EXTINCTION IS MORE RAPID. WHEN A BEHAVIOR IS INTERMITTENTLY REINFORCED, EXTINCTION IS MORE GRADUAL. |
| Resistance to Extinction: | the tendency for an organism to continue to respond after extinction is in effect due to the presence of an intermittent reinforcement schedule. |
| Ratio Strain: | the extinction of a behavior when the reinforcer for that behavior is contingent upon an excessive amount of responses |
| REINFORCEMENT AFTER EXTINCTION | A second factor that influences extinction is the occurrence of reinforcement after extinction. If reinforcement occurs in the presence of an extinction procedure, it will take longer for the behavior to decrease. |
