CHARLES HUGHES: OK, so let's get very basic and define what behavior means to the applied behavior analyst. Behavior is everything that organisms do. So behavior is everything that organisms do.

Behavior is the movement of an organism and its parts. Behavior is the interaction of the muscles and the glands of a living organism and the environment. So behavior is the movement of an organism or its parts. Behavior is the interaction of the muscles and the glands of a living organism and the environment.

B.F. Skinner called behavior "the detectable displacement in space through time of some part of the organism that results in some measurable change in the environment." One of Skinner's students, Ogden Lindsley, came up with the dead man's test to illustrate how you know something is a behavior or not. So if a dead man can do it, it isn't a behavior. If a dead man can't do it, it probably is behavior.

So bottom line here is a behavior has to be an interaction between a living organism and its environment. There has to be some movement initiated by the organism. Now, in your textbook, it points out that being blown over by a strong gust of wind, while involving movement, is not a behavior, because a dead man can be blown over, also.

So up next, I'll be talking about behavior in terms of responses, how we can classify those responses, and different ways we can measure these responses. So a response is a specific instance of behavior. So again, a response is a single instance of behavior. A response is a single instance of behavior.

A response cycle refers to the beginning, middle, and end of a response. So a response cycle refers to the beginning, middle, and end of a response.

Now, let me give you an example of a response cycle. Because I'm always doing stupid things, like Homer Simpson, I'm always doing this-- Doh! Doh! Now, let's break this response cycle down. So I have a beginning, a middle, and end of that particular response or behavior.

So in the beginning of the cycle is when I move my arm upwards. The middle of the cycle occurs when I make contact with my forehead. And the end is when my arm moves back down and stops. Now, you will see why it is important to identify the beginning and end of a response cycle later. But I wanted to introduce that definition to you.

Now I want to introduce two ways to classify behaviors-- topographically and functionally. Topography-- topography refers to the physical nature of responses. That is the exact form, configuration, or shape of the response; the appearance of the response; the force involved; and the actual movement. That's a mouthful. So topography refers to the physical nature of responses. That is the exact form, configuration, or shape of the response; the appearance of the response; the force involved; and the actual movement.

A topographical response class is a group of two or more responses that share a common form. So a topographical response class is a group of two or more responses that share a common form. Now, here's an example of a topographical response class. So here it is.

So I could do this on a bell in a hotel lobby. I could do it on a light switch to turn off the light. And in the old days, I could have sent a telegraph by pressing my finger on a telegraph key. Now, the behaviors look alike, but they do not perform the same function.

Now, I've had created some animations for you to illustrate some of these basic principles. So what I want you to do now is to go to the animation and take a look at it. And when you get back, I want to just say a couple things about this. This illustration is designed to help demonstrate a topographical response class.

OK, hopefully you enjoyed that little animation, and you saw that we had a girl hitting a ball and that, in the next scene, a man was chopping with an ax. And hopefully what you saw was that they were both using the same arm motion, but there is a different outcome or function of their behavior. So that illustrates what a topographical response class is, so that you have a behavior that looks or takes the same form, but has a different function.

Now, on the other hand, a functional response class is the inverse of topographical response class. And as we'll see later, it is more germane to ABA. So a function refers to the effect of a response in the environment. So a function refers to the effect of a response in the environment.

A functional response class is a group of two for more topographically different-- topographically graphically different responses that have the same effect on the environment, usually producing a specific class of reinforcers. Again, we have a mouthful here. So a functional response class is a group of two or more topographically different responses that have the same effect on the environment, usually producing a specific class of reinforcers.

[VIDEO PLAYBACK]

-Mama, cookie.

-Here you go, little one. Here's your cookie.

-[CRYING]

-Here you go, little one. Here's your cookie.

[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]

PROFESSOR: So this animation hopefully illustrated a functional response class. So we had two behaviors from the baby that looked different, but had the same outcome. So in the first scene, the baby came in and pointed to the cookie and says, "cookie." And the outcome or effect is the mother hands the cookie to the baby.

The second one, which is probably more realistic, is that the baby came in and pointed and then started whining and crying about that. But the mother knew what the baby wanted and gave it to him. So the outcome was the same, but the behaviors looked different. And that is essentially what a functional response class is.

So now we're going to take another short break and do another self-evaluation activity. And see you when you come back.