Behavioral Psychology Quiz

When using shaping it is important to:

• reinforce improvements while punishing inappropriate responses

• hold back the reward until students have mastered the skill

• reinforce every response regardless of correctness

• reward closer and closer approximations to the final skill

Dan O'Leary found the most effective reprimands are:

• soft and private

• loud and public

• written

• frequent

Mr. Castagne tells his class that if they score an 'A' on their first two exams, they will be exempt from the final. This is an example of:

• negative reinforcement

• removal punishment

• presentation punishment

• positive reinforcement

Receiving a paycheck at the end of the work week is an example of:

• negative reinforcement

• positive alternatives

• positive reinforcement

• satiation

Each time Maria fails to do her homework, ten points are deducted from her course points. The procedure being used is:

• extinction

• token economy

• response cost

Which of the following is NOT a situation in which you would want to employ a token economy system

• to encourage students who consistently fail

• to motivate completely uninterested students

• to deal with a class that is out of control

• to reinforce students for high academic achievement

In classical conditioning, the stimulus that automatically provokes a response before conditioning takes place is referred to as the:

• neutral stimulus

• unconditioned stimulus

• contiguous stimulus

• antecedent or cues

Mrs. Severs has a few students who are occasionally disruptive in class, so she tries to praise their positive behaviors. When they have been quiet for a few minutes, she says, 'Good, Joe and Renee.' This is likely to be ineffective because it:

• occurs too infrequently

• does not specify the behavior

• is not individually directed

• reinforces the wrong behavior

Rather than discipline Joan for tapping her pencil on the desk her teacher continues with her lesson as if there were no disruptions and reinforces the students who are sitting quietly. This is an example of:

• response cost

• praise and ignore techniques

• sharp and public reprimands

• the Premack principle

To encourage persistence of response, which of the following schedules of reinforcement is most appropriate?

• fixed interval

• continuous schedules

• variable interval

• fixed ratio