Operant Conditioning Quiz

Matthew has been given a piano for his thirteenth birthday. He sits at the piano each day and practices for at least two hours. At the end of each practice, his mother praises him for his efforts.

According to the ABC model of operant conditioning, which of the following is correct regarding the antecedent, the behaviour and the consequence in this scenario?

• The antecedent is Matthew playing the piano, the behaviour is Matthew being praised by his mother, and the consequence is the piano that has been given for Matthew's birthday.

• The antecedent is Matthew being praised by his mother, the behaviour is Matthew playing the piano, and the consequence is the piano that has been given for Matthew's birthday.

• The antecedent is Matthew playing the piano, the behaviour is Matthew being given the piano for his birthday and the consequence is Matthew being praised by his mother.

• The antecedent is the piano that has been given for Matthew's birthday, the behaviour is Matthew playing the piano, and the consequence is Matthew being praised by his mother.

Dan was born in England, but when he was five years old, his family moved to Australia. When Dan started school in Australia, the other boys teased him because they did not like his English accent; they wanted him to speak with an Australian accent. Dan quickly learned to speak with an Australian accent at school so that the boys would stop teasing him.

Dan quickly learned to speak with an Australian accent as a result of

• Negative reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement

• Response cost

• Punishment

Dan was born in England, but when he was five years old, his family moved to Australia. When Dan started school in Australia, the other boys teased him because they did not like his English accent; they wanted him to speak with an Australian accent. Dan quickly learned to speak with an Australian accent at school so that the boys would stop teasing him.

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 caught teasing Dan.

This strategy is best known as

• Punishment

• Response cost

• Positive reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement

In operant conditioning, when an organism responds to stimuli similar to the antecedent, they are using:

• Stimulus generalisation

• Habituating

• Adaptation

• Stimulus Discrimination

In operant conditioning, a response will eventually disappear if reinforcement is withheld.

This is called

• Spontaneous recovery

• Stimulus generalisation

• Stimulus discrimination

• Extinction

The unexpected reappearance of the conditioned behaviour to the antecedent stimulus after a period of extinction is called

• Generalisation

• Spontaneous recovery

• Shaping

• Positive 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 relived 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

Qaisha rubbed some 'Stop Itch' cream on the spot where the mosquito had stung her and the itching stopped. The next week she was stung by the mosquito and immediately reached for the 'Stop Itch' cream.

According to operant conditioning, this is an example of

• Positive reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement

• Punishment

• Response cost

Receiving a gold star on your work in primary school was a form of praise and was intended to

• Act as positive reinforcement and increase the likelihood of you repeating the behaviour.

• Act as an antecedent so that you would recognise how much work you had completed.

• Act as negative reinforcement and increase the likelihood of you repeating the behaviour.

• Cause extinction of the learnt behaviour.

Mr Newman is a Grade 4 teacher. Jake is a student in his class who is very disruptive to other children. On Monday, Jake is disruptive so Mr Newman moves Jake to an area of the classroom away from his friends. On Tuesday, Jake behaves well and Mr Newman praises Jake for his improved behaviour.

On Monday, Mr Newman used _________________, while on Tuesday, Mr Newman used ____________________.

• Positive reinforcement; Punishment

• Negative reinforcement; Positive reinforcement

• Punishment; Positive reinforcement

• Punishment; Response cost