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G.17: Design and evaluate positive and negative punishment (e.g., time-out, response cost, overcorrection).

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

In a group home, a resident loses two earned tokens each time he curses at staff. Cursing decreases over three weeks. Which procedure is this?
  1. A. Extinction
    Extinction withholds the maintaining reinforcer. It does not remove other reinforcers the person already has.
  2. B. Response cost
    Correct. Contingent loss of a specific amount of a reinforcer the person holds, followed by a decrease in behavior, is response cost (negative punishment).
  3. C. Positive punishment
    Positive punishment involves adding a stimulus after the behavior.
  4. D. Exclusionary time-out
    Time-out removes access to reinforcement for a period of time. It does not remove specific reinforcers the person already has.
A teacher uses exclusionary time-out (sending the student to a hallway desk) for disruptive behavior during difficult reading tasks. Disruption has increased since time-out started. What is the most likely explanation?
  1. A. The time-out duration is too short and should be extended to 30 minutes
    Making the time-out longer would give more escape and could strengthen disruption further.
  2. B. The student is showing an extinction burst, which will pass with continued time-out
    Time-out is not extinction, and the steady increase fits reinforcement better than a temporary burst.
  3. C. Time-out was not explained clearly enough before it was used
    Explaining the procedure does not change its function, which is escape from the task.
  4. D. Disruption is probably escape-maintained, so time-out negatively reinforces it by removing the student from the reading task
    Correct. Time-out works only when the time-in environment is more reinforcing. For behavior that functions to escape the task, removing the student from the task reinforces the behavior.
After writing graffiti on one bathroom wall, a student is required to scrub off his own writing and also clean the graffiti from every other wall in the bathroom. This procedure is best described as:
  1. A. Restitutional overcorrection
    Correct. Restitutional overcorrection requires restoring the damaged environment to a condition better than it was before the behavior.
  2. B. Positive practice overcorrection
    Positive practice involves repeated practice of a correct form of the behavior, not restoring the environment.
  3. C. Response blocking
    Response blocking physically stops the behavior while it is happening.
  4. D. Contingent exercise
    Contingent exercise requires effortful physical activity that has nothing to do with the misbehavior.

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