Terms & Definitions

This page lists every term currently included in the flashcards. Total: 121 terms.

Abative effect — A decrease in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, food ingestion abates (decreases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food.
Abolishing operation (AO) — A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event. For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is abolished as a result of food ingestion.
Alternative schedule — Provides reinforcement when the response requirements of any of two or more simultaneously available component schedules are met.
Antecedent — An environmental condition or stimulus change existing or occurring prior to a behavior of interest.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) — The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for the improvement in behavior.
Automatic reinforcement — Reinforcement that occurs independent of the social mediation of others (e.g., scratching an insect bite relieves the itch).
Automaticity of reinforcement — Refers to the fact that behavior is modified by its consequences irrespective of the person’s awareness; a person does not have to recognize or verbalize the relation between her behavior and a reinforcing consequence, or even know that a consequence has occurred, for reinforcement to “work.”_x009d_(Contrast with automatic reinforcement.)
Avoidance contingency — A contingency in which a response prevents or postpones the presentation of a stimulus. (Compare with escape contingency.)
Behavior — That portion of an organism's interaction with its environment that involves movement of some part of the organism (Johston & Pennypacker 2009, p. 31) (See also operant behavior, respondent behavior, response, and response class.)
Behavior-altering effect — An alteration in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is altered in effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, the frequency of behavior that has been reinforced with food is increased or decreased by food deprivation or food ingestion.
Behavioral contrast — The phenomenon in which a change in one component of a multiple schedule that increases or decreases the rate of responding on that component is accompanied by a change in the response rate in the opposite direction on the other, unaltered component of the schedule.
Behaviorism — The philosophy of a science of behavior; there are various forms of behaviorism. (See methodological behaviorism, radical behaviorism.
Chained schedule — A schedule of reinforcement in which the response requirements of two or more basic schedules must be met in a specific sequence before reinforcement is delivered; a discriminative stimulus is correlated with each component of the schedule.
Compound schedule of reinforcement — A schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more elements of continuous reinforcement(CRF), the four intermittent schedules of reinforcement(FR, VR, FI, VI), differential reinforcement of various rates of responding (DRH, DRL), and extinction. The elements from these basic schedules can occur successively or simultaneously and with or without discriminative stimuli; reinforcement may be contingent on meeting the requirements of each element of the schedule independently or in combination with all elements
Concept — A stimulus class whose members share a common set of features.
Concurrent schedule — A schedule of reinforcement in which two or more contingencies of reinforcement (elements) operate independently and simultaneously for two or more behaviors.
conditioned negative reinforcer — A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a negative reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more negative reinforcers. (compare to unconditioned negative reinforcer.) A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as reinforcement. (Contrast with positive reinforcer.)
Conditioned punisher — A previously neutral stimulus change that functions as a punisher because of prior pairing with one or more other punishers. (Sometimes called secondary or learned punisher; compare to unconditioned punisher.)
Conditioned reflex — A learned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., sound of refrigerator door opening) and the response it elicits (e.g., salivation); each person’s repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny). A stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response. (Also called classical or Pavlovian conditioning; see also conditioned reflex and Development of a conditioned reflex by pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with a conditioned stimulus (CS). (Also called secondary conditioning.) and An unlearned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., food in mouth) that elicits the response (e.g., salivation); a product of the phylogenic evolution of a given species; all biologically intact members of a species are born with similar repertoires of unconditioned reflexes.
Conditioned reinforcer — A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers; sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.
Conditioned stimulus — (CS) The stimulus component of a conditioned reflex; a formerly neutral stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior only after it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) or another CS.
Conjunctive schedule — A schedule of reinforcement that is in effect whenever reinforcement follows the completion of response requirements for two or more schedules
Consequence — A stimulus change that follows a behavior of interest. Some consequences, especially those that are immediate and relevant to current motivational states, have significant influence on future behavior; others have little effect. (See punisher, reinforcer.)
Contingency — Refers to dependent and/or temporal relations between operant behavior and its controlling variables. Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred. and The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior; encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecedent stimulus, behavior, and consequence.
Contingent — Describes reinforcement (or punishment) that is delivered only after the target behavior has occurred.
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.
discriminated avoidance — A contingency in which responding in the presence of a signal prevents the onset of a stimulus from which escape is a reinforcer. A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been reinforced and in the absence of which that behavior has not been reinforced; as a result of this history, an SD evokes operant behavior because its presence signals the availability of reinforcement. An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others. A contingency in which responses at any time during an interval prior to the scheduled onset of an aversive stimulus delays the presentation of the aversive stimulus (Contrast with discriminated avoidance.) A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus.
