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Question 1Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Radical behaviorism differs from methodological behaviorism chiefly in that radical behaviorism:

  1. rejects experimental analysis in favor of introspection
  2. limits the science of behavior to publicly observable responses
  3. treats private events such as thinking and feeling as behavior Correct answer.
  4. denies that environmental events control behavior

Explanation

Radical behaviorism counts private events as behavior subject to the same controlling variables as public behavior, whereas methodological behaviorism restricts the science to events that can be publicly observed. The inclusion of private events is what distinguishes the two positions.

Question 2Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

The philosophical assumption that knowledge derives from observation and experience rather than from authority or pure reasoning is called:

  1. rationalism
  2. determinism
  3. pragmatism
  4. empiricism Correct answer.

Explanation

Empiricism holds that observation and experience are the ultimate source of knowledge, which underlies behavior analysis's reliance on direct measurement of behavior. Rationalism instead treats reasoning as a source of knowledge independent of observation.

Question 3Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

The assumption that behavior occurs lawfully and is controlled by identifiable variables is known as:

  1. selectionism
  2. determinism Correct answer.
  3. parsimony
  4. mentalism

Explanation

Determinism is the assumption that behavior is a lawful product of identifiable variables, which is what makes prediction and control possible. It does not require that every controlling variable already be known, only that behavior is not capricious.

Question 4Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

When two accounts explain the same data equally well, a behavior analyst prefers the one that posits fewer entities or processes. This rule is:

  1. parsimony Correct answer.
  2. pragmatism
  3. empiricism
  4. determinism

Explanation

Parsimony directs scientists to adopt the simplest adequate explanation and to avoid unnecessary hypothetical entities. It applies only when competing accounts fit the data equally well.

Question 5Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Skinner identified the aims of a science of behavior as:

  1. verification of introspective reports
  2. prediction and control of behavior Correct answer.
  3. description and classification of mental states
  4. interpretation of unconscious motives

Explanation

Skinner held that a science of behavior should predict and control behavior, with experimental control serving as the test of a prediction. Classifying or interpreting inner states was not the goal of the enterprise.

Question 6Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

The subject matter of behavior analysis is:

  1. the structure of the mind revealed through introspection
  2. hypothetical cognitive mechanisms inferred from test scores
  3. the behavior of organisms, including private events Correct answer.
  4. the physiological processes that produce movement

Explanation

Behavior analysis takes behavior itself, including private events such as thinking, as its subject matter rather than inferred mental structures or underlying physiology. Physiological and cognitive accounts belong to other levels of analysis.

Question 7Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Explaining behavior by appealing to inner processes that are inferred from the very behavior they are said to cause is called:

  1. empiricism
  2. behaviorism
  3. mentalism Correct answer.
  4. selectionism

Explanation

Mentalism explains behavior by positing inner processes, and the account becomes circular when the process is inferred only from the behavior it supposedly explains. Behavior analysis instead seeks the environmental variables that control the response.

Question 8Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A clinician writes that a student 'leaves his seat because he is hyperactive,' where hyperactivity is inferred only from the seat leaving. This account is best described as:

  1. a functional analysis
  2. an operational definition
  3. an explanatory fiction Correct answer.
  4. a parsimonious explanation

Explanation

An explanatory fiction is a label that merely restates the behavior it is supposed to explain, adding no new controlling variables. Here the supposed cause is inferred solely from the effect it is invoked to explain.

Question 9Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Skinner's principle of selection by consequences is said to operate at which three levels?

  1. respondent, operant, and observational
  2. molecular, molar, and systemic
  3. cognitive, affective, and behavioral
  4. phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and cultural Correct answer.

Explanation

Skinner proposed that behavior is selected by consequences at the phylogenetic level (species history), the ontogenetic level (the individual's lifetime), and the cultural level (practices maintained by groups). These three levels share the same variation-and-selection logic.

Question 10Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Within behavior analysis, the value of a concept is judged mainly by:

  1. its acceptance by the broader psychology community
  2. its consistency with everyday mentalistic language
  3. its correspondence with introspective reports
  4. its workability in predicting and influencing behavior Correct answer.

