ABA is the application of behavioral principles established through basic research. PSY5300 connects students to that basic science — the laboratory experiments with pigeons and rats that established the laws of reinforcement, punishment, stimulus control, and choice that every ABA practitioner uses daily. Understanding where these principles came from, and the precision with which they were established, deepens a practitioner's understanding of why they work and when they might not.
Respondent (classical) conditioning
Ivan Pavlov's classic experiments with dogs (late 19th–early 20th century) established respondent conditioning: a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) presented repeatedly before an unconditioned stimulus (US) that elicits an unconditioned response (UR) eventually comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR) on its own. Key phenomena include: acquisition (CS-US pairings producing the CR); extinction (CS without US causing CR to decrease); spontaneous recovery (CR returning after a rest period following extinction); stimulus generalization (organisms respond to stimuli similar to the CS); and higher-order (second-order) conditioning (a new CS acquires conditioning through pairing with the original CS, not the US). In clinical application, respondent conditioning underlies many anxiety disorders (phobias as conditioned fear responses) and their treatment (exposure therapy as extinction of conditioned fear).
Operant conditioning: Skinner's analysis
Thorndike's law of effect (1898) — responses followed by satisfying consequences are stamped in; responses followed by unsatisfying consequences are stamped out — was the precursor to Skinner's more precise operant analysis. Skinner's key methodological contribution was the operant chamber (Skinner box) — a controlled environment allowing precise, automated measurement of response rate as the primary dependent variable. This allowed discovery of complex schedule effects that would have been impossible to detect in naturalistic or trial-based methods.
Schedules of reinforcement
Simple reinforcement schedules and their characteristic response patterns
- Continuous reinforcement (CRF): Every response is reinforced. Produces rapid acquisition but rapid extinction; used during initial skill acquisition.
- Fixed ratio (FR): Reinforcement after every nth response. Produces high, steady response rates with a post-reinforcement pause (PRP) after each reinforcer delivery. FR-1 = CRF; higher FR values produce longer PRPs and more burst-like responding.
- Variable ratio (VR): Reinforcement after a variable number of responses averaging n. Produces the highest, most consistent response rates with minimal PRP — the slot machine schedule. Most resistant to extinction of any simple schedule.
- Fixed interval (FI): First response after a fixed time period is reinforced. Produces the characteristic FI scallop — very little responding early in the interval, accelerating responding as the interval end approaches. Post-reinforcement pause is long relative to the interval length.
- Variable interval (VI): Reinforcement for the first response after a variable time averaging n. Produces low, steady response rates (unlike VR's high rates — because rapid responding doesn't speed up reinforcement delivery). Highly resistant to extinction. Email checking is a real-world VI example.
The matching law
Richard Herrnstein's matching law (1961, 1970) describes choice behavior in concurrent schedules of reinforcement. In a concurrent VI VI schedule (two simultaneously available VI schedules), organisms distribute their responding in proportion to the relative rate of reinforcement obtained from each alternative. Herrnstein's equation: B₁/(B₁+B₂) = R₁/(R₁+R₂), where B = behavior and R = reinforcement. Generalized matching (Baum, 1974) accounts for bias and sensitivity parameters. The matching law has profound implications for ABA: if problem behavior and appropriate behavior are both on the schedule, the matching law predicts that behavior will match the relative reinforcement rate — making differential reinforcement the fundamental intervention strategy, not punishment.
Behavioral economics and choice
Behavioral economics applies economic concepts (demand curves, elasticity, substitution) to the analysis of behavior. In ABA, demand curves describe how consumption of a reinforcer changes as its "price" (response requirement) increases — inelastic demand (maintained consumption despite increasing price) vs. elastic demand (consumption drops sharply as price increases). Essential commodities (food, water) are more inelastic than luxury goods. The concept of substitutability (whether two reinforcers can replace each other) has clinical relevance: if problem behavior provides access to attention and appropriate communication can substitute for attention, teaching the communication response replaces the problem behavior through functional communication training (FCT).
PSY5300 assignments include schedule analysis papers, matching law applications, and research methodology critiques
Our ABA specialists provide precise, research-grounded academic support for experimental analysis of behavior coursework.
Get Help With PSY5300
Schedule of reinforcement analyses, matching law papers, EAB-to-ABA bridge essays, behavioral economics applications.
Place Your OrderView All ServicesRelated courses
Frequently asked questions
The experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) is the basic science of behavioral principles — conducted primarily in controlled laboratory settings with non-human subjects (most notably rats and pigeons) to identify fundamental laws of behavior under precisely controlled conditions. The Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB, founded 1958) is its primary publication outlet. EAB research establishes principles (reinforcement, extinction, schedules, stimulus control) through single-subject experimental methods with a focus on isolating variables and demonstrating reliable functional relationships. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the technology derived from EAB principles, applied to socially significant human behavior problems in real-world settings (classrooms, clinics, homes, workplaces). JABA (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, founded 1968) is ABA's primary publication. The conceptual bridge between EAB and ABA is spelled out in Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) — ABA is "conceptually systematic" (the seventh dimension) when its procedures are demonstrably derived from the principles established by EAB. PSY5300 trains students to read original EAB literature and translate its findings into implications for applied practice — so a practitioner who understands variable ratio schedules knows why social media is addictive, and why a VR reinforcement schedule for appropriate behavior will be more resistant to extinction than an FR or FI schedule.