3 levels of scientific Understanding
The three levels of scientific understanding
Description, Prediction, and Control
These are the 5 philosophical assumptions
DEPPS
Determinism
Empiricism
Parsimony
Pragmatism
Selectionism
Radical behaviorism asks that we, as behaviorists, look at human behavior as:
What people do
The things that people do
The 3 main positions of the Behavioral dimension of ABA.
1. Target the behavior in need of improvement
2. behavior must be measurable, including any use of language that's behavioral (not a description of feelings)
3. Must ask whose behavior has changed (the subject's or observer's). Reliability of observers must be considered.
Rule-governed behavior is:
- a verbal description of a behavioral contingency
- Learning the rules: a way that your behavior comes under the control of consequences that are too delayed to influence your behavior directly
- Some behavior is under the control of a rule (not contingency/SR)
The BACB's definition of ABA
A science based on the use of learning principles to improve socially important behavior.
Focuses on environmental influences on behavior, assessment-based intervention, and data-based decision making.
Parsimony- reliance on the simplest theory requiring the fewest assumptions before considering more complex explanations, you must 1st rule out simple and logical explanations
Pragmatism: A practical approach to problems in which truth is found in the process of verification
Radical Behaviorism includes:
Private events into the understanding of behavior, not JUST observable behavior
Conceptually Systematic must be derived of these 3 things:
Contingency-shaped behavior is:
When a behavior is directly controlled by a contingency, not rules
A behavioral contingency is the occasion for a response (Sd) > the response > the outcome of the response
The consequence must occur with 0-30 seconds following the response
"Timothy manded to a peer 5x today, and each time he did, the peer responded" is an example of this scientific level of understanding
Description
Determinism states the following:
The world is an orderly, predictable, and lawful place, where everything is cause and effect. If/then conditions.
Assumption that everything happens because of other events.
Ontogency is:
Selection by consequences operates during the lifetime of the individual.
Operant selection by consequences requires variation in behavior. Behaviors that result in the best outcomes are selected and survive.
Key intention of behaviorism
Understanding what people do through objective investigation
When not to use extinction
When a behavior can cause harm (injury to self, others, or property)
Can't prevent reinforcement from occurring
Need behavior to decrease quickly
"Headaches are remedied by pain medicine" is an example of this scientific level of understanding
Control
3rd highest level of scientific understanding. A functional relation is established when science confirms what has been predicted: 1 event (IV) results in a change in another event (DV), and this change can only be attributable to the independent variable.
Selectionism states the following:
Selection by consequences
- anything that evolves does so due to the consequence of behavior
- Behaviors that result in positive consequences survive and produce more sophisticated repertoires
- Evolution is the product of functional selection
Phylogeny is:
Methodological behaviorism:
Not concerned with private events
Only looks at publicly observable events in their analysis of behavior
A limited hold is defined by:
A component that can be added to a schedule of reinforcement limiting access to reinforcement for correct responses that occur within a specific and fixed time
"Before Christmas, stores are busier" is an example of this level of scientific understanding
Prediction (AKA: Correlation; Covariation)
2nd level of scientific understanding
When repeat observations show that there is a consistent relationship between the occurrence of 2 events. Used to predict the probability of 1 event occurring when the other event occurs. Prediction does NOT equal cause.
Empiricism states the following:
- The act of objective observation and measurement
- Requires objective quantification and detailed description of events
- Facts derived from experiments
- Evidence based
Radical behaviorism is based on:
1. Darwinian selectionism (AKA; selection by consequences): 3-term contingency with regard to species and survival
2. Pragmatism (AB-because-of-C philosophy)
Stresses that the meaning of an idea lies in its observable practical consequences, rather than in theory
the process of identifying and categorizing the observed environmental variables that precede and follow the behavior of interest falls under this level of scientific understanding:
Description
The 7 types of compound schedules of reinforcement
CMCMTAC
C- concurrent
m- multiple
c- chained
m- mixed
t- tandem
a- alternative
c-conjunctive