Behavior Analysis. Natural science that studies behavior. Science that studies the relationships between behavior and other events. Los Horcones defines it as the natural science that studies the relationship between the behavior of organisms and the environment.
A scientific discipline dedicated to understanding and improving human behavior. We can also call this science by the name of behavioral psychology, behaviorist psychology, operant psychology or behaviorology (of course there are different meanings of these names).
Experimental Anthropology. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to an anthropology applied to the design of experimental cultures (cultural laboratories) and not only analyzes or describes existing cultures.
Autism. For behavioral analysis, there is no such thing as “autism.” What exists is a repertoire of autistic behaviors and reinforcers.
Aversivo. Ver: Estímulo Aversivo.
Punishment. A procedure that consists of presenting an aversive stimulus or withdrawing a reinforcer immediately after a behavior, resulting in a decrease in the probability of the behavior occurring.
Walden Two Community. A community designed based on behavioral science. Members of a Walden Two community apply behavioral principles in their daily lives and have a behavioral philosophy about human behavior. A Walden Two community is not one that follows the novel Walden Two written by Skinner in 1948.
Community Conduct. Conduct that is part of a community contingency.
Community. Relating to community.
Concept. A property or group of properties of stimuli. Example: “red” is a property shared by all things we call “red.”
Operant Conditioning. It is the process in which a behavior becomes more or less likely to occur depending on its consequences.
Respondent Conditioning. The process in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires the function of eliciting a response through its repeated association with a stimulus that already elicits a similar response .
Behavior. Any action of an organism that is observable to one or more people. Behavior is not reduced to a biological event.
Avoidance Behavior. Behavior that reduces or eliminates stimuli that have been followed by aversive stimuli in the past . Avoidance behavior is different from escape behavior in that in avoidance the organism does not receive the aversive stimulus whereas in escape the organism terminates or reduces the aversive stimulus.
Ethnocentric behavior.
Non-community behavior.
Operant Behavior. Behavior shaped or maintained by its consequences.
Respondent behavior. Behavior triggered by the stimulus that precedes it (reflex behavior).
Behaviorism. Philosophy of the science of behavior. It states that behavior is a natural event and can be an object of scientific study. It is necessary to separate methodological behaviorism from radical behaviorism. See Methodological Behaviorism.
Radical Behaviorism. Philosophy of the science of behavior. It states that behaviors that are only observable to the person who emits them can be studied scientifically.
Methodological Behaviorism. Behaviorism states that we can only study behaviors that can be observed by two independent observers. And therefore, thinking and feeling cannot be studied scientifically. See Radical Behaviorism.
Cultural Behaviorology. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to the science of behavior applied to the understanding of culture. We also call it “cultural anthropology.”
Behavioretics. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to the part of behavioral science that studies moral behavior.
Consequence. It is a post-occurrence event that affects behavior.
Contingency.
Three-term contingency. The relationship between behavior, the stimulus that precedes it, and the stimulus that follows it.
Cultural Contingency. A concept analogous to macrocontingency (cultural practice). Cultural contingency is a contingency to which an individual’s behavior is exposed as a member of a culture.
Stimulus Discrimination. Process in which the frequency of a response is higher in the presence of a stimulus than in its absence.
Chaining. Chaining is the process of establishing a sequence of responses linked by conditioned reinforcers. For example, the first number a student writes when solving a long division problem becomes part of the stimulus that controls the next number he or she writes. Each number written alters the stimulus to which the student responds. The result is called chaining.
Emit. It is a verb used when talking about the occurrence of an operant behavior. The word emit emphasizes that the consequences are the variables that control the behavior. Example: a student in class “emits” many responses that are not an automatic response to antecedent stimuli. The verb provoke is inappropriate to use when talking about operant behavior because it implies that an antecedent stimulus causes the behavior. See Provokes.
Stimulus. Any event that affects the behavior of an organism, including our own behavior.
Aversive Stimulus. It is also called a punisher when it occurs immediately after a behavior and decreases its probability of occurrence. It is called a negative reinforcer when it is removed immediately after a behavior and increases the probability of that behavior occurring. Thus, an aversive stimulus can function as a negative reinforcer or as a punisher.
Delta Stimulus. A stimulus, in the presence of which, a particular response will neither be reinforced nor punished.
Discriminative Stimulus (DS). A stimulus, in the presence of which, a particular response will be reinforced or punished.
Reinforcing Stimulus (Reinforcer). Any stimulus (whether a physical, chemical, biological, or behavioral event) that follows a behavior (response, action) and, as a result, maintains or increases the likelihood of that behavior occurring.
