Behaviour Analysis Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms BCBAs and RBTs actually use.
A
- ABC Data
- Observational data recording the Antecedent, Behaviour, and Consequence for specific incidents.
- Abolishing Operation (AO)
- A type of MO that decreases the effectiveness of a reinforcer.
- Antecedent Intervention
- Strategies implemented before a behaviour occurs to alter the environment and prevent the behaviour.
B
- Baseline
- A stable measure of a behaviour before any intervention is introduced.
- Behaviour Intervention Plan (BIP)
- A formal, individualized document outlining proactive and reactive strategies to address challenging behaviour.
- Behaviour Support Plan (BSP)
- Often synonymous with a BIP, focusing broadly on systemic and environmental supports to improve quality of life.
- Behavioural Skills Training (BST)
- A structured staff or caregiver training method using instructions, modelling, rehearsal, and feedback.
- Bounce
- The day-to-day variability or scatter in a behaviour's performance rate.
C
- Celeration
- A measure of how learning changes over time; specifically, the change in rate of a behaviour across days or weeks.
- Chaining
- A teaching method for multi-step skills where individual steps are linked together into a complete behaviour chain.
- Conditioned Reinforcer
- A stimulus that has acquired reinforcing value through repeated pairing with an already-effective reinforcer.
D
- Differential Reinforcement (DRA / DRI / DRO)
- Reinforcing a specific, desired behaviour while withholding reinforcement for an undesired behaviour.
- Direct Assessment
- Observing and recording a behaviour as it happens in real-time.
- Discriminative Stimulus (SD)
- An environmental stimulus that cues the availability of reinforcement for a specific behaviour.
- Duration
- The total amount of time a behaviour lasts from beginning to end.
E
- Errorless Learning
- An instructional method that provides immediate prompting to ensure the learner always responds correctly.
- Escape Extinction
- Preventing a learner from escaping a demand as a consequence of challenging behaviour.
- Establishing Operation (EO)
- A type of MO that increases the effectiveness of a reinforcer.
- Extinction
- The discontinuation of reinforcement for a previously reinforced behaviour, leading to its decrease.
- Extinction Burst
- A temporary increase in the frequency, duration, or intensity of a behaviour when extinction is first implemented.
F
- Fluency
- Performing a skill with both high accuracy and high speed.
- Frequency
- The simple count of how many times a specific behaviour occurs.
- Function of Behaviour
- The purpose a behaviour serves for the person — what it reliably gets them or gets them out of. The four commonly assessed functions are attention, escape, access to tangibles, and sensory/automatic.
- Functional Analysis (FA)
- An experimental assessment procedure that systematically manipulates antecedents and consequences to isolate the maintaining function of a behaviour.
- Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA)
- A systematic process for determining the underlying purpose or 'function' of a challenging behaviour.
- Functional Communication Training (FCT)
- Teaching an appropriate communication skill to replace a challenging behaviour that serves the same purpose.
G
- Generalisation
- The occurrence of a learned behaviour in settings, with people, or under conditions different from where it was taught.
- Group Contingency
- A reinforcement arrangement in which consequences for a group depend on the behaviour of some or all of its members — the mechanism behind the Good Behaviour Game.
I
- Indirect Assessment
- Gathering information about a behaviour without directly observing it, usually through interviews or rating scales.
- Inter-Response Time (IRT)
- The amount of time between the end of one instance of a behaviour and the start of the next.
- Interobserver Agreement (IOA)
- A measure of how consistently two independent observers record the same behaviour.
- Intraverbal
- A conversational response where what is said is based on what someone else just said.
L
- Latency
- The time between an instruction or stimulus and the start of a behaviour.
M
- Maintenance
- The persistence of a learned behaviour over time after active teaching has ended.
- Mand
- A request for something, motivated by what the speaker wants or needs.
- Motivating Operation (MO)
- An environmental variable that temporarily changes the value of a reinforcer and alters the frequency of related behaviours.
N
- Non-Contingent Reinforcement (NCR)
- Delivering a maintaining reinforcer on a schedule independent of the learner's behaviour.
O
- Operational Definition
- A clear, objective, and measurable description of a target behaviour.
P
- Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
- A school-wide, tiered framework for organising behaviour support — universal expectations for everyone, targeted help for some, and individualised plans for a few.
- Precision Teaching
- A system for defining instructional targets and monitoring daily performance on a Standard Celeration Chart.
- Preference Assessment
- A structured process to determine what items or activities an individual highly prefers.
- Premack Principle
- The principle that access to a high-probability behaviour can reinforce the performance of a low-probability behaviour.
- Prompt Fading
- The systematic and gradual removal of assistance used to teach a skill.
- Punishment
- A consequence that follows a behaviour and decreases the future frequency of that behaviour.
R
- Rate
- The number of times a behaviour occurs within a specific time period (e.g., responses per minute).
- Reinforcement
- A consequence that follows a behaviour and increases the future frequency of that behaviour.
- Response Effort
- The physical or cognitive cost required to perform a behaviour.
S
- SAFMEDS
- Say All Fast, Minute Every Day Shuffled - a flashcard method for building fluency.
- Scatterplot
- A data collection tool that records when behaviours occur to identify temporal patterns in a learner's day.
- Schedules of Reinforcement
- The rules detailing how and when a behaviour will be reinforced.
- Self-Monitoring
- A learner independently observing and recording their own behaviour.
- Setting Event
- A condition or event that makes a behaviour more or less likely by altering the value of consequences.
- Shaping
- Reinforcing successive approximations of a target behaviour until the full behaviour is achieved.
- Social Validity
- The degree to which goals, procedures, and outcomes of an intervention are acceptable and meaningful to the people involved.
- Standard Celeration Chart
- A standardized logarithmic graph used in precision teaching to track learning changes over time.
- Stimulus Control
- When a behaviour occurs more often in the presence of a specific stimulus than in its absence.
- Stimulus Generalisation
- When a behaviour learned in one context occurs in new settings, with new people, or in the presence of new stimuli.
- Successive Approximations
- The intermediate steps toward a target behaviour that are reinforced during shaping.
T
- Tact
- A verbal operant where the speaker names or describes something they perceive in the environment - controlled by what is seen, heard, or experienced rather than by what the speaker wants.
- Task Analysis
- Breaking a complex skill into a sequence of smaller, teachable steps.
- Timing Floor
- The lowest possible measured rate for a behaviour based on the observation period duration.
- Token Economy
- A system where learners earn tokens for target behaviours that are later exchanged for preferred items or activities.
V
- Verbal Operant
- A category of communication behaviour defined by what controls it and what consequence it produces.
- Visual Schedule
- A sequence of pictures, symbols, or words showing a student what is happening now and what comes next, reducing the uncertainty that drives many transition behaviours.