PSYC 460 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Contiguity, Dependent And Independent Variables, Lightning

• School: Xavier University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 460
• Professor: Dulaney

Document Summary

I. e. food = stimulus that elicits response of salivation. I. e. person saying hello, rat pushing a lever. I. e. dreaming, feeling anxious, thinking about a chess move. Behaviorists interested in functional relationships between changes in environmental events and changes in behavior. Can be thought of as a cause-and-effect relationship. Behavioral research often compares experimental groups that have some sort of manipulation/treatment and control groups that have no manipulation/treatment. Single-subject designs = experiments that require one or a few subjects. Variable = a characteristic of a person, place, or thing that can change over time or from one situation to another. Independent variable = the aspect of an experiment that is made to systematically vary across different conditions in the experiment; what is manipulated in an experiment. Dependent variable = the aspect of an experiment that is allowed to vary freely to see if it is affected by changes in the independent variable; what is measured in an experiment.