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B.6: Identify and distinguish between automatic and socially mediated contingencies.

Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.

In an analogue functional analysis, a child's hand flapping occurs at high, similar rates in the alone, attention, demand, and play conditions. The hand flapping is most likely maintained by:
  1. A. Automatic reinforcement
    Correct. Persistent responding in every condition, including when no one is present, suggests reinforcement produced by the behavior itself without another person's involvement.
  2. B. Socially mediated negative reinforcement (escape)
    Incorrect. Escape-maintained behavior would be highest in the demand condition.
  3. C. Socially mediated positive reinforcement (attention)
    Incorrect. Attention-maintained behavior would be highest in the attention condition, not equally high everywhere including alone.
  4. D. Respondent elicitation
    Incorrect. No eliciting stimulus has been identified, and the pattern fits an operant maintained by its own sensory consequences.
A 38-year-old man in an adult day program picks at the skin on his forearm for long periods. Picking happens at similar rates whether he is alone or with staff, and no one reacts to it. It has continued for years. Which type of contingency most likely maintains the skin picking?
  1. A. Automatic reinforcement
    Correct. The behavior keeps occurring at similar levels without anyone responding to it, including when he is alone. This suggests that the behavior produces its own reinforcing consequence (for example, sensory stimulation), which is automatic reinforcement.
  2. B. Socially mediated positive reinforcement
    Socially mediated positive reinforcement requires another person to deliver something, such as attention, after the behavior. Picking continues with no one reacting.
  3. C. Socially mediated negative reinforcement
    Socially mediated negative reinforcement requires another person to remove something, such as a demand. No one removes anything after the picking.
  4. D. Operant extinction
    Extinction would cause the behavior to decline over time. Picking has persisted for years, so something is still reinforcing it.
In a loud elementary school cafeteria, an 8-year-old covers his ears and hums loudly. Humming muffles the clatter and chatter around him. Staff do not respond to the humming, and lunch continues as usual. Humming in the cafeteria has increased over the semester, but he rarely hums in quiet settings such as the library. Which contingency best accounts for the humming?
  1. A. Socially mediated negative reinforcement
    No other person removes the noise or ends lunch after the humming. The reduction in aversive stimulation does not depend on anyone else.
  2. B. Automatic negative reinforcement
    Correct. The humming itself reduces an aversive stimulus (the cafeteria noise), no other person is involved, and humming is rare when that aversive noise is absent. This is automatic negative reinforcement.
  3. C. Automatic positive reinforcement
    If the humming were maintained by the stimulation it adds, it would be expected in quiet settings too, where that stimulation is equally available. It occurs mainly when there is aversive noise to reduce.
  4. D. Socially mediated positive reinforcement
    Staff ignore the humming, so no attention or tangible item is delivered by another person.

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