Practice question
Concepts and Principles

Operant and respondent extinction: Reinforcement and punishment by behavior change.

Original BCBA scenario practice question with answer explanation and wrong-choice notes.

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Question

Difficulty: easy. Skill: recognize. Type: concept discrimination.

Adult client responds differently when the antecedent, consequence, or learning history changes. Which concept from operant and respondent extinction is most relevant? The case file includes 6 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

A
Continue unchanged and ignore the new contextual information
B
Add a punishment procedure before clarifying function, risk, or feasibility
C
Use the descriptive label as the explanation and treatment target
D
Classify the consequence by whether behavior increases or decreases and whether a stimulus is added or removed in relation to adult client's stopping work after corrective feedback

Correct answer

Explanation

Answer D

The clue is the combination of duration data showing long pauses after feedback, stopping work after corrective feedback, and the required task: Operant and respondent extinction. The case file includes 6 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting. Classify the consequence by whether behavior increases or decreases and whether a stimulus is added or removed in relation to adult client's stopping work after corrective feedback is best because it answers that clue through reinforcement and punishment by behavior change instead of treating the scenario as a generic behavior problem. On exam items like this, name the decision point first, then eliminate options that rely on one report, a label, a familiar protocol, or an action that skips the relevant data check.

Why this question is hard

Clue
Key scenario clue

The clue is the combination of duration data showing long pauses after feedback, stopping work after corrective feedback, and the required task: Operant and respondent extinction. The case file includes 6 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

Trap
Common trap

Ignoring relevant data or context prevents a defensible behavior-analytic decision.

Next
If you missed it, review Reinforcement and punishment by behavior change

Then answer a few related scenarios before moving back to broad practice.

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

Ignoring relevant data or context prevents a defensible behavior-analytic decision.

B
Choice B

A punishment-first response is weaker when less intrusive, function-based, or assessment steps have not been addressed.

C
Choice C

A label is not enough; the decision should be based on observable behavior and relevant variables.

Study tags

Reinforcement and punishment by behavior changeOperant and respondent extinctionpositive reinforcementnegative reinforcement

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Related study guides

GuideDistractor patternsUse this if the wrong answer sounded plausible.GuideMissed-question reviewUse this if you want to turn the miss into a study rule.GuideScore plateau guideUse this if similar mistakes keep repeating.

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Question FAQ

What BCBA domain does this question cover?

This practice question is tagged to Concepts and Principles. It also includes study tags for Reinforcement and punishment by behavior change, Operant and respondent extinction, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement.

How should I review this practice question?

Answer the scenario before reading the explanation, compare your reasoning with the correct answer, then review why the distractors are weaker.

Is this an official BACB exam question?

No. This is an original study question for BCBA Scenario Tutor and is not an official BACB exam item.

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