Explanation

Pragmatism treats the worth of a concept as its workability, that is, whether it permits effective prediction and influence of behavior. Agreement with inner reports or with popular usage is not the criterion.

Question 11Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

In a behavior-analytic account, the causes of behavior are sought primarily in:

  1. the individual's current and historical environment Correct answer.
  2. inherited personality traits
  3. an autonomous inner agent
  4. random neural activity

Explanation

Behavior analysis locates causes in environmental events, including the individual's learning history and current context. This environmental emphasis is a working assumption of the science, not a denial that biological variables contribute.

Question 12Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A researcher treats 'working memory' as a concrete entity that performs the remembering observed in a task. This error is best described as:

  1. reification Correct answer.
  2. empiricism
  3. operational definition
  4. parsimony

Explanation

Reification is treating an abstraction or inferred process as a concrete thing with causal power. It is especially problematic when the entity is inferred only from the very performance it is said to produce.

Question 13Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

According to radical behaviorism, private events such as a toothache are:

  1. behavior accessible only to the person, but still under environmental control Correct answer.
  2. identical to the physiological events that accompany them
  3. unreliable reports that should be excluded from a behavioral analysis
  4. nonphysical mental states that lie outside the reach of natural science and its methods

Explanation

Radical behaviorism treats private events as behavior occurring at a private scale: accessible to only one person yet controlled by the same variables as public behavior. It neither equates them with physiology nor excludes them from analysis.

Question 14Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

An operant repertoire acquired during an individual's lifetime is the product of:

  1. cultural selection
  2. phylogenetic selection
  3. natural selection of the species
  4. ontogenetic selection Correct answer.

Explanation

Ontogenetic selection refers to the selection of behavior within the individual's lifetime by reinforcement contingencies. Phylogenetic selection refers to species-typical behavior selected across generations.

Question 15Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Behavior analysts consider introspection to lack a privileged status because:

  1. introspective reports are usually deliberately falsified by clients
  2. only trained observers can introspect accurately and reliably
  3. private events do not actually occur and cannot be reported
  4. reports of private events are behavior controlled by identifiable variables Correct answer.

Explanation

Verbal reports of private events are themselves behavior, controlled by establishing operations, learning history, and the verbal community. They are therefore not direct readings of a separate inner world and confer no special methodological authority.

Question 16Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Traditional accounts often explain behavior by pointing to the purpose or outcome it will achieve in the future. Skinner argued that such teleological accounts should be replaced by:

  1. innate drives
  2. reflex arcs
  3. mental representations
  4. selection by consequences Correct answer.

Explanation

Selectionism explains purpose-shaped behavior by the consequences that previously selected and currently control the response, rather than by a future event acting backward in time. Purpose language survives only as a summary of these contingencies.

Question 17Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

From a radical behavioral perspective, the 'self' is best understood as:

  1. a fixed personality trait
  2. a hypothetical construct that carries causal status
  3. a behavioral repertoire controlled by contingencies Correct answer.
  4. an inner agent that initiates action

Explanation

Radical behaviorism treats the self as a repertoire of behavior under the control of particular contingencies of reinforcement. There is no inner agent that originates the behavior attributed to the self.

Question 18Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Skinner's critique of 'autonomous man' targets:

  1. the use of informed consent procedures in research
  2. inventing an inner agent that itself remains unexplained Correct answer.
  3. the study of behavior in freely moving organisms
  4. the use of statistical methods in group research

Explanation

The 'autonomous man' is a hypothetical inner agent invoked to explain behavior while the agent itself is never explained, which halts inquiry. A behavioral account continues until the controlling variables are identified.

Question 19Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Behavior analysis is considered a natural science because it:

  1. relies primarily on case studies and clinical intuition
  2. excludes physiological data from consideration
  3. explains behavior primarily by reference to inferred mental states and traits
  4. treats behavior as a lawful phenomenon amenable to experimental analysis Correct answer.

Explanation

Behavior analysis treats behavior as a lawful natural phenomenon and uses experimental methods to identify its controlling variables. That commitment to lawfulness and experimental control is what places it among the natural sciences.

Question 20Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

An intervening variable differs from a hypothetical construct in that an intervening variable is:

  1. defined solely by relations among observed variables Correct answer.
  2. a physiological mechanism that produces behavior
  3. unmeasurable and therefore untestable in principle
  4. assumed to exist as a real structure inside the organism

Explanation

An intervening variable is a shorthand summary of observed relations among independent and dependent variables and carries no additional existence claim. A hypothetical construct, in contrast, is posited as a real process that may eventually be measured directly.

Question 21Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

According to Skinner, people can learn to tact private events because:

  1. private events are actually public and observable by others
  2. the capacity to report private events is innate and unlearned
  3. introspection provides direct contact with a nonphysical inner world that others cannot see
  4. the verbal community reinforces reports of them via observable collateral behavior Correct answer.

Explanation

Skinner argued that the verbal community can teach tacts of private events only through public accompaniments, such as collateral responses and contexts that covary with the private event. The report thus comes under stimulus control by correlation rather than by privileged observation.

Question 22Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A researcher concludes that a pigeon 'chose' the left key. A radical behavioral account of that choice would require:

  1. showing that the response was uncaused
  2. identifying the variables controlling responding across keys Correct answer.
  3. postulating a decision-making module inside the pigeon that compares outcomes
  4. asking the pigeon to report its reasons for pecking

Explanation

Choosing is behavior to be explained by the variables that produce the distribution of responding across alternatives, such as the reinforcement history associated with each key. Positing an inner chooser merely restates the observation in mentalistic terms.

Question 23Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

In a selectionist account of operant behavior, the analogue of biological mutation as a source of variation is:

  1. discriminative stimuli
  2. reinforcement
  3. variation in emitted responses Correct answer.
  4. extinction

Explanation

Selectionist accounts require variation, selection, and retention; in operant behavior, variability in emitted responses supplies the raw material on which reinforcement acts selectively. Reinforcement is the selective process rather than the source of variation.

Question 24Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A client receives a small piece of candy each time they say "please" before requesting a toy, and the frequency of saying "please" increases. Which process does this describe?

  1. Positive punishment
  2. Positive reinforcement Correct answer.
  3. Negative reinforcement
  4. Automatic reinforcement

Explanation

Positive reinforcement occurs when a stimulus is added contingent on a response and the future frequency of that response increases. Here the candy is added following the request, and requesting with "please" becomes more frequent. The defining features are stimulus addition and a subsequent increase in behavior.

Question 25Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A person takes an aspirin, their headache subsides, and they are more likely to take aspirin the next time a headache occurs. Which process is illustrated?

  1. Positive reinforcement
  2. Positive punishment
  3. Negative reinforcement Correct answer.
  4. Response cost

Explanation

Negative reinforcement occurs when a response terminates or reduces aversive stimulation and the response becomes more likely in the future. The headache is removed contingent on taking the pill, and pill-taking increases. The critical feature is removal of an aversive event, not presentation of a pleasant one.

Question 26Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A response that was previously maintained by adult attention no longer produces attention. Over the next two sessions the response becomes more frequent, more intense, and more varied before it begins to decline. What is this temporary pattern called?

  1. Satiation
  2. An extinction burst Correct answer.
  3. Resurgence
  4. Behavioral contrast

Explanation

An extinction burst is a temporary increase in the rate, magnitude, or variability of responding when reinforcement is first withheld. It typically appears early in extinction and is followed by a decline in responding. Recognizing it matters because caregivers may mistakenly conclude the procedure is failing.

Question 27Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A schedule delivers one reinforcer after every fifth correct response, regardless of how much time passes. Which schedule is this?

  1. Variable-ratio 5
  2. Variable-interval 5
  3. Fixed-interval 5
  4. Fixed-ratio 5 Correct answer.

Explanation

Ratio schedules arrange reinforcement according to the number of responses, and a fixed ratio requires the same number of responses each time. An FR 5 means the fifth response produces the reinforcer. Interval schedules, by contrast, arrange reinforcement according to elapsed time.

