Exam 5: Learning and Behaviour Processes

Three of the following are potential limitations of behavioural approaches.Which one is not?

In Mr.Marshall's classroom, students who acquire 20 points in one day can have a half hour of free time at the end of the day.Mr.Marshall awards points to his students for good behaviour and deducts points when they misbehave.The deduction of points for misbehaviour is known as:

Ms.Smythe keeps Eric after school whenever he swears in class.Even though Eric has been kept after school each day for the past three weeks, his swearing has increased rather than decreased.Given what we know about the effects of punishment on behaviour, Ms.Smythe should probably conclude that:

Which of the following teachers is incorporating the principles of classical conditioning in their approach?

Which one of the following statements best represents the effectiveness of punishment?

Only one of the following consequences has been shown to be an effective and appropriate punishment for most students.Which one?

Ms.O'Connor reinforces James every time she sees him reading independently.Once he is reading on a regular basis, 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 an operant conditioning perspective, we can predict that James will:

Vanessa frequently complains of getting terrible headaches and so 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:

In the middle of a difficult exam, Robert tells his teacher that his stomach hurts, and the teacher immediately sends him to the school nurse.On several later occasions when he has a difficult test or assignment, Robert again tells his teacher that he does not feel well.Each time he is sent to the school nurse without completing his work.From an operant conditioning perspective, we can say that Robert is:

Which one of the following is most likely to maintain desirable classroom behaviour over the long run?

Bill's behaviours in Ms.Kennedy's class are really distracting to other students.For example, he whispers to the boy beside him when Ms.Kennedy is giving directions on how to do any assignment.He flings paper clips at a girl across the room.He makes strange grunting noises that a few classmates find amusing.Ms.Kennedy glares at him or admonishes him whenever he behaves in a distracting way, yet his inappropriate behaviours are increasing rather than decreasing.Which one of the following interpretations best explains why Bill's behaviours are increasing?

Warren has earned himself a reputation for being the class clown.His teacher, Ms.Dafoe, used to laugh at Warren's funny remarks, but is now trying to discourage Warren's disruptive behaviour by ignoring his jokes.In spite of Ms.Dafoe's attempts to ignore Warren, Warren sometimes tells a joke so funny that Ms.Dafoe laughs in spite of herself.Rather than decreasing his joke-telling, Warren begins telling even more outrageous jokes.Inadvertently, Ms.Dafoe is modifying Warren's joke-telling behaviour through:

At the beginning of the school year, Mr.Webber is concerned that Fran rarely does her independent seatwork.He begins praising Fran for each seatwork assignment she completes, and by January she is completing her assignments regularly.To make sure that the behaviour continues in the years to come, what would operant conditioning theorists tell Mr.Webber to do now?

Ms.Kwan has several students who are chronic misbehavers.She meets individually with each student, and together she and the student agree to a plan for improving the student's behaviour and a suitable reinforcement for appropriate behaviour change.Ms.Kwan is using:

When behaviourists describe the learner as a "black box," they mean that:

In each of the following situations, a student either is learning or has learned something.(1) Classify each of the situations as involving either classical or operant conditioning.(2) Defend your answer by analyzing the situation within the context of the learning paradigm you have chosen. a.When Joseph begins running down the hall toward the cafeteria, his teacher asks him to walk instead.Joseph begins walking, and the teacher gives him a smile.After that, Joseph always makes sure that he walks rather than runs to the cafeteria. b.Ronald's friend offers him an illegal drug.Ronald takes the drug and finds that it makes him feel great.Ronald begins to buy the drug himself and takes it more and more frequently. c.Leanne is a bright, capable girl.Once when she was sick, she failed an important test.Now she is very anxious whenever she takes a test.

Which one of the following statements best describes positive reinforcement?

Which one of the following statements most accurately describes intermittent reinforcement?

Your class has just returned from lunch.Although all your students are in their seats, they are busily chattering and having difficulty focusing their attention on the next lesson.Which one of the following strategies is most consistent with the recommendations in the textbook regarding effective strategies for reducing undesirable behaviours?