Exam 9: Behaviorist Views of Learning

Vanessa frequently complains of getting terrible headaches and therefore ends up at the nurse's office several times a week.Yet two different physicians have been unable to find a cause for Vanessa's headaches, and Vanessa's parents report that their daughter rarely has headaches at home.Vanessa is falling further and further behind in her schoolwork, so Vanessa's teacher and parents meet with the nurse and school psychologist to brainstorm possible solutions to Vanessa's problem.The school psychologist suggests that the teacher keep track of the occasions when Vanessa complains about a headache.Two weeks later, the teacher reports that all of Vanessa's complaints occur just before a test or difficult assignment.Suddenly the teacher and parents begin to suspect that perhaps Vanessa complains of headaches as a way of getting out of difficult schoolwork.Here we see the initial steps in a process known as:

Three of the following are recommended practices when using punishment to reduce an inappropriate behavior.Which one is not recommended?

Mr.Smart tells his students that they can do whatever they want for the first ten minutes of class, but they must then turn their attention to the day's assignment.The students are delighted with their ten minutes of free time but do not subsequently attend to the assignment when it is time for them to do so.From an instrumental conditioning perspective, what mistake has Mr.Smart made?

Six-year-old Jack has recently learned to appreciate the value of money, so his father assigns him some simple housekeeping chores to be performed throughout the week.He tells Jack that completion of these chores will earn him an allowance of one dollar every Saturday.Jack rarely completes his chores.From a behaviorist perspective, which one of the following is most likely to be the reason why Jack is not doing his chores?

Ms.Hernandez is concerned about Brian, a student in her high school chemistry class who rarely interacts with other students.Ms.Hernandez decides to smile at Brian on those occasions when she happens to notice him talking with another student.Yet after three weeks she sees little change in his behavior.Based on this information, which one of the following is definitely wrong with Ms.Hernandez's approach?

George enjoys being on the debating team, but he is taken off the team when he inadvertently utters an obscene word during a debate.Being taken off the team is an example of:

From a behaviorist perspective, we are likely to see diversity in our students with respect to three of the following? Which one is not a major source of diversity in students?

Which one of the following alternatives describes a conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning?

A boy who is beaten severely by his alcoholic father begins to show signs of fearing not only his father but other men as well.His fear of men who have not beaten him is an example of:

Which one of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?

Which one of the following is the best example of intrinsic reinforcement?

Ms.O'Connor reinforces James every time she sees him reading independently.Once he is reading frequently, she begins to reinforce him only every second time, then only every third time, and so on, gradually reinforcing him less and less often.From a behaviorist perspective, we can predict that Jimmy will:

Research studies indicate that applied behavior analysis techniques:

Stacey dislikes physical education class because her classmates tease her about her lack of strength and coordination.One day Stacey unintentionally hits one of her classmates, and the teacher sends her to the principal's office for the remainder of the class session.Stacey becomes increasingly aggressive in class and so spends more and more time in the principal's office.From a behaviorist perspective, we can explain this situation by saying that Stacey is:

When Mr.Thompson yells at his students, they stop being so noisy.Mr.Thompson is receiving for his yelling behavior.

Caleb continually blurts out the answers to Mr.Karowski's questions, to the point that other students rarely have a chance to respond.Mr.Karowski decides to ignore Caleb's behavior, hoping that it will decrease if he doesn't pay attention to it.Mr.Karowski is applying the behaviorist principle of in his treatment of Caleb.

Which one of the following statements best characterizes how reinforcement of incompatible behavior can help reduce inappropriate behavior in the classroom?

Leonard rarely says nice things to anyone else.Using behaviorist terminology, we can say that:

Which one of the following examples best illustrates the concept of baseline as behaviorists use the term?

When are classically conditioned responses most likely to decrease i.e., undergo extinction)?