This question is purely definitional. Operant conditioning is learning by consequence, and a reinforcer is a good consequence that increases the possibility that the action will be repeated and a punishment is a bad consequence that decreases the possibility that the action will be repeated. It is important to note that if any of the answer choices use the term “association” with operant conditioning, then it is wrong because “association” is a term tied specifically to classical conditioning.

Operant conditioning is learning by consequence, and a reinforcer is a good consequence that increases the possibility that the action will be repeated and a punishment is a bad consequence that decreases the possibility that the action will be repeated. Sarah's dad is trying to get Sarah to not repeat her actions in the future and is taking away her phone as a punishment. Positive punishment is when a bad thing is added and negative punishment is when a good thing is taken away. Since a good thing is taken away to decrease the likelihood that she will repeat her action, the removal of the phone is a negative punishment.

Operant conditioning is learning by consequence, and a reinforcer is a good consequence that increases the possibility that the action will be repeated and a punishment is a bad consequence that decreases the possibility that the action will be repeated. Sarah's dad is trying to get Sarah to repeat her action in the future and is using the cookie reward as a reinforcer. Positive reinforcers are when a good thing is added and negative reinforcers are when a bad thing is taken away. Since a good thing is added to increase the likelihood that she will repeat her action, the cookies represent a positive reinforcer.

The process of shaping also involves customizing the timing of reinforcement, in addition to the nature of the reinforcements themselves, in order to produce the desired behavior in the desired manner over the desired timeframe.

Intrinsic motivations are those motivations which result from a desire to perform an act for its own sake, and not for any promised rewards or threatened punishments. The correct answer is the only one which both deals with a motivation for performing a task, and provides an intrinsic reason for that motivation.

Variable ratio reinforcement is a schedule where a behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable amount of responses. Note that the amount of responses does not have to be a dependent variable truly free of interaction. For example, research shows that a person is far more likely to give change to a beggar if they first witness other people not giving change, so in our example the odds of the beggar getting a reinforcing response may rise over time, but they still don't know exactly when the reinforcement will occur.

Variable ratio is acknowledged as being the schedule of reinforcement which produces the longest-lasting results after extinction of the reinforcer. In some cases, the modified behavior can be permanent.

A fixed interval schedule of reinforcement occurs when a reinforcer predictably occurs after a set number of responses (or time) have passed. Paychecks and report cards (if good) are both examples of fixed interval reinforcers. The dog's feeding schedule may seem like a good example of fixed interval at first, but is actually a continuous schedule of reinforcement, since (unless the owner is negligent) there will be no morning or evening that passes where the dog is not fed.

This is an example of negative reinforcement. It is a form of reinforcement because John’s mother wants to encourage him to continue a good behavior (e.g. helping his sister) by presenting a consequence that he enjoys (e.g. not doing chores). It is considered “negative” because something is being taken away (e.g. the chores) as a consequence: remember that negative refers to something being taken away, without any regard for whether or not the thing taken away is “good” or “bad.”

Since the reward is given consistently on every Friday—not sometimes on Thursday and sometimes on Monday–the reinforcement schedule is considered fixed. Since the reward is given on the basis of time, not on the basis of number of desirable responses (i.e. number of good, well-behaved actions), it is considered to be an interval schedule. Another way to think about this interval schedule is that no matter how good a student is, he or she cannot “speed up” the reward. In other words, it doesn’t matter if he saves the world from imminent doom on Monday, Ms. Johnson will still not reward him until Friday. Combining the “fixed” and “interval” aspects, we get the correct answer: this is a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement.