MCAT Behavioral Sciences Question 199: Answer and Explanation

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Question: 199

3. A five-year-old boy has formed a habit of writing on his parents' living room walls. Based on operant conditioning principles, which of the following types of punishment would be least effective in stopping this behavior?

  • A. Giving the child a time out immediately after he writes on the wall, every time the child writes on the wall.
  • B. Providing the child with a cookie at the end of each day that he abstains from writing on the walls.
  • C. Spanking the child (an intense punishment) every time that the child writes on the wall.
  • D. Punishing the child occasionally, when the parents happen to notice writing on the wall.

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

Operant conditioning employs consequences to modify behavior. Reinforcement is more effective at modifying behavior than punishment is, but for both, the timing/schedule and intensity of the reinforcement or punishment is important. In general, delivering punishment consistently for every occurrence of the behavior produces more effective suppression of the behavior than does delivering punishment intermittently or inconsistently. Punishing the child only when the negative behavior happens to be noticed would not qualify as consistent and would thus not be very effective (choice D is correct). Immediacy, or delivering the punishment immediately after the act, will increase the effectiveness of the punishment, as will consistency (choice A would be more effective than D, and is therefore wrong). Positive reinforcement is generally more effective than punishment for increasing the frequency of a desired behavior (not writing on the walls), and diminishes his motivation to engage in the undesired response (choice B is more effective than D, and is therefore wrong). Finally, while severe punishment can have undesirable side effects, in general, the more intense the punishment, the more effective the punishment is in producing major, rapid, and long lasting suppression (choice C is more effective than D, and is therefore wrong).

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