Behavior Analysis Chapter on Stimulus Control

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Questions and Answers

What is the primary focus of the discussion on stimulus control in this chapter?

The similarities between responses in nonhuman species and humans

The emotional responses of individuals in social situations

The concept of stimulus discrimination and its countereffect (correct)

The effects of negative reinforcement on behavior

Which of the following best describes stimulus control according to the content?

Behavior that remains consistent regardless of environmental factors

Conditioned responses that are independent of situational context

The influence of environmental stimuli on human behavior variations (correct)

Changes in behavior due to previous reinforcement history

What is the term used for the learning of responses to stimuli based on experiences or training?

Discriminative control (correct)

Stimulus generalization

Conditioned reflexes

Reinforcement scheduling

What does the term 'primary stimulus generalization' refer to as used by basic researchers?

The occurrence of responses to tones of varying frequencies Signup and view all the answers

Why is stimulus control highly relevant to applied behavior analysts?

It clarifies the mechanisms underlying changes in behavior based on stimuli Signup and view all the answers

What occurs if reinforcement is delivered for a target response just before stimulus presentation?

It may impede discriminative responding. Signup and view all the answers

What is the term used for delaying stimulus presentation based on responding before the stimulus?

Change-over delay Signup and view all the answers

How can one determine if target responding is controlled by the discriminative properties of a stimulus?

If responding occurs primarily when the stimulus is present. Signup and view all the answers

What does stimulus generalization allow in terms of response reinforcement?

Reinforcement in the presence of stimuli that were difficult to condition. Signup and view all the answers

What indicates that reinforcement may develop discriminative properties?

Responses primarily occur after reinforcement delivery. Signup and view all the answers

What results in the cessation of discriminative responding in stimulus control?

Reaching the threshold level of stimulus Signup and view all the answers

What method can enhance rapid discrimination between positive and negative stimuli?

Maximizing the saliency of the positive stimulus Signup and view all the answers

What term describes the correlation between a stimulus and the absence of reinforcement?

Negative stimulus Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following combinations is likely to create effective fading conditions for stimulus control?

Bright red light and faint green light Signup and view all the answers

Which stimuli are most commonly studied for establishing simple stimulus control?

Auditory and visual stimuli Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary factor influencing whether a specific stimulus can gain control over a specific response?

The saliency of the stimulus compared to background stimuli Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is NOT a requirement for establishing control by a single stimulus?

Reinforcement occurs regardless of the stimulus' presence Signup and view all the answers

According to the content, what schedule should stimuli be presented on to prevent control based on temporal patterns?

A variable-time schedule Signup and view all the answers

Which scenario depicts the risk of target responding being based on temporal patterns rather than stimulus presence?

A stimulus is presented every minute for 30 seconds Signup and view all the answers

What role do contextual or background stimuli play in the process of generalization?

They help facilitate the learning of new discriminations based on past experiences Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Stimulus Control and Generalization

Stimulus control occurs when behavior changes in response to environmental circumstances
Most behavior is under some degree of stimulus control
Stimulus control can involve learned discriminations (simple and conditional) and generalization processes (stimulus generalization, equivalence, and recombinative generalization) which fall under the topic.

Establishing Stimulus Control by a Single Stimulus

Requires a salient stimulus, a controlled environment and a target response within the individual's repertoire.
Reinforcing the target response in the presence of the stimulus, but not in its absence, is key.
Avoid temporal patterns by using a variable-time schedule
Delivery of reinforcement before the stimulus can limit discriminative responses.
Changeover delay or momentary differential reinforcement is used to control for the inadvertent reinforcement of responses before the stimulus.

Differential Stimulus Control by Stimuli Presented Successively

Involves a discrimination between two stimuli: a positive stimulus associated with reinforcement and a negative stimulus associated with non-reinforcement.
Fading is used to rapidly differentiate between the positive and negative stimuli by maximising the difference between them initially, then gradually decreasing.
The positive stimulus should be salient and the negative stimulus should be non-salient.

Conditional Stimulus Control

Differential responses are made based on the presence or absence of other stimuli e g passing salt vs passing bread depends on the specific request
Simultaneous identity matching: a sample stimulus presented to evoke a response to an identical comparison stimulus compared to non-identical samples.
Oddity procedure: presents an array of stimuli (one is different), the response being to select the different one.

Equivalence Classes

Shared physical properties determine many stimulus classes
Examples: balls, cars, cats, humans, etc
The actual physical configurations lead to categorization.
Substitution and evoking novel responses in different contexts defines class membership e g toy box, doctor's role.

Stimulus Control Based on Recombination of Stimulus-Response Components

Complex responses can emerge without prior direct experience
Generalized imitation: children learning to imitate behaviours from a model, even without prior training
Recombinative generalization: combining responses from training stimuli in new, novel ways, e.g. push car and drop glass, even if instructions were to do push glass and drop car and not the other way around.

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Description

Explore key concepts related to stimulus control in behavior analysis in this quiz. It covers essential terms and principles, including stimulus generalization, reinforcement, and their relevance to applied behavior analysts. Test your understanding of these critical topics to enhance your knowledge in the field.