WorksheetsDP 4 - Operant Conditioning
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 22mins
As a result of learning and new experiences, the brain modifies its neural pathways by:
increasing the number of neurons.
decreasing the number of neurons.
changing the structure of the axons within neurons.
changing the strength of the synaptic connections between neurons.
In operant conditioning an important connection forms between the
unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus.
stimulus and whatever occurs before it.
unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response.
behaviour and the reinforcement that follows it.
Nguyen’s dog, Yap, barks whenever he sees a cat. Nguyen yells at the dog.
Nguyen is hoping to change the dog’s behaviour through applying
punishment.
negative reinforcement.
positive reinforcement.
observational learning.
When Jason completes his homework without his teacher’s nagging, his Saturday detention is removed.
This is an example of
positive reinforcement.
negative reinforcement.
punishment.
response cost reinforcement.
Which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
grounding a teenager for misbehaving
giving a student extra credit for class participation
allowing a student to take an extra examination to gain a pass in the subject
making a child sit in the corner until they say 'I am sorry'.
Skinner demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat responses that are followed by favourable consequences.
Skinner termed these favourable consequences
unconditioned stimuli.
rewards.
reinforcements.
learning sets.
The Skinner box is
commonly known as the Puzzle Box.
a chamber in which dogs are taught to salivate at the sound of a bell.
a chamber in which animal responses can be recorded and the consequences can be systematically controlled.
a cage in which animals transfer information from previous learning when solving a new problem.
Which of the following is seen as discouraging bad behaviour instead of encouraging positive behaviour?
positive reinforcement
trial and error learning
negative reinforcement
punishment
Which one of the following statements is true regarding positive and negative reinforcement?
Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement both decrease the likelihood of a response occurring.
Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement both increase the likelihood of a response occurring.
Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a response occurring; negative reinforcement decreases
the likelihood of a response occurring.
Positive reinforcement delivers a pleasant consequence for a response; negative reinforcement delivers an
unpleasant consequence for a response.
An animal learns to press a button in order to turn off an aversive noise.
This is an example of
negative reinforcement.
positive reinforcement.
learned helplessness.
punishment.
Maryanne worked hard with her kindergarten class to teach them to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Maryanne rewarded the students by saying ‘well done’ each time they said ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ at an appropriate time. After a week, Maryanne decided the class knew how to use these words correctly and stopped saying ‘well done’.
After a couple of weeks, she noticed that the students no longer said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. This is most likely because;
Maryanne did not punish the students.
a learned response will become extinct if it is not reinforced.
the students discriminated between saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and getting a reward.
Maryanne used a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement which is not as effective as a fixed-interval schedule.
Another strategy Maryanne used was to keep the students indoors, when they wanted to play outside, until they
used the words ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. This is an example of
shaping.
punishment.
positive reinforcement.
negative reinforcement.
Punishment could be said to unintentionally reinforce undesirable behaviour if;
the punishment produces an unwanted aggressive response.
the punishment does not immediately follow the undesirable behaviour.
desirable behaviour replaces the undesirable behaviour following the punishment.
undesirable behaviour is increased due to the attention received through punishment.
The steps in the three-phase model of operant conditioning, in order, are
the operant, the stimulus to the operant, the consequence of the operant.
discriminative stimulus, consequence of response to stimulus, response to stimulus.
conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, consequence of response to stimulus.
discriminative stimulus, response to stimulus, consequence of response to stimulus.
To encourage his noisy Grade 3 students to work quietly in class, Mr. Soros set up the following system with them.
• Students caught talking during quiet work time would not be allowed to play with basketballs or footballs during
the following play time.
• Students who worked quietly would receive a star beside their names on a chart.
• Students who earned ten stars could exchange them for a lolly or chocolate bar of their choice.
Not allowing students to play with the basketballs and footballs during the following play time is an example of
punishment.
response cost.
positive reinforcement.
negative reinforcement.
Giving the students a star next to their names on the chart for working quietly is an example of
punishment.
response cost.
positive reinforcement.
negative reinforcement.
Jane’s mother decides that she will also try to change John’s bad behaviour. Each time she catches John trying to
frighten Jane, she takes one dollar from his pocket money. John then stops frightening his sister.
Which one of the following best describes John’s experience?
punishment
response cost
positive reinforcement
negative reinforcement
Mr. Zhang, the class teacher, tried to make the boys stop teasing Dan. Mr. Zhang’s first strategy was to take away recess time from any boy he caught teasing Dan. This strategy is best known as
punishment.
response cost.
positive reinforcement.
negative reinforcement.
Every time that six-month-old Akira is tired, hungry and starts to cry, his mother immediately picks him up and cuddles him. Akira feels comforted by the cuddle and soon stops crying. His mother feels relieved that the crying has stopped.
In terms of the three-phase model of operant conditioning, Akira’s feeling of comfort and his mother’s feeling of
relief respectively are examples of
positive reinforcement, response cost.
response cost, negative reinforcement.
negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement.
positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement.
According to this scenario, Akira is most likely to
cry only when he is very tired and hungry.
cry more often when he is near his mother.
cry very rarely when he is near his mother.
continue to cry even after he is picked up by his mother.
