G.14: Design and evaluate group contingencies.
Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.
A teacher tells the class: "If the class average on Friday's spelling quiz is 85% or higher, everyone gets 15 minutes of extra recess." Which type of group contingency is this?
- A. Independent group contingencyIn an independent contingency, each student earns the reward based only on their own performance.
- B. Dependent group contingencyIn a dependent contingency, the group's reward depends on the performance of one individual or a small subgroup.
- C. Individual contingency contractA contract is an individualized written agreement. It is not a class-wide criterion.
- D. Interdependent group contingencyCorrect. Everyone's reward depends on the collective performance of the group, which makes it an interdependent contingency.
A teacher tells the class they will all get a pizza party if one student, Jake, turns in all of his homework this week. What is the most important risk for the BCBA to monitor?
- A. Peers may pressure, criticize, or threaten Jake, or he may be scapegoated if he does not meet the criterionCorrect. Dependent ('hero') contingencies can produce unwanted peer pressure or social punishment directed at the target student, which needs to be monitored.
- B. Jake's homework completion cannot be reinforced because the reward goes to the whole group rather than to him aloneJake also gets the party, and peer attention adds reinforcement, so his behavior can still be reinforced.
- C. The contingency is unfair because, in a group contingency, every student must meet the same criterionDependent group contingencies make the group's reward depend on one student's performance by design. Not every group contingency needs a shared criterion.
- D. Because each student is reinforced only for their own homework, peers will have little reason to support JakeThis describes an independent group contingency. Here, the whole group's reward depends on Jake.
A distribution center manager announces that each warehouse employee who completes the safety checklist on every shift this month will get a $50 bonus. Each employee's bonus depends only on his or her own checklists. Which type of group contingency is this?
- A. Dependent group contingencyIn a dependent contingency, the whole group's reward depends on the performance of one person or a small subset. Here, no employee's bonus depends on anyone else.
- B. Interdependent group contingencyAn interdependent contingency requires the group as a whole (or every member) to meet the criterion before anyone is rewarded. That is not the case here.
- C. Independent group contingencyCorrect. The same contingency applies to everyone, but each person earns the reward based only on his or her own performance. That is an independent group contingency.
- D. Randomized interdependent contingencyRandomized interdependent contingencies randomly select a target member, behavior, or criterion, and the group's reward depends on the result. No randomization or shared reward is involved here.