AP Psychology: Operant Conditioning — Drill 17

About This Drill

AP Psychology: Operant Conditioning — Drill 17 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Unit 3: Development and Learning. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

AP Psychology practice questions on operant conditioning — sharpen your AP exam prep with scenarios covering positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, shaping, primary vs. secondary reinforcers, and fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval schedules.

Questions in This Drill

1. Lin's father has been nagging her all afternoon to take out the trash. The moment she finally picks up the bag and walks toward the door, her father stops nagging. Over the next several weeks, Lin begins taking out the trash more quickly whenever her father begins to nag. Which process best describes what is happening to Lin's trash-taking behavior?
2. A factory worker is paid based on how many widgets she assembles: for every 15 widgets completed, she receives a bonus. Her production graph shows rapid bursts of assembly followed by brief pauses right after each bonus. Which reinforcement schedule best accounts for this response pattern?
3. A trainer is working with a dolphin that has never performed any acrobatic behavior. Over several weeks, the trainer rewards the dolphin first for breaking the surface of the water, then only for lifting its body higher each time, then only for a partial spin, then only for a complete aerial spin. Eventually the dolphin performs full aerial spins on cue. Another trainer watching suggests the dolphin could have learned the full spin just as quickly if it had been rewarded only when the complete spin occurred naturally. Which of the following best evaluates the second trainer's suggestion?
4. A high school teacher wants to test whether token rewards increase the rate at which students turn in homework. She randomly assigns one class to receive a token for each completed assignment (redeemable for a small prize) and another class to receive no tokens. After six weeks, she compares completion rates between the two classes. Which of the following is the dependent variable?
5. A preschool teacher notices that stickers, which the children can exchange for extra playground time, work extremely well as rewards for completing cleanup tasks. Which of the following statements about the stickers is most accurate?