Three of the following statements reflect contemporary perspectives of instrumental conditioning and reinforcement. Which one does not?
a. Punishment has a more pronounced effect on behavior than reinforcement does.
b. Behavior can sometimes be better understood if we look at complex environmental conditions rather than at simple, specific stimuli.
c. Instrumental conditioning can more adequately be explained when we talk about mental processes as well as observable events.
d. Any single consequence may be more or less reinforcing depending on a learner's particular motives at the time.
Ques. 2Jimmy misbehaved in class and his teacher punished him by forcing him to skip recess. Withholding recess is generally an ineffective form of punishment because:
a. teachers do not consider recess a pleasant stimulus.
b. many arguments arise during recess making it a negative situation for most children.
c. recess provides a break from academic activities, which improves children's concentration.
d. recess is too short of a time interval.
Ques. 3When Rochelle has an on-the-road lesson as part of her driver education class, she fails to stop at a school crossing zone, as is required by law. Her instructor has her drive around the block several times and stop each time at the crossing zone. He also insists that, once she has stopped, she must wait at least eight seconds before proceeding. The instructor's strategy illustrates the use of _______ as a way of bringing about behavior change.
a. An intermittent reinforcement schedule
b. Positive-practice overcorrection
c. Response cost
d. Restitution
Ques. 4Julie gets very upset when her mother will not let her help her bake cookies. Julie yells at her mother and throws flour all over the kitchen. Julie's mother makes Julie clean up all of the flour and do all of the dishes Julie's mother created from baking the cookies. Her mother's punishment was a form of:
a. Positive-practice overcorrection
b. Response cost
c. Restitutional overcorrection
d. Punishment II
Ques. 5DeeDee is upset that she has been taken off the basketball team because of a failing grade in her history class. The consequence of DeeDee's failure in history is an example of:
a. Positive reinforcement
b. Negative reinforcement
c. Punishment I
d. Punishment II
Ques. 6Which one of the following is the best example of punishment as behaviorists define it?
a. Kelly has been acting up in the classroom all year. Her teacher's frequent reprimands haven't made much of a difference in Kelly's behavior.
b. Leo is a real distraction to his classmates, often burping in a way that makes other students laugh. His teacher places him in a corner where others can't hear him burping.
c. Whenever Marvin has trouble sitting still, his teacher has him run up and down the hall three times to release pent-up energy.
d. After Nora spends a few minutes in the time-out room for hurting a classmate's feelings, she is more careful not to hurt her peers' feelings in the future.
Ques. 7Which one of the following alternatives best describes instrumental conditioning?
a. Learning to use man-made tools in order to accomplish difficult tasks more easily
b. Learning to behave in ways that either bring pleasure or reduce the likelihood of aversive events
c. Learning that certain stimuli in one's environment often bring either physical or psychological pain
d. Learning complex sequences of psychomotor behaviors (e.g., dribbling and then shooting a basketball)
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