Discriminated Operant — An operant that occurs more frequently under some antecedent conditions than under others.
Discriminated stimulus for punishment — A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been punished and in the absence of which that behavior has not been punished; as a result of this history, the behavior occurs less often in the presence of the than in its absence.
Discriminative stimulus — A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has been reinforced and in the absence of which that behavior has not been reinforced; as a result of this history, an evokes operant behavior because its presence signals the availability of reinforcement (See also differential reinforcement, stimulus control, stimulus delta , and stimulus discrimination training.)
Empiricism — The objective observation of the phenomena of interest; objective observations are “independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist. . . . Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone’s observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist”(Zuriff, 1985, p. 9).
Environment — The conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists; behavior cannot occur in the absence of environment.
Errorless learning — A variety of techniques for gradually transferring stimulus control with a minimum of errors.
Escape contingency — A contingency in which a response terminates (produces escape from) an ongoing stimulus. (Compare with avoidance contingency.)
Escape Extinction — Behaviors maintained with negative reinforcement are placed on escape extinction when those behaviors are not followed by termination of the aversive stimulus; emitting the target behavior does not enable the person to escape the aversive situation.
Establishing operation (EO) — A motivating operation that establishes (increases) the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer. For example, food deprivation establishes food as an effective reinforcer.
Evocative effect — An increase in the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by the stimulus that is increased in reinforcing effectiveness by the same motivating operation. For example, food deprivation evokes (increases the current frequency of) behavior that has been reinforced by food.
Exclusion time-out — A procedure for implementing time-out in which, contingent on the occurrence of a target behavior, the person is removed physically from the current environment for a specified period.
Experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) — A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B. F. Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within-subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graphed data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing.
Explanatory fiction — A fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account or understanding of the phenomenon, such as “intelligence” or “cognitive awareness” as explanations for why an organism pushes the lever when the light is on and food is available but does not push the lever when the light is off and no food is available.
Extinction — The discontinuing of a reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., responses no longer produce reinforcement); the primary effect is a decrease in the frequency of the behavior until it reaches a pre reinforced level or ultimately ceases to occur. (See extinction burst, spontaneous recovery; compare respondent extinction)
Extinction Burst — An increase in the frequency of responding when an extinction procedure is initially implemented.
Extinction-induced variability — Phenomenon in which diverse and novel forms of behavior are sometimes observed during the extinction process
Fixed interval — A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered for the first response emitted following the passage of a fixed duration of time since the last response was reinforced (e.g., on an FI 3-minute schedule, the first response following the passage of 3 minutes is reinforced).
Fixed ratio — A schedule of reinforcement requiring a fixed number of responses for reinforcement (e.g., an FR4 schedule reinforcement follows every fourth response).
free-operant avoidance — A contingency in which responses at any time during an interval prior to the scheduled onset of an aversive stimulus delays the presentation of the aversive stimulus. (Contrast with discriminated avoidance.)
Generalized conditioned punisher — A stimulus change that, as a result of having been paired with many other punishers, functions as punishment under most conditions because it is free from the control of motivating conditions for specific types of punishment.
Generalized conditioned reinforcer — A conditioned reinforcer that as a result of having been paired with many other reinforcers does not depend on an establishing operation for any particular form of reinforcement for its effectiveness.
Habituation — A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus; most often used to describe a reduction of respondent behavior as a function of repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus over a short span of time; some researchers suggest that the concept also applies to within-session changes in operant behavior.
History of Reinforcement — An inclusive term referring in general to all of a person’s learning experiences and more specifically to past conditioning with respect to particular response classes or aspects of a person’s repertoire. The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime. (See also history of reinforcement; compare to The history of the natural evolution of a species. (Compare to ontogeny.).
Hypothetical Construct — A presumed but unobserved process or entity (e.g., Freud's id, ego, and superego).
Intermittent schedule of reinforcement — A contingency of reinforcement in which some, but not all, occurrences of the behavior produce reinforcement.
Least-to-most response prompts — A technique of transferring stimulus control in which the practitioner gives the participant an opportunity to perform the response with the least amount of assistance on each trial. The participant receives greater degrees of assistance with each successive trial without a correct response. The procedure for least-to-most prompting requires the participant to make a correct response within a set time limit (e.g., 3 seconds) from the presentation of the natural . If the response does not occur within the specified time, the applied behavior analyst presents the natural and a response prompt of least assistance, such as a verbal response prompt. If after the same specified time limit (e.g., another 3 seconds) the participant does not make a correct response, the analyst gives the natural and another response prompt, such as a gesture. The participant receives partial or full physical guidance if the less intrusive prompt does not evoke a correct response.
