BCBA flashcards
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32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Radical behaviorism
- A philosophy holding that private events such as thoughts and feelings are behavior, subject to the same environmental variables that control observable behavior.
- Selectionism
- The view that behavior and species characteristics result from selection by consequences across three levels: phylogeny, ontogeny, and cultural practices.
- Parsimony
- The rule that the simplest explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is preferred when accounting for a behavior of interest.
- Explanatory fiction
- A circular label treated as a cause of behavior, such as saying a child hit because of an aggressive trait, which explains nothing.
- Establishing operation
- A motivating operation that increases the reinforcing value of a stimulus and evokes behavior that has produced that stimulus in the past.
- Negative punishment
- A consequence in which a stimulus is removed following behavior and, as a result, the future frequency of that behavior decreases.
- Stimulus delta
- A stimulus in whose presence a response has been placed on extinction; it signals that reinforcement is not currently available for that response.
- Shaping
- Reinforcing successive approximations of a target behavior while withholding reinforcement for earlier approximations until the terminal response occurs.
- Total count IOA
- Interobserver agreement computed by dividing the smaller recorded count by the larger count and multiplying by 100, when both observers record the same session.
- Partial interval recording
- A discontinuous method in which an interval is scored if behavior occurs at any time within it; it tends to overestimate the occurrence of behavior.
- Celeration
- A measure of change in response rate over time, typically expressed as a multiplicative factor per week on a standard celeration chart.
- Level, trend, variability
- The three features used in visual analysis of graphed data: average value, direction of change, and degree of fluctuation around the trend.
- Multiple baseline design
- A design in which intervention is introduced sequentially across behaviors, settings, or participants while baseline continues for those not yet treated.
- Changing criterion design
- A single-case design in which the criterion for reinforcement is shifted in steps, showing that behavior follows each new criterion.
- Alternating treatments design
- A design comparing two or more conditions rapidly within one subject, controlling for sequence effects by randomizing or counterbalancing condition order.
- Core ethical principles
- The four principles of the BACB Ethics Code: benefit others; treat others with compassion, dignity, and respect; behave with integrity; ensure competence.
- Informed consent
- Ongoing agreement to services given after disclosure of procedures, risks, benefits, and alternatives, with the right to withdraw at any time.
- Assent
- Agreement from a client who cannot legally consent, obtained in understandable terms and paired with guardian consent and monitoring of dissent.
- Multiple relationships
- A situation in which a behavior analyst has another personal, professional, or financial role with a client that could impair objectivity or harm the client.
- Functional analysis
- An experimental assessment in which antecedents and consequences are systematically manipulated to identify the variables maintaining problem behavior.
- MSWO preference assessment
- A stimulus preference assessment presenting an array, letting the client select one item, and removing selected items across trials to produce a preference rank.
- Indirect functional assessment
- Information about behavior gathered through interviews, rating scales, or questionnaires rather than direct observation; it identifies hypotheses, not causal relations.
- Scatterplot
- A grid displaying times of day or activities against dates, marked where behavior occurs, used to reveal temporal patterns in the behavior.
- DRO
- Differential reinforcement of other behavior: reinforcement is delivered when the target behavior has not occurred for a specified interval of time.
- Functional communication training
- A DRA procedure teaching a socially acceptable communication response that produces the same reinforcer maintaining the problem behavior.
- Noncontingent reinforcement
- Time-based delivery of a reinforcer independent of behavior, which reduces problem behavior partly through an abolishing operation effect.
- Treatment integrity
- The extent to which an intervention is implemented as designed, measured by direct observation or checklists of the intervention's component steps.
- Social validity
- Judgment of whether intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes are acceptable and meaningful to clients, caregivers, and the surrounding community.
- Generalization programming
- Arranging teaching to promote untrained responding across settings, people, and time using multiple exemplars, natural contingencies, and indiscriminable contingencies.
- Behavioral skills training
- A staff training package using instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback until the trainee performs the target skill to criterion.
- Performance feedback
- Information given to a supervisee about observed performance that is specific and immediate and includes both positive and corrective components.
- Pyramidal training
- A model in which an expert trains a small group who then train others, extending supervision reach while fidelity is checked.