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accidental property

a characteristic of an idea or entity that is not essential to its nature or existence. For example, being musical is an accidental property of human beings, whereas being mortal is an essential property.

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Psychology term of the day

February 17th 2025

chaining

chaining

n. an operant conditioning technique in which a complex behavioral sequence is learned. Animals, both human and nonhuman, can be taught to perform relatively elaborate sequences of activities by this method, which makes primary reinforcement contingent on the final response in the series. In backward chaining, the final response is taught first. Once established, the stimulus for that response becomes a conditioned reinforcer that is used to reinforce the next-to-last response in the chain; this stimulus is then used to reinforce another response. The chain is thus taught backward, one response at a time. In forward chaining, the chain is taught by reinforcing the first step in the sequence, then the second, and so on until the entire sequence is learned. Also called behavior chaining.