Matching law — The allocation of responses to choices available on concurrent schedules of reinforcement; rates of responding across choices are distributed in proportions that match the rates of reinforcement received from each choice alternative.
Mentalism — An approach to explaining 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, if not all
Methodological behaviorism — A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science.
Mixed schedule — A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement (elements) that occur in an alternating, usually random, sequence; no discriminative stimuli are correlated with the presence or absence of each element of the schedule, and reinforcement is delivered for meeting the response requirements of the element in effect at any time.
Most-to-least response prompts — A technique of transferring stimulus control in which the practitioner physically guides the participant through the entire performance sequence, and then gradually reduces the level of assistance in successive trials. Customarily, most-to-least prompting transitions from physical guidance to visual prompts to verbal instructions, and finally to the natural stimulus without prompts.
Motivating operation — An environmental variable that (a) alters (increases or decreases) the reinforcing or punishing effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event; and (b) alters (increases or decreases) the current frequency of all behavior that has been reinforced or punished by that stimulus, object, or event. (See abative effect, abolishing operation (AO), behavior-altering effect, evocative effect, establishing operation (EO), value-altering effect.)
Multiple schedule — A compound schedule of reinforcement consisting of two or more basic schedules of reinforcement (elements) that occur in an alternating,usually random, sequence; a discriminative stimulus is correlated with the presence or absence of each element of the schedule, and reinforcement is delivered for meeting the response requirements of the element in effect at any time.
Negative punishment — A response behavior followed immediately by the removal of a stimulus (or a decrease in the intensity of the stimulus) that results in similar responses occurring less often. (Contrast with positive punishment.)
Negative reinforcement — A contingency in which the occurrence of a response is followed immediately by the termination, reduction, postponement, or avoidance of a stimulus, and which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of similar responses.
Neutral stimulus — (NS) A stimulus change that does not elicit respondent behavior. (Compare to conditioned stimulus [CS] and unconditioned stimulus [US].)
Nonexclusion time-out — A procedure for implementing time-out in which, contingent on the occurrence of the target behavior, the person remains within the setting, but does not have access to reinforcement, for a specified period.
Ontogeny — The history of the development of an individual organism during its lifetime. (See history of reinforcement; compare to phylogeny.)
Operant behavior — Behavior that is selected, maintained, and brought under stimulus control as a function of its consequences; each person’s repertoire of operant behavior is a product of his history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny).
Operant conditioning — The basic process by which operant learning occurs; consequences (stimulus changes immediately following responses) result in an increased (reinforcement) or decreased (punishment) frequency of the same type of behavior under similar motivational and environmental conditions in the future. (See motivating operation, punishment, reinforcement, response class, stimulus control.)
Overcorrection — A behavior change tactic based on positive punishment in which, contingent on the problem behavior, the learner is required to engage in effortful behavior directly or logically related to fixing the damage caused by the behavior. Forms of overcorrection are restitutional overcorrection and positive practice overcorrection. (See positive practice overcorrection, restitutional overcorrection.)
Parsimony — The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.
Philosophic doubt — An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned.
Phylogeny — The history of the natural evolution of a species. (Compare to ontogeny.)
Positive punishment — A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus that decreases the future frequency of the behavior. (Contrast with negative punishment.)
Positive reinforcement — A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often. (Contrast with negative reinforcement.)
Positive Reinforcer — A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement. (Contrast with negative reinforcer.)
Pragmatism — A philosophical position asserting that the truth value of a statement is determined by how well it promotes effective action; pragmatism is a primary criterion by which behavior analysts judge the value of their findings
Premack principle — A principle that states that making the opportunity to engage in a high-probability behavior contingent on the occurrence of a low-frequency behavior will function as reinforcement for the low-frequency behavior. (See also response-deprivation hypothesis.)
Principle of behavior — A statement describing a functional relation between behavior and one or more of its controlling variables with generality across organisms, species, settings, behaviors, and time (e.g., extinction, positive reinforcement)
Punisher — A stimulus change that decreases the future occurrence of behavior that immediately precedes it. (See also aversive stimulus, conditioned punisher, and unconditioned punisher.)
Punishment — A basic principle of behavior describing a response–consequence functional relation in which a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that decreases future occurrences of that type of behavior.(See also negative punishment and positive punishment.)