Question 28Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A child learns to say "dog" when the family beagle is present and then also says "dog" when shown a Labrador and a poodle. This outcome is best described as:

  1. Extinction
  2. Response generalization
  3. Stimulus generalization Correct answer.
  4. Stimulus discrimination

Explanation

Stimulus generalization occurs when a response occurs in the presence of stimuli that differ from the trained discriminative stimulus along some dimension. The beagle, Labrador, and poodle share features of the trained stimulus class. Discrimination, by contrast, would require differential responding to those stimuli.

Question 29Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Each time a nurse enters the room, a child receives a brief pinch followed by an injection, and the child's heart rate rises. Soon the child's heart rate rises as the nurse enters, before any injection occurs. The nurse's entry now functions as a:

  1. Conditioned reinforcer
  2. Conditioned stimulus Correct answer.
  3. Discriminative stimulus for an operant
  4. Motivating operation

Explanation

In respondent conditioning a previously neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus and comes to elicit a conditioned response. The nurse's entry was neutral, was paired with the pinch and injection, and now elicits a heart-rate increase. Elicited, involuntary responding is the hallmark of respondent conditioning.

Question 30Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A practitioner reinforces closer and closer approximations of a target skill until the terminal performance is displayed. Which procedure is being used?

  1. Fading
  2. Modeling
  3. Chaining
  4. Shaping Correct answer.

Explanation

Shaping is the differential reinforcement of successive approximations of a terminal behavior. Each closer approximation is reinforced while earlier approximations are no longer reinforced. It is used when the terminal response is not yet in the repertoire.

Question 31Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A learner engages in hand flapping about 20 times per hour. The team delivers a preferred item at the end of every 5-minute interval in which no hand flapping occurred. Which procedure is this?

  1. Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) Correct answer.
  2. Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA)
  3. Differential reinforcement of high rates (DRH)
  4. Differential reinforcement of low rates (DRL)

Explanation

DRO delivers reinforcement contingent on the absence of the target behavior during a specified interval, regardless of what the learner is doing instead. Here the reinforcer is earned only when zero instances occur in the interval. DRA would instead specify and reinforce a particular alternative response.

Question 32Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A neutral token is paired repeatedly with a preferred edible. Later, the token alone increases the behavior it follows. The token now functions as a:

  1. Conditioned reinforcer Correct answer.
  2. Unconditioned reinforcer
  3. Discriminative stimulus
  4. Conditioned punisher

Explanation

A conditioned reinforcer is a previously neutral stimulus that acquires reinforcing properties through pairing with an established reinforcer. The token was neutral, was paired with an edible, and now strengthens behavior on its own. Unconditioned reinforcers, by contrast, require no learning history.

Question 33Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Which statement best distinguishes a discriminative stimulus from a motivating operation?

  1. Both are antecedent variables that acquire their effects through pairing with reinforcement delivery.
  2. An MO evokes behavior directly, whereas an SD has no evocative effect on behavior.
  3. An SD alters the value of a consequence; an MO signals that reinforcement is available for a response.
  4. An SD signals that reinforcement is available; an MO alters the value of a consequence. Correct answer.

Explanation

An SD is a stimulus in the presence of which a response has been reinforced and which therefore evokes that response by signaling availability of reinforcement. A motivating operation instead changes the momentary effectiveness of a consequence as a reinforcer and, in doing so, alters the frequency of behavior that has produced it. The two are separate antecedent variables that often act together.

Question 34Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

In backward chaining, instruction of a task analysis begins with:

  1. All steps presented simultaneously by the trainer
  2. A randomly selected step from the middle of the chain
  3. The last step, with the trainer completing all earlier steps Correct answer.
  4. The first step, with the trainer completing all remaining steps

Explanation

Backward chaining teaches the terminal step first while the trainer completes the preceding steps, then adds earlier steps one at a time in reverse order. The learner always finishes the chain and contacts the terminal reinforcer. Reinforcement for the final link strengthens the whole sequence.

