Verbal Behavior Flashcards
7 cards from real ABAT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Verbal Behavior flashcards as text
A child sees a glass of juice and says 'juice' without being asked. This is an example of which verbal operant?
Answer: Tact
A tact is a verbal operant controlled by a nonverbal antecedent stimulus (the juice) rather than by deprivation or a verbal prompt.
Which of Skinner's verbal operants involves a point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity between the stimulus and response?
Answer: Textual
Textual behavior involves reading printed text aloud, where the written stimulus and spoken response share point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity.
A therapist says 'What do you use to cut paper?' and the child responds 'scissors.' This is an example of:
Answer: Intraverbal
An intraverbal is a verbal response to another verbal stimulus where there is no point-to-point correspondence between the two.
The automatic reinforcement hypothesis for vocal stereotypy suggests that repetitive vocalizations are maintained by:
Answer: Sensory consequences produced by the behavior itself
Vocal stereotypy maintained by automatic reinforcement is reinforced by the sensory (auditory/proprioceptive) consequences it produces, independent of social mediation.
When teaching mands, which motivating operation (MO) should ideally be in place before running a trial?
Answer: An establishing operation increasing the item's value
An establishing operation (EO) increases the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus, making it more likely the learner will mand for that item.
A learner reads a word written on a card and then writes that same word on paper. This verbal operant combination is best described as:
Answer: Textual followed by copying-a-text
Reading printed text aloud is textual behavior; reproducing written text in writing is copying-a-text, both involving point-to-point correspondence.
Which procedure involves reinforcing successive approximations to a target mand using the learner's own vocalizations as the baseline?
Answer: Shaping via differential reinforcement
Shaping differentially reinforces closer and closer approximations to the target vocal mand, starting from whatever vocalizations the learner already produces.