Radical behaviorism — A form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior, including private events such as thoughts and feelings, in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person (ontogeny) and the species (phylogeny).
Recovery from punishment — The occurrence of a previously punished type of response without its punishing consequence. This procedure is analogous to the extinction of previously reinforced behavior and has the effect of undoing the effect of the punishment.
Reflex — A stimulus–response relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus and the respondent behavior it elicits (e.g., bright light–pupil contraction). Unconditioned and conditioned reflexes protect against harmful stimuli, help regulate the internal balance and economy of the organism, and promote reproduction. A learned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., sound of refrigerator door opening) and the response it elicits (e.g., salivation); each person’s repertoire of conditioned reflexes is the product of his or her history of interactions with the environment (ontogeny). A stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response. (Also called classical or Pavlovian conditioning; see also conditioned reflex and higher order conditioning.) An unlearned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., food in mouth) that elicits the response (e.g., salivation); a product of the phylogenic evolution of a given species; all biologically intact members of a species are born with similar repertoires of unconditioned reflexes. (See also conditioned reflex.), respondent behavior The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli. (See also reflex and respondent conditioning.), and x An unlearned stimulus–response functional relation consisting of an antecedent stimulus (e.g., food in mouth) that elicits the response (e.g., salivation); a product of the phylogenic evolution of a given species; all biologically intact members of a species are born with similar repertoires of unconditioned reflexes. (See also conditioned reflex.)
Reinforcement — A basic principle of behavior describing a response–consequence functional relation in which a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often. A contingency in which the occurrence of a response is followed immediately by the termination, reduction, postponement, or avoidance of a stimulus, and which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of similar responses. And A response followed immediately by the presentation of a stimulus change that results in similar responses occurring more often. (Contrast with negative reinforcement.)
Reinforcer — A stimulus change that increases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it. A stimulus whose presentation or onset functions as reinforcement. (Contrast with negative reinforcer.) A stimulus change that functions as a reinforcer because of prior pairing with one or more other reinforcers. (Sometimes called secondary or learned reinforcer.) and A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny). (Also called primary or unlearned reinforcer; compare to conditioned reinforcer.)
Reinforcer assessment — Refers to a variety of direct, empirical methods for presenting one or more stimuli contingent on a target response and measuring their effectiveness as reinforcers.
Repertoire — All of the behaviors a person can do; the collection of skills available to an individual.
Replication — Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity. (See baseline logic, prediction, verification.)(b) Repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors. (See direct replication, external validity, systematic replication.
Resistance to extinction — The relative frequency with which operant behavior is emitted during extinction.
Respondent behavior — The response component of a reflex; behavior that is elicited, or induced, by antecedent stimuli. (See reflex, respondent conditioning.)
Respondent conditioning — A stimulus–stimulus pairing procedure in which a neutral stimulus (NS) is presented with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response.
Response — A single instance or occurrence of a specific class or type of behavior. Technical definition: an “action of an organism’s effector. An effector is an organ at the end of an efferent nerve fiber that is specialized for altering its environment mechanically, chemically, or in terms of other energy changes” (Michael, 2004, p. 8). (See response class.)
Response blocking — A procedure in which the therapist physically intervenes as soon as the learner begins to emit a problem behavior to prevent completion of the targeted behavior.
Response class — A group of responses of varying topography, all of which produce the same effect on the environment.
Response cost — The response-contingent loss of a specific number of positive reinforcers (e.g., a fine) that decreases the frequency of similar responses in the future; a form of negative punishment.
Response prompts — Prompts that operate directly on the response to cue a correct response. The three major forms of response prompts are verbal instructions, modeling, and physical guidance.
Response topography — The physical form of the behavior—what it looks like.
Resurgence — Refers to the reoccurence of a previously reinforced behavior when reinforcement for an alternative behavior is terminated or decreased and to the three-phase procedure that procedures the effect: (1) a target behavior is reinforced, (2) the target behavior is placed on extinction and reinforcement is provided for an alternative behavior, and (3) both responses are placed on extinction
Rule-governed behavior — Behavior controlled by a rule (i.e., a verbal statement of an antecedent-behavior-consequence contingency); enables human behavior (e.g., fastening a seatbelt) to come under the indirect control of temporally remote or improbable but potentially significant consequences (e.g., avoiding injury in an auto accident). Often used in contrast to contingency-shaped behavior, a term used to indicate behavior selected and maintained by controlled, temporally close consequences.
Schedule of reinforcement — A rule specifying the environmental arrangements and response requirements for reinforcement; a description of a contingency of reinforcement.
