Practice question
Concepts and Principles

Identify stimulus control in instructional contexts.

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

Question

Difficulty: hard. Skill: analyze. Type: concept discrimination.

During following a schedule in a elementary classroom, the participant says "help" only when the therapist holds up a help card, but not when the card is absent. What does this pattern most directly show? The BCBA is reviewing the decision with a trainee.

A
The response has generalized across all relevant settings
B
The response is under stimulus control of the help card

Correct answer

C
The response is maintained by automatic reinforcement
D
The response is on extinction

Explanation

Answer B

Stimulus control is shown when a response occurs more often in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus.

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

The response occurs only with one stimulus, so generalization is not shown.

C
Choice C

The scenario does not show automatic reinforcement.

D
Choice D

The scenario describes when the response occurs, not withholding reinforcement.

Study tags

Stimulus ControlDiscriminationReinforcement

Practice interactively

Try more BCBA scenario questions in the interactive practice mode, then use review tools to track missed domains and flagged items.

Start practiceMore free questions