CHARLES HUGHES: To this point, I presented some basic tenants of all natural sciences, regardless of the area of study. Now, we take this scientific framework, and talk about the science behind applied behavior analysis, beginning with the domains of behavior analytic science, and its practices or applications. These four domains include behaviorism, experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and the practices that are guided by behavior analysis.

So first, behaviorism is often characterized as the study of the theory and philosophy behind how organisms, including humans, behave. Now the primary activity and goal of this domain, is to develop theories that are overarching. That is, they account for all behavior.

Next, experimental analysis of behavior deals with basic research designed to discover, or clarify, basic principles, behaviors, as well as identify functional relations between behaviors and their controlling variables. As I said, this is often referred to as basic research. All of those rat and pigeon studies that Skinner conducted, were basic research into the principles of reinforcement, punishment, and the effects of different schedules of reinforcement. All of which you'll be learning about in much greater detail.

The domain of applied behavior analysis includes the application of behavioral principles, to actual behavioral problems. For example, ABA might look at the effects of certain types of reinforcers on student behavior. Relatedly, in the domain of the practice guided by ABA, this is where you begin to focus and develop and validate practices, to help people change their behaviors in ways that improve their lives. Now that is probably what most of you folks are interested in, and we will get into these practices later in these courses. But first, we want you to have a good foundational understanding of the science and the principles that are behind the practices.

To back up just a bit, one of the most famous examples of a discovery that came from basic research was by Skinner, as he attempted to discover and clarify operant behavior principles. In this case, the three term contingency was used as a basic unit of analysis of behavior, and the behavior can be explained by both antecedent and consequence stimuli. That is, Skinner began to look at the impact of both antecedent and consequence stimuli on behavior, and we're going to be talking about this a lot more later on in the presentation.

Alright, so let's move to talking about the philosophy of behaviorism, and what it is. But I want to start with what it is not, rather than what it is. And what it is not, is known as or referred to, as mentalism. By now you've probably figured out that ABA is about behavior, and the unit of focus is observable behavior. And that behavior is affected by environmental events or stimuli. Now this puts behaviorism at odds with other psychological approaches for explaining human behavior, many of which are characterized by mentalism.

Now in mentalistic approaches, it is assumed that some mental dimension exists, and these mental dimensions cause, initiate, or mediate a person's behavior. So when you hear explanations of behavior such as, well I threw the glass against the wall because I was upset, thus, my mental state of upsettedness, caused me to throw the glass. Because these mental dimensions cannot be observed or clearly defined, they are often referred to as explanetary fictions-- excuse me, explanatory fictions. Or as Julie Vargas states, "explanatory fictions are explanations that do not explain." They are also referred to as circular explanations. Now these statements that look like explanations, but in which the cause is basically a restatement of the behavior to be explained. Quoting Vargas again, "The mentalistic and circular statement, Jenny reads well because she has high reading aptitude is the same as saying, Jenny reads well because she reads well."

So another example of a circular explanatory fiction would be saying, the student became hostile because of an aggressive attitude towards authority figures. Well how do you know he has an aggressive attitude? Well because he was hostile. Well why was a hostile? Because he had an aggressive attitude. So around and around in circles we go.

So mentalistic approaches use explanatory fictions, whereby they attribute behavior to hypothetical constructs such as aptitude, motivation, self-esteem, attitudes, and so on. Now the use of such fictions, hinder looking at the environmental stimuli that can be objectively observed. And through controlled experimentation, functional relationships between the behavior and the stimuli, can be established.

Moving back from mentalism to behaviorism, there are two basic types of behaviorism. One is called methodological, and the other is called radical. Methodological behaviorists pretty much discount any events that cannot be defined by objective assessment. That is, if something cannot be directly observed, it doesn't count. They acknowledge that mental events such as thinking occur, but don't use them in the analysis of behavior.

Radical behaviorists, on the other hand, do consider these private events in behavior analysis. Skinner was one of the first behaviorists to acknowledge that thoughts and feelings are behavior, and only differ from public behaviors, or observable behaviors, by the lack of accessibility to them. Now however with new technology, this accessibility is changing, and we'll talk about that more as we get through the course. Basically, radical behaviorism is the broadest and most comprehensive form of behaviorism, and thus is a more encompassing theory than those used by methodological behaviorists.