Question 35Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A response eliminated by extinction reappears after a break from the extinction procedure and then declines again when extinction continues. This phenomenon is:

  1. Spontaneous recovery Correct answer.
  2. Renewal
  3. Reinstatement
  4. Resurgence

Explanation

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a previously extinguished response after a period of time away from the extinction context. The response typically occurs at a lower magnitude and decreases again with continued extinction. It indicates that the extinction effect is context- and time-sensitive rather than erased.

Question 36Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A student shouts out in class and the teacher responds by giving a written reprimand. The student's shouting then decreases. The reprimand functions as a:

  1. Positive punisher Correct answer.
  2. Conditioned reinforcer
  3. Negative punisher
  4. Negative reinforcer

Explanation

Positive punishment is the presentation of a stimulus contingent on a response that results in a decrease in that response. The reprimand was added following shouting and shouting decreased. The decrease, not the aversiveness of the stimulus per se, defines the punisher.

Question 37Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Each time a student insults a peer, five minutes of previously earned computer time is removed, and insulting decreases. Which procedure is this?

  1. Time-out from positive reinforcement
  2. Extinction
  3. Overcorrection
  4. Response cost Correct answer.

Explanation

Response cost is a negative punishment procedure in which a specific amount of a reinforcer is removed contingent on the target response. The removal of earned computer time contingent on insulting, followed by a decrease, fits this definition. The loss is proportionate and specific to the earned reinforcer.

Question 38Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Food deprivation increases how effective food is as a reinforcer and makes food-seeking behavior more likely. Food deprivation is best described as:

  1. An abolishing operation
  2. An establishing operation Correct answer.
  3. A discriminative stimulus
  4. A conditioned reinforcer

Explanation

An establishing operation is a motivating operation that increases the momentary effectiveness of a consequence as reinforcement and evokes the behavior that has produced that consequence. Deprivation from food increases the value of food and evokes food-related behavior. An abolishing operation has the opposite effect.

Question 39Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A driver obeys posted speed limits because of the stated legal consequences, even though they have never received a ticket. Their behavior is best described as:

  1. Contingency-shaped
  2. Adjunctive
  3. Rule-governed Correct answer.
  4. Respondent

Explanation

Rule-governed behavior is controlled by a verbal description of a contingency rather than by direct contact with that contingency. The driver's behavior is governed by stated consequences they have not personally experienced. Contingency-shaped behavior, in contrast, is acquired through direct exposure to reinforcement contingencies.

Question 40Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Access to video games, a high-probability activity, is made contingent on completing homework, a low-probability activity. This arrangement is based on:

  1. The Premack principle Correct answer.
  2. Behavioral momentum
  3. Response cost
  4. The matching law

Explanation

The Premack principle states that a higher-probability behavior can serve as a reinforcer for a lower-probability behavior. Making the preferred activity contingent on the less preferred one increases the latter. The effectiveness depends on the relative probabilities of the two behaviors under free-choice conditions.

Question 41Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

On a two-key concurrent schedule, a pigeon makes about 70% of its pecks on Key A and 30% on Key B. The matching law predicts that this response distribution is proportional to:

  1. The number of previous sessions the bird has experienced
  2. The delay to reinforcement arranged on each key
  3. The physical distance between the two response keys
  4. The relative rate of reinforcement obtained on each key Correct answer.

Explanation

Herrnstein's matching law states that relative rate of responding matches relative rate of reinforcement across concurrently available alternatives. A 70/30 response split predicts an approximately 70/30 reinforcement split. Variables such as delay and effort alter sensitivity to reinforcement but are not the proportionality described by the basic law.

Question 42Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

In a two-component multiple schedule, the rate of reinforcement for Component 1 is reduced while Component 2 remains unchanged. Responding in Component 2 increases. This effect is called:

  1. Negative behavioral contrast
  2. Positive behavioral contrast Correct answer.
  3. Behavioral momentum
  4. Spontaneous recovery

Explanation

Positive behavioral contrast is an increase in responding in an unchanged schedule component that follows a decrease in reinforcement in another component. The direction of the change in the unchanged component is opposite to the change in the altered component. Negative contrast is the mirror image.

