SUGGESTED FRENCH TRANSLATIONS OF EXPRESSIONSIN THE FIELD OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

MARC RICHELLE

UNIVERSITt DE LItGE

(A word already accepted in French psychological usage is preceded by an asterisk. Tofacilitate translation and reading of foreign literature, the French equivalent of the formclosest to the English term is used whenever acceptable. When French has no one-wordequivalent, the English term is kept, as is usual in other scientific vocabularies. When a wordis difficult to translate into French because it would sound, say, poetic or ridiculous in ascientific context, an abstract word or expression is used instead. English abbreviations aremaintained so that experimental reports can be easily read in either language.)

Aaversive stimulusavoidance behavior

avoidance response

Cchained responseschained schedulecompensatory rateconditioned reinforcer

conditioned stimulusconditioned suppression

conditioningcontingencycontinuous reinforcementcontrolcumulative curve

Ddeprivationdeviationdifferential rate reinforcementdifferential reinforcement of

high ratesdifferential reinforcement of

low ratesdifferentiationdiscriminationdiscriminative stimulus

stimulus aversifcomportement d'evitement

Pieron-Vocabulaire de la PsychologiePUF, 1951 -does not give avoidancetraining; evitement has been used byBelanger, Canad. J. Psychol., 1958, 12,p. 17/)

conduite-or reponse-d'vitement

reponses en chaineprogramme en chainedebit compensatoire*renforcement-or agent renforcant-

conditionnel [or conditionne]*stimulus conditionnel [or conditionne]suppression conditionnelle [or

conditionnee]*conditionnementcontingencerenforcement continu

*contr6lecourbe cumulative

*deprivation*deviation*renforcement diff6rentiel de debit*renforcement differentiel des debits

elevesrenforcement differentiel des debits

faibles*differentiation*discriminationstimulus discriminatif

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FRENCH TRANSLA TIONS

Eescape behavior

escape responseextinction

Ffood magazine

Ggeneralizationgradient

Iincidental reinforcementintermittent reinforcementinterresponse time

Lleverlimited hold

Mmagazinemanipulandummediating behavior

Nnegative reinforcer

0operant

operant conditioningover-all rate

ppausepercentage reinforcementperformancepre-aversive stimulusprobability of responseprobe

comportement d'echappement [ord'evasion]. See comment on avoidance.

conduite d'echappement [or d'evasion*extinction

magasin a nourriture

*generalisationgradient

renforcement fortuitrenforcement intermittentintervalle inter-reponse

levier; barrehold temporaire [or limite]

magasinmanipulateurcomportement intercalaire

renforcement negatif

operant (The present participle ofoperer-to operate-is operant.The English spelling- without anaccent-is here used to designate atechnical term.)

conditionnement operantdebit general

pausepourcentage de renforcement*performancestimulus pre-aversifprobabilite de reponsetest sondage, sondage or coup de sonde

(test alone would suffice but is perhapsworth savingfor thefield ofappliedpsychology.)

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FRENCH TRANSLA TIONS

processprogramming

processusprogramming

(English present participles arecommonly borrowed by French: cf.training, learning. Programming ispreferable to a French neologism suchas programmation.

1) agent punitif2) punition [or chatiment]

punishment

Rrate of respondingrecordrecorderreinforcementreinforcerrespondent (adj.)response

Sscallop (as in FI)

schedule (of reinforcement)schedules:

alternativechainedconcurrentconjunctivefixed-intervalfixed-ratiointerlockingintermittentinterpolatedmixedmultipletandemvariable intervalvariable ratio

spontaneous recoverystimulusstrength of responsesuperstitious behavior

Ttime out

debit de reponse*enregistrement*enregistreur*renforcementagent renforeantPavlovien

*reponse

segment [de courbe] accelere; whenrepeated, segments acceleres successifsor reguliers.

programme (de renforcement)programme: (Probably preferable to

schedule, which is not French.)alternatifen chainesimultaneconjonctifa intervalle constanta proportions constantesentrecroiseintermittentinterpolemelangemultipletandema intervalle variablea proportions variables

restauration spontanee*stimuluspotentiel de reponseconduite superstitieuse

time out

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170

U

unconditioned stimulus

w

warm-up

FRENCH TRANSLATIONS

*stimulus inconditionnel [or incon-ditionne]

*mise en train