ABAT Verbal Behavior 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A child sees a glass of juice and says 'juice' without being asked. This is an example of which verbal operant?
- Mand
- Tact (Correct answer)
- Echoic
- Intraverbal
Correct answer: Tact
A tact is a verbal operant controlled by a nonverbal antecedent stimulus (the juice) rather than by deprivation or a verbal prompt.
Question 2: Which of Skinner's verbal operants involves a point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity between the stimulus and response?
- Intraverbal
- Textual (Correct answer)
- Tact
- Mand
Correct answer: Textual
Textual behavior involves reading printed text aloud, where the written stimulus and spoken response share point-to-point correspondence and formal similarity.
Question 3: A therapist says 'What do you use to cut paper?' and the child responds 'scissors.' This is an example of:
- Tact
- Mand
- Intraverbal (Correct answer)
- Echoic
Correct answer: Intraverbal
An intraverbal is a verbal response to another verbal stimulus where there is no point-to-point correspondence between the two.
Question 4: The automatic reinforcement hypothesis for vocal stereotypy suggests that repetitive vocalizations are maintained by:
- Social attention from caregivers
- Access to tangible items
- Sensory consequences produced by the behavior itself (Correct answer)
- Escape from demands
Correct 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.
Question 5: When teaching mands, which motivating operation (MO) should ideally be in place before running a trial?
- A conditioned punisher for the target item
- An abolishing operation reducing the item's value
- An establishing operation increasing the item's value (Correct answer)
- Satiation for the target item
Correct 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.
Question 6: 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:
- Tact followed by transcription
- Echoic followed by intraverbal
- Textual followed by copying-a-text (Correct answer)
- Intraverbal followed by tact
Correct 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.
Question 7: Which procedure involves reinforcing successive approximations to a target mand using the learner's own vocalizations as the baseline?
- Transfer of stimulus control
- Shaping via differential reinforcement (Correct answer)
- Backward chaining
- Stimulus fading
Correct 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.
ABAT Verbal Behavior 4
A child sees a glass of juice and says 'juice' without being asked.
This is an example of which verbal operant?