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 primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience.
Selectionism — A theory that all forms of life naturally and continually evolve as a result of the interaction between function and the survival value of that function. Operant selection by consequences is the conceptual and empirical foundation of behavior analysis.
Socially mediated contingencies — A contingency in which an antecedent stimulus and/or the consequence for the behavior is presented by another person
Spontaneous Recovery — A behavioral effect associated with extinction in which the behavior suddenly begins to occur after its frequency has decreased to its pre reinforcement level or stopped entirely.
Stimulus — “An energy change that affects an organism through its receptor cells” (Michael, 2004, p. 7).
Stimulus class — A group of stimuli that share specified common elements along formal (e.g., size, color), temporal (e.g., antecedent or consequent), and/or functional (e.g., discriminative stimulus) dimensions.
Stimulus control — A situation in which the frequency, latency, duration, or amplitude of a behavior is altered by the presence or absence of an antecedent stimulus. (See also discrimination and discriminative stimulus.)
Stimulus delta — A stimulus in the presence of which a given behavior has not produced reinforcement, or has produced reinforcement of lesser quality, in the past. (Contrast with discriminative stimulus .)
Stimulus discrimination — When one stimulus (the ) signals the availability of reinforcement and the absence of that stimulus (the ) signals a zero or reduced chance of reinforcement, responses will occur more often in the presence of the than in its absence (the ).
Stimulus generalization — When an antecedent stimulus has a history of evoking a response that has been reinforced in its presence, the same type of behavior tends to be evoked by stimuli that share similar physical properties with the controlling antecedent stimulus.
Stimulus preference assessment — A variety of procedures used to determine the stimuli that a person prefers, the relative preference values (high versus low) of those stimuli, the conditions under which those preference values remain in effect, and their presumed value as reinforcers.
Stimulus prompts — Prompts that operate directly on the antecedent task stimuli to cue a correct response in conjunction with the critical SD (e.g., changing the size, color, or position of a stimulus within an array to make its selection more likely).
Tandem schedule — A schedule of reinforcement identical to the chained schedule except, like the mix schedule, the tandem schedule does not use discriminative stimuli with the elements in the chain. (See chained schedule, mixed schedule).
Three-term contingency — The basic unit of analysis in the analysis of operant behavior; encompasses the temporal and possibly dependent relations among an antecedent stimulus, behavior, and consequence.
Time-out from positive reinforcement — The immediate response-contingent withdrawal of the opportunity to earn positive reinforcement or the immediate loss of access to positive reinforcers for a specified time; a form of negative punishment. (Also called time-out.)
unconditioned negative reinforcer — A stimulus that functions as a negative reinforcer as a result of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny); no prior learning is involved (e.g., shock, loud noise, intense light, extreme temperatures, strong pressure against the body). A stimulus whose termination (or reduction in intensity) functions as reinforcement. (Contrast with positive reinforcer.); compare to conditioned negative reinforcer.)
Unconditioned punisher — A stimulus change that decreases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned punishers are products of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny), meaning that all members of a species are more or less susceptible to punishment by the presentation of unconditioned punishers. (Also called primary or unlearned punishers; compare to conditioned punisher.)
Unconditioned reinforcer — A stimulus change that increases the frequency of any behavior that immediately precedes it irrespective of the organism’s learning history with the stimulus. Unconditioned reinforcers are the product of the evolutionary development of the species (phylogeny). Also called primary or unlearned reinforcer. (Compare with conditioned reinforcer.)
Unconditioned stimulus — (US) The stimulus component of an unconditioned reflex; a stimulus change that elicits respondent behavior without any prior learning.
Value-altering effect — An alteration in the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, object, or event as a result of a motivating operation. For example, the reinforcing effectiveness of food is altered as a result of food deprivation and food ingestion.
Variable interval — A schedule of reinforcement that provides reinforcement for the first correct response following the elapse of variable durations of time occurring in a random or unpredictable order. The mean duration of the intervals is used to describe the schedule (e.g., on a VI 10-minute schedule, reinforcement is delivered for the first response following an average of 10 minutes since the last reinforced response, but the time that elapses following the last reinforced response might range from 30 seconds or less to 25 minutes or more).
Variable ratio — A schedule of reinforcement requiring a varying number of responses for reinforcement. The number of responses required varies around a random number; the mean number of responses required for reinforcement is used to describe the schedule (e.g., on a VR10 schedule an average of 10 responses must be emitted for reinforcement, but the number of responses required following the last reinforced response might range from 1 to 30 or more).