ABA Exam Coach

B.3: Identify and distinguish between respondent and operant conditioning.

Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.

After several painful dental visits, a child's heart rate rises and he flinches as soon as he hears the sound of the dental drill, before any instrument touches him. Which process best accounts for this reaction to the drill sound?
  1. A. Response generalization
    Incorrect. Response generalization is the emission of untrained responses that are functionally equivalent to a trained one. It does not explain how a neutral sound came to elicit a reaction.
  2. B. Positive punishment of flinching
    Incorrect. The flinch is elicited by a preceding stimulus. It is not decreasing because of a consequence.
  3. C. Respondent conditioning
    Correct. The drill sound was paired with a painful unconditioned stimulus and is now a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response.
  4. D. Negative reinforcement of flinching
    Incorrect. No consequence of flinching (such as escaping pain) is shown to maintain it. The reaction is elicited by the sound.
A clinician is trying to tell whether a client's crying in a clinic waiting room is respondent or operant behavior. Which observation would MOST strongly support an operant account?
  1. A. The client cried the first time a needle was ever shown
    Incorrect. Crying on first exposure suggests an unconditioned respondent or a generalized reaction, not a history of consequences.
  2. B. Crying increases when caregivers comfort the client after crying and decreases when comfort is withheld
    Correct. If the frequency of crying changes with its consequences, the behavior is operant.
  3. C. Crying begins whenever a nurse holding a needle enters, no matter what happens afterward
    Incorrect. Behavior that reliably follows an antecedent regardless of consequences is the pattern of respondent elicitation.
  4. D. The crying looks involuntary and includes tears and changes in breathing
    Incorrect. Topography does not determine whether behavior is operant or respondent. Only the controlling variables do.
An office worker's stomach tightens and her pulse quickens whenever she hears one particular email notification tone. In the past, that tone has come right before many urgent, critical messages from her manager. Which process best explains her reaction to the tone?
  1. A. Negative reinforcement, because her reaction ends the critical messages
    Her stomach tightening does not remove or end the messages. No consequence of the reaction is strengthening it, so negative reinforcement does not apply.
  2. B. Respondent conditioning, because a neutral tone was paired with an eliciting event
    Correct. The tone was a neutral stimulus that was repeatedly paired with stressful messages, which elicit physiological arousal. It is now a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response (stomach tightening, faster pulse) on its own.
  3. C. Operant stimulus generalization, because the tone resembles other alerts
    Nothing suggests that she responds to other, similar tones. Her reaction is elicited by one specific tone that has a pairing history, which is a respondent process rather than operant generalization.
  4. D. Positive punishment, because the tone is followed by an unpleasant message
    Positive punishment would mean a behavior decreases because a stimulus is added after it. Here an involuntary reaction is elicited by the tone. No operant behavior is being weakened.

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