Now I'm going to wrap up the discussion on science and ABA, by talking about the defining characteristics of ABA. And when we finish with this, we're going to start into the basic concepts and underlying principles of behavior. As I mentioned before, ABA is the domain that focuses on the application of behavioral principles. And this application of a behavioral intervention, which is also called the independent variable, has a positive and practical impact on individuals day-to-day life.

Next, and not terribly surprising, ABA is behavior. That is, changing behavior, is the focus of the intervention. Now the behavior to be changed, is referred to as the dependent variable, and we'll be using these terms later on more often. So the dependent variable must be observable, and thus measurable. Obviously, if you can't observe and measure the behavior, you're not going to know whether it has changed or not.

Now a quick note here about what behavior is. We will be looking very closely about the definition and characteristics of behavior later in this lesson. But for now it is important to know that behavior is essentially an observable movement by an organism, and then it has some impact on the external environment. And that movement, must be clearly described in ways that make it observable and measurable. So let's see a specific description might be something like, the purpose of the intervention is to reduce aggression. Which doesn't really get specific. A more specific description might be, the purpose of the intervention is to reduce the number of times a student hits a peer. Much more precise.

Analytical, is when the experimenter has demonstrated control of variables in ways that allow us to determine a functional relationship, that is, a functional relationship between manipulated events. That is the intervention or independent variable, such as presenting a reinforcing stimulus contingent upon a target behavior occurring, and a reliable change in that behavior, or what we call the dependent variable.

In this case, we are trying to control variables in ways that will allow us, hopefully, to say that the target behavior increases when, and only when, contingent reinforcement is used. So this type of controlled analysis allows us to demonstrate that the behavior only changes when the intervention occurs. This analysis allows us to eliminate the possibility, or likelihood, that other variables are impacting changes in the behavior. Now these other variables are referred to as threats to internal validity. Now you will be learning much more about how controlling variables and establishing functional relationships. You'll be hearing about them much later in the course, when you learn about different types of research designs that are used in ABA.

Technological, in the case of ABA, is referring to describing what was done in an experiment or behavior change plan, and that that description is in a sufficient enough detail, so that other professionals can replicate the procedures used. So basically, technological means that the experimenter has described exactly what they're doing, so that other people can replicate that study.

ABA interventions should always be based on, and flow from, the basic principles of behavior such as reinforcement, punishment, and so on. These principles, and how they link together, will be covered in more detail in this and later sessions. To be truly effective, behavioral interventions must improve behavior, and the improvement needs to be at a sufficient level to have a significant impact on the person's life.

Now often in educational research we say that the intervention had a statistically significant impact, but what we really want is that the impact has some social significance, and actually impacts the student's life. As an educational researcher, if my intervention made an improvement, but the improvement was insufficient for the student to be successful in the classroom, well one might fairly ask the question, so what?

Finally, we want the change in behavior to maintain over time, to occur in other environments, or students to use their new skill with other related behaviors. If this occurs, we can say there was generalization. If generality of the target behavior does not occur, it really minimizes the effectiveness of the intervention. Most behaviors, but not all, are not truly functional unless they are maintained and used in other environments. So how many times have you heard, or said yourself, my kids can do this in my classroom, but they can't do it in other classrooms. Or something like, my kids can do this behavior at school, but they don't do it at home. And this is a problem in generality. Later on in this course series, we'll be talking in great detail about how to promote generality of behavior change.

So to wrap this segment up, here is a definition of ABA that you will find in your course textbook. I have underlined some keywords that are at the essence of this definition, and any other definition of ABA. First and foremost, it is a science and all that implies.

It assumes that there are basic principles that impact all of human behavior, and that ABA is the systematic application of those principles, and they are applied for the purpose of providing changes that are significant to the client. And finally, that we use experimentation in ways that clearly identify which variables are functionally related to the desired impact or outcome.

OK, so this is a good time to take a break from the lecture and complete another self-evaluation activity, to see how well you remember and understand the content contained in this segment. So again, follow the directions at the bottom of the screen, and take a short quiz and read the feedback. When you've done this and feel ready for some more exciting lecture, start the video again and we'll start talking about the basic vocabulary and principles of behavior and behavior analysis.