Question 43Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

According to the response deprivation hypothesis, an activity can function as a reinforcer for a target response when:

  1. It is delivered immediately after the target response, regardless of baseline levels
  2. Access to it is restricted below baseline, so responding restores that rate Correct answer.
  3. The learner has free access to it before each session
  4. It is a primary rather than a conditioned reinforcer

Explanation

The response deprivation hypothesis holds that restricting a behavior below its baseline rate makes the opportunity to engage in that behavior reinforcing. The organism then responds to restore the deprived behavior to its baseline level. This account explains reinforcement without appeal to intrinsic preference.

Question 44Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

After being taught to match A to B and B to C, a learner matches C to A correctly on the first attempt, with no direct training on that pair. This outcome is best described as:

  1. Higher-order respondent conditioning
  2. Stimulus generalization along a physical dimension
  3. A conditional discrimination acquired through direct reinforcement
  4. An untrained derived relation consistent with stimulus equivalence Correct answer.

Explanation

Stimulus equivalence is demonstrated when reflexive, symmetric, and transitive relations emerge among stimuli without direct training. Matching C to A after training A-B and B-C is the transitive relation. The emergence of untrained relations is the defining feature of an equivalence class.

Question 45Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

An animal on a sparse fixed-interval food schedule drinks excessive amounts of water even though it is not water deprived. This excessive drinking is best classified as:

  1. A fixed-ratio burst
  2. Contingency-shaped escape behavior
  3. Adjunctive behavior Correct answer.
  4. Reflexive respondent behavior

Explanation

Adjunctive behavior is excessive interim behavior induced by intermittent schedules of reinforcement, with schedule-induced polydipsia as the classic example. The drinking occurs in the pauses between scheduled reinforcers and is not itself reinforced. It is not produced by deprivation or by direct contingencies on drinking.

Question 46Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Which of the following is the clearest example of automatic reinforcement?

  1. A child earns tokens that are later exchanged for snacks
  2. An employee receives a paycheck every two weeks
  3. A person scratches a mosquito bite and the itching subsides Correct answer.
  4. A student receives praise from a teacher for raising a hand

Explanation

Automatic reinforcement is produced directly by the behavior itself, without another person arranging or delivering the consequence. Scratching reduces itching through the behavior's own effect on the skin, making scratching more likely. The other examples involve consequences mediated by another person.

Question 47Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A behavior analyst tallies every instance of a student leaving their seat during a 20-minute lesson. This procedure yields which measure?

  1. A measure of duration
  2. A measure of latency
  3. A count of responses Correct answer.
  4. A measure of interresponse time

Explanation

Event recording produces a count of each occurrence of the target behavior. Dividing that count by the observation time yields a rate. Duration, latency, and interresponse time require timing information rather than a simple tally.

Question 48Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Latency is measured as the time between which two events?

  1. The end of one response and the start of the next response
  2. The start of a session and the first response of the session
  3. The onset of a response and the completion of that response
  4. The presentation of a stimulus and the onset of the response Correct answer.

Explanation

Latency captures how long it takes for a response to begin after a specified stimulus or opportunity. It ends when the response starts, not when the response finishes. The interval between successive responses is interresponse time, and the time a response lasts is duration.

Question 49Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

In whole-interval recording, an interval is scored as an occurrence only when the behavior occurs in which pattern?

  1. At any point during the interval
  2. At the final moment of the interval
  3. More than once during the interval
  4. Throughout the entire interval Correct answer.

Explanation

Whole-interval recording requires the behavior to be present for the full interval before the interval is scored. This procedure tends to underestimate behavior because brief or intermittent occurrences are not counted. Partial-interval recording, by contrast, scores any occurrence within the interval.

Question 50Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

After a session, a teacher counts the number of completed math worksheets left in a tray. This is an example of which measurement method?

  1. Permanent product recording Correct answer.
  2. Latency recording
  3. Partial-interval recording
  4. Momentary time sampling

Explanation

Permanent product recording measures the tangible outcome or residue of a behavior after it has occurred. It is useful when the behavior itself is difficult to observe directly. The other methods require direct observation of the behavior during the session.