Experimental Ethics. Science not only tells us how to do things but also what we should do and what we should not do depending on the consequences we wish to obtain.
Avoidance. See Avoidance Behavior.
Extinction. Process by which a behavior ceases to be emitted when the reinforcement that maintained it is discontinued. (A behavior ends because it stops receiving what makes it exist).
Stimulus Generalization. Process in which a stimulus, without prior training, affects the frequency of a particular response.
Baseline. The level of a particular behavior before it is modified. Baseline is the same as operant level, initial level, or pretreatment level. If these levels are measured in frequency, baseline is also the same as base frequency.
Macrocontingencia.
Contingency Management. The arrangement of contingencies to produce specific behaviors.
Environment. Everything that affects behavior. The environment can be biological, physical, chemical, or social (behavioral).
Environment. It means the same as medium.
Environmental. Referring to the environment, which comes from the environment.
Microcontingencia.
Teaching Society Model. Model designed by the Los Horcones Community, where it is being implemented. A deinstitutionalized educational model for children with behavioral deficits. Within this model, children learn the required behaviors mostly in a natural environment.
Modeling. Procedure for teaching behavior. The model performs one or more behaviors in the presence of an observer, which may produce any of the following effects: increase or modification in the observer’s repertoire of behaviors.
Shaping. A procedure for teaching a behavior that consists of differentially reinforcing successive approximations to the behavior on the card, goal, or objective.
MPCC. Personalizing-Community and Behavioral Model. Educational model proposed by Los Horcones. The educational philosophy of this model is behaviorism.
Behavioral Objectives. Statements of what students should be able to do by the end of a unit of study. Also called performance objectives and terminal objectives.
Behavioral Parents. Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to all adults who, in one way or another, influence the behavior of children. In the Los Horcones community, all adults are behavioral parents of the children.
Personocracy . Term coined by Los Horcones to refer to a system of government designed based on the science of behavior.
Deprivation. The unavailability of a reinforcer. A student who has not been able to talk to other students for an hour has been deprived of the social reinforcement of talking to peers for an hour.
Provoke. Word used when we talk about responsive behavior. We say that a puff of air in the eye causes the eye to blink.
Behavioral Psychology. Term that can be used to name the science of behavior analysis or behavioral psychology.
Logical Positivism.
Schedules of Reinforcement. A rule or prescription that determines when the contingent delivery or presentation of a reinforcer will follow the occurrence of a response. Many schedules of reinforcement exist.
Reinforcer. Any stimulus (physical, chemical, biological or behavioral) that follows a behavior and as a result maintains or increases its probability of occurrence.
Natural Reinforcer. An intrinsic consequence of the behavior that reinforces it.
Artificial Reinforcer. Extrinsic Reinforcer. It is a stimulus consequent to a behavior that originates from sources external to the behavior and increases its future probability of occurrence.
Artificial Reinforcement. Process by which an extrinsic or artificial consequence increases the probability of a behavior occurring.
Reinforcement. A procedure that involves presenting a positive reinforcer or removing an aversive stimulus immediately after a behavior and, as a result, increases the probability of that behavior occurring.
Positive Reinforcer: A stimulus that, when presented immediately after a behavior, increases its probability of occurrence.
Positive Reinforcement. Procedure that consists of presenting a stimulus immediately after a behavior, resulting in an increase in the frequency of that behavior.
Negative Reinforcer. An aversive stimulus that, when withdrawn or eliminated after a behavior, increases the future frequency of that behavior.
Negative Reinforcement. Procedure that consists of eliminating or withdrawing an aversive stimulus immediately after a behavior, resulting in an increase in its frequency.
Natural Reinforcement. Process in which a behavior is increased or maintained by reinforcers that originate in the behavior itself (intrinsic reinforcing consequences).
Artificial Reinforcement. Process in which a behavior is increased or maintained by reinforcers that originate from sources other than the behavior (extrinsic consequences).
SIP. Individualized Instruction System. Behavioral educational model developed in 1964 by Fred. S. Keller and associates.
Dependent Variable. What is being “explained” in psychology. The dependent variable is some aspect of behavior that depends on other variables in a functional relationship.
Independent Variable. In an experiment, it is the condition that is controlled by the experimenter within a study. In behavior analysis, the most common independent variables are reinforcers, punishers, and discriminative stimuli.
Walden Two. Novel written by BF Skinner in 1945, and published in 1948. In this novel Skinner proposes the application of behavioral science to the design of a culture.