Theoretical Orientation
Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning
Establish New Behaviors
Increase Desirable Behaviors & Decrease Undesirable Behaviors
Other Behavior Change Procedures & Applications
100

Overt behavior is defined as:

a. What a person says or does

b. Traits of a person

c. A person’s internal mental processes

d. Attitudes and beliefs

E. All of the above


a. What a person says or does.

100

Money earned from our jobs is an example of a(n):
A. conditioned stimulus.
B. conditioned reinforcer.
C. unconditioned reinforcer.
D. unconditioned stimulus.
E. abolishing operation

B. conditioned reinforcer.

100

 In respondent conditioning, what will happen if the CS is presented many times in the absence of the US?
A. The CS will elicit a CR.
B. The CS will no longer elicit the CR.
C. The US will no longer elicit a UR.
D. The US will elicit the CS.
E. None of the above

B. The CS will no longer elicit the CR.

100

When a behavior occurs and is followed by a consequence that results in an increase in the behavior in the future, it is referred to as:

A. antecedent control

B. differential consequences

C. punishment 

D. reinforcement

E. self-management

D. reinforcement 

100

In class, we discussed a research article by Penney at colleagues (2023) that recommended we add which of the following to the dimensions of applied behavior analysis (ABA)?

A. Applied

B. Analytic

C. Behavioral

D. Compassion

E. Motivation

D. Compassion

200

An example of covert behavior would be:

a. Writing
b. Thinking
c. Running
d. Frowning
e. Thinking and Frowning


b. Thinking 

200

Which dimension of behavior would you be interested in if you were measuring the time from when you said, “Recess is over,” to the time that a child lined up for class?
A. Frequency
B. Duration
C. Latency
D. Continuous
E. Real-time

C. Latency

200

Bobby creates a different ringtone to play when unknown numbers call on his phone. When he hears this ringtone, he clicks “ignore.” Pressing “ignore” when the different ringtone plays is an example of her behavior being under ____________ of the ringtone.
A. stimulus control.
B. stimulus generalization.
C. stimulus discrimination training.
D. escape control.
E. response generalizatio

A. stimulus control.

200

Target behaviors chosen for self-management approaches often involve a conflict between 

A. positive & negative punishment 

B. reinforcement & extinction 

C. short-term & long-term contingencies

D. positive & negative reinforcement 

E. operant & respondent conditioning 

C. short-term & long-term contingencies

200

In the video on Comprehensive Behavior Intervention for Tics (CBIT), Dr. Woods discussed that tic behaviors are           ?            and strengthened/maintained due to the relief a person experiences from the premonitory urge following the tic behavior. 

A. positively reinforced

B. negatively reinforced

C. positively punished

D. negatively punished

E. extinguished

B. negatively reinforced

300

Behavior modification

a. has a limited number of applications

b. has a broad number of applications

c. is mostly used with children

d. is rarely used these days

e. is not evidence‐based


b. has a  broad number of applications

300

Ruby is a behavior therapist, and she is taking baseline data on her client’s hair pulling behavior. She is recording whether she observes hair pulling to occur at
least once within each 10-minute block of time during a 2-hour observation. This is an example of:
A. continuous recording.
B. product recording.
C. interval recording.
D. experimental recording.
E. duration recording

C. interval recording.

300

Andrew just got a new puppy, and his mom is going to use a chaining procedure to teach Andrew all the steps involved in feeding the puppy. If his mom teaches him the last behavior in the chain first and then teaches him each previous behavior, she would be using:
A. backward chaining
B. total task presentation
C. forward chaining
D. shaping
E. discrimination training

A. backward chaining

300

Jordan wants to increase the amount of water he drinks each day, so he keeps a filled water bottle on his desk at work. He also sets his watch to buzz every hour with a reminder to take a drink of water. Which antecedent control strategy is he using to increase water drinking behavior?

A. Increasing response effort

B. Arranging abolishing operations 

C. Presenting additional discriminative stimuli or cues

D. Removing extra discriminative stimuli

E. A & B

C. Presenting additional discriminative stimuli or cues

400

What is wrong with this behavioral description: “Sam was having a fit.”

a. It is a covert behavior

b. It is talking about something that just happened

c. It is functional and lawful

d. It is describing an emotion and not a behavior

e. It does not describe what a ‘fit’ looks like in observable terms


e. It does not describe what a ‘fit’ looks like in observable terms

400

When Shawn smokes a cigarette or more in a given week, he removes $10 from his bank. Of course, money is valuable to him—and losing money is
undesirable. So, his self-management plan involves losing $10 each time he smokes. What type of contingency is loss of money for smoking, assuming it
actually reduces his smoking behavior?
A. Positive reinforcement
B. Negative reinforcement
C. Negative punishment
D. Positive punishment
E. Extinction

C. Negative punishment

400

 What information is essential to gather during any functional assessment?
A. The variables (i.e. antecedents, consequences) associated with the occurrence of the behaviors of interest
B. The person’s insight into their own behavior
C. The strategies that are evidence-based for any instance of the behavior
D. The research literature on the problem behavior
E. The underlying biopsychosocial cause of the behavior

A. The variables (i.e. antecedents, consequences) associated with the occurrence of the behaviors of interest

400

When using differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) with a person who engages in aggression an average of every 10 minutes, which time interval should be initially chosen?

A. one that is challenging for the individual to meet

B. one that is longer than 10 minutes

C. one that is shorter than 10 minutes 

D. one that is exactly 10 minutes

E. one that is long enough so it does not need to be adjusted. 

C. one that is shorter than 10 minutes

500

All of the following are true about the behavioral perspective except:

a. Much of our behavior is environmentally determined
b. The environment operates on behavior in a lawful manner

c. It is critical to understand the original origin of behavior to improve it

d. It is interested in understanding functional relationships
e. It informs behavioral interventions for a range of concerns


c. It is critical to understand the original origin of behavior to improve it

500

Connie frequently blurts out answers to questions without waiting to be called
on because she likes attention from the teacher. In the past, the teacher provided attention when Connie blurted out. To address this issue, the teacher starts to
only call on Connie when she raises her hand. Now, when Connie blurts out an answer, the teacher ignores her and calls on someone else. A few weeks later,
Connie’s behavior of raising her hand has increased, and her behavior of blurting out answers has decreased. The teacher used ___________ on Connie’s behavior of raising her hand, and ______________ on her behavior of blurting out answers.
A. reinforcement; extinction
B. intermittent reinforcement; continuous reinforcement
C. extinction; punishment
D. reinforcement; reinforcement
E. punishment; extinctio

A. reinforcement; extinction

500

 A mother is aiming to promote greater independence in her son with intellectual disabilities. He loves to sit outside in the yard, but it is not safe to do so late at night. Since he is not discriminating between “OK” and “not OK” times to go to the backyard, she adds a sign to the door to prompt him. The sign during the day is colored in green. The sign up during the evening is red. This is an example of:
A. prompt fading
B. prompt delay
C. a stimulus prompt
D. a gesture prompt
E. a time delay prompt

C. a stimulus prompt

500

You are working in an inpatient unit where a particular adult patient is singing very loudly in the common area. At first you go over to him and remind him to sing quietly or in his room, which then turns into an enjoyable conversation. You notice this isn't changing his behavior and the singing is disruptive to other patients. You decide to implement a behavioral procedure where you reinforce his beginning a conversation with you, while putting his loud singing on extinction. This is an example of:

A. Differential reinforcement of lower rates of behavior (DRL)

B. Differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA)

C. Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)

D. Effective use of extinction, but not reinforcement 

E. Effective use of reinforcement, but not extinction

B. Differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA)