Deck 4: Selecting and Defining Target Behaviors

Question 1

Which of the following is true about a unit of analysis?

A) There is only one unit of analysis per experiment
B) Any phenomenon may have different units of analysis, depending on the focus of the project
C) A unit of analysis is best described in purely physical terms
D) Choosing a unit of analysis is done when data are being analyzed after they are collected

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Katie wants to decrease her behavior of swearing. She arranges a contingency in which she will pay ten dollars to her parents every day that she swears. In this example, what is the unit of analysis?

A) Katie's swearing behavior
B) How much money Katie pays her parents
C) Katie's rate of swearing
D) How many times Katie swears

Answer 2

A

Question 3

A track coach records how long (in seconds) it takes a sprinter to run 100 meters. In this example, what is the unit of measurement?

A) The number of seconds it takes to run 100 meters
B) The sprinter's running behavior
C) 100 meters
D) The track coach's recording of the time

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Jesslyn is a 5-year-old little girl who is just learning how to read. She is working with her teacher on letter-sound correspondences, blending sounds, sounding out words, and saying them at a normal pace. In this example, what is the response class?

A) The number of correct pronunciations made by Jesslyn
B) Jesslyn saying a letter-sound correspondence
C) Jesslyn's reading behavior
D) The number of trials the teacher conducts with Jesslyn

Question 5

A response class is a meaningful grouping of responses that

A) share the same topographical features
B) occur together in space and time
C) have the same kind of outcomes that influence them
D) share the same measurement calculations

Question 6

All definitions of behavior are based on:

A) its form
B) its impact on the environment
C) how often it occurs
D) its appearance or its function

Question 7

Your high school baseball coach is working with you on becoming a better hitter. He decides to keep track of how many "good swings" you make during a game. He defines a "good swing" as a swing that results in you getting on base. In this example, the coach is using what kind of definition?

A) Operational
B) Topographical
C) Experimental
D) Functional

Question 8

You are working with a young child with autism to teaching him how to request a glass of water. You define the child's requesting-water behavior as any time the child says "Water, please." In this example, what kind of definition is being used?

A) Functional
B) Experimental
C) Topographical
D) Operational

Question 9

Which of the following must be considered when selecting a response class that meets the general needs of the experiment?

A) How sensitive the response class is to extraneous factors
B) Is the study that is being conducted explanatory or demonstration research
C) Will you be examining respondent or operant behavior
D) Will the study focus on group behavior or individual behavior

Question 10

The first step in developing a functional definition is:

A) to determine what the behavior looks like
B) to interview individuals who have seen the target behavior occur in a natural setting
C) to write and try out a preliminary definition
D) to consider the everyday context of the behavior

Question 11

Which of the following is true about a movement cycle?

A) Movement cycles are only meaningful for behavior with long durations
B) The underlying assumption is that behavior cannot occur when already occurring
C) The cycle marks the beginning of one behavior and the start of another
D) It describes the antecedent-behavior-consequence cycle of operant behavior

Question 12

How are practitioners in a different situation than researchers when selecting target behaviors?

A) They have endless choices of behaviors to choose from
B) Their selected behavior must have clinical significance
C) They are limited by what they have the ability to measure
D) They can only choose behaviors that are likely to be sensitive to the intervention

Question 13

A meaningful behavior definition depends on _______.

A) what features of behavior are included and nature of the treatment and control conditions
B) the focus of the question and nature of the treatment and control conditions
C) what features of behavior are included, the focus of the question, and the nature of the treatment and control conditions
D) the nature of the treatment and control conditions

Question 14

All of the following are ways of adding a temporal requirement to a response class definition, except:

A) add a requirement for the number of times that a behavior must occur within a specific time period
B) add a requirement for the latency between particular events and the target response
C) specify the amount of time that can or must occur between responses
D) add a minimum or maximum time amount for completing a response

Question 15

Billy and his older brother, Alex, get into an argument over who is going to get to play the video game next. Alex becomes angry at Billy and starts yelling and punching him, leaving bruises on Billy's arm. In this example, what is the response product?

A) Alex's yelling
B) The video game
C) The argument between Billy and Alex
D) The bruises on Billy's arm

Question 16

Response products can be a useful way of specifying a response class. However, there are three possible problems that can complicate interpreting the resulting data, including:

A) determining authorship, no contact with the topography of the response, assuming one-to-one correspondence
B) determining authorship, assuming one-to-one correspondence, they are transitory in duration
C) determining authorship, they are transitory in duration, no contact with the topography of the response
D) determining authorship, they are transitory in duration, assuming one-to-one correspondence

Question 17

A teacher implements a classroom management plan and it is followed by an increase in sound level data from students in second grade. In this example, how are the students contributing to some "group" outcome?

A) In a collective, equivalent, and interactive fashion
B) In a collective, equivalent, and non-interactive fashion
C) In a collective and non-equivalent fashion.
D) In a non-collective, equivalent, and non-interactive fashion

Question 18

What risk does the researcher need to be concerned with if their response class is too "large?"

A) It may become overly sensitive to extraneous factors
B) It may prevent the discovery of important sources of variability
C) It may not be sensitive enough to the dependent variable
D) It may display variability whose determinants are not really relevant for the experimental question

Question 19

Developing a topographical definition involves carefully describing:

A) the everyday context of the behavior of interest
B) the amount of time that can or must occur between successive responses
C) the antecedents and consequences present in the environment
D) the limits of form that responses must show in order to be measured

Question 20

When might response product definitions be helpful?

A) When real time observation may not be feasible
B) When the investigator is using a topographical response class definition
C) When measuring group behavior
D) When you are interested in the time required to complete a response

Question 21

What is a response class and why is it problematic to have a definition that comingles responses of different classes?

Question 22

Explain what a functional definition of behavior is. Why is this approach to defining behavior important for researchers?

Question 23

Sue is a behavior analyst practitioner and she is working on a definition for pencil-breaking behavior for one of her clients. How would a functional versus a topographical definition differ for pencil-breaking?

Question 24

What is the underlying assumption of a movement cycle and why is that useful for defining a target behavior?

Question 25

What are the two ways of defining behavior and when would it be appropriate to combine features of both into a single definition?

Question 26

Explain the problem of determining the authorship of responses when using a response product definition.

Question 27

What are the problems with defining a response class in terms of "not doing something?"

Question 28

What makes a definition of behavior meaningful?

Question 29

When it comes to selecting target behaviors, how are practitioners often in a different situation than researchers?

Question 30

List the steps involved in developing a functional definition of behavior.

Question 31

List the three ways a temporal requirement can be added to a response class definition.

Question 32

What are three ways of defining a response class that involves the behavior of different individuals in some combined form?

Question 33

Explain how a response class can be too large or too small and what problems can result.

Question 34

Explain three ways in which the sensitivity of a response class can be limited.

Question 35

What are the problems with attaching colloquial labels to response classes?

Question 36

Describe three steps that can help encourage a clear understanding of the nature of the defined response class.

Question 37

Describe three objectives that should guide the selection of target response classes.

Question 38

Describe at least three of the six steps for defining a target behavior.

Question 39

What is an operational definition and how necessary are they for directly studying behavior?

Question 40

Michael is a researcher interested in studying how providing activity choices can affect responding. When selecting a target behavior to define, what three considerations should Michael consider?