Sample practice questions

A few real questions from this free bank, with full explanations. Use the practice tool above for the whole set.

1. 1. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

   A clinician first records when a child's tantrums occur, then finds they are most frequent at transitions, and finally shows that tantrums fall each time a visual transition warning is introduced and rise when it is withdrawn. The final step reaches which level of scientific understanding?

   • a.Replication
   • b.Experimental control
   • c.Systematic description
   • d.Prediction

   Answer: b

   Explanation: The BCBA Test Content Outline names description, prediction and control as the goals of the science. Systematic observation is description, and noticing that tantrums co-vary with transitions is prediction (a correlation). Only manipulating the warning and seeing behavior change each time demonstrates control, a functional relation. Replication strengthens a finding but is not one of the three levels.

2. 2. Concepts and Principles

   A worker is paid after completing an unpredictable number of assembled units that averages 10 per payment. This is which schedule of reinforcement?

   • a.Fixed interval 10
   • b.Variable interval 10
   • c.Fixed ratio 10
   • d.Variable ratio 10

   Answer: d

   Explanation: Reinforcement based on a number of responses is a ratio schedule; when that number varies around an average it is a variable ratio, here VR 10. Fixed ratio 10 would require exactly 10 units every time. Interval schedules depend on the passage of time before a response is reinforced, not on a count of responses.

3. 3. Measurement, Data Display, and Interpretation

   Which is the best operational definition of hitting for a behavior plan?

   • a.Acting out physically in the classroom
   • b.Showing anger physically when a request is denied
   • c.Striking a person with an open or closed hand
   • d.Being aggressive toward peers during free play

   Answer: c

   Explanation: An operational definition describes the observable topography of the behavior so that two observers can agree on each occurrence. Striking a person with an open or closed hand is observable and countable. Being aggressive, showing anger and acting out are labels or inferred states; observers could disagree about what counts, so they are not operational definitions.

4. 4. Experimental Design

   In a study of whether a token system increases homework completion, the token system is the

   • a.baseline condition
   • b.dependent variable
   • c.independent variable
   • d.confounding variable

   Answer: c

   Explanation: The independent variable is what the experimenter manipulates to see its effect, here the token system. Homework completion, the measure that may change, is the dependent variable. A confounding variable is an uncontrolled factor that could explain the result, and baseline is the condition without the token system.

5. 5. Ethical and Professional Issues

   For how long does the Ethics Code require behavior analysts to retain their supervision documentation, unless a law or other party requires longer?

   • a.At least 5 years
   • b.Until the trainee is certified
   • c.At least 7 years
   • d.At least 3 years

   Answer: c

   Explanation: Code 4.05 requires behavior analysts to retain their supervision documentation for at least 7 years and as otherwise required by law and other relevant parties, and to instruct their supervisees or trainees to do the same. Shorter periods, or a period tied to when the trainee becomes certified, do not meet the standard.

6. 6. Ethical and Professional Issues

   A BCBA wants to add a new component to a client's behavior plan that substantially changes how problem behavior is handled. Under Code 2.11, what must she do before implementing it?

   • a.Obtain informed consent again for the change
   • b.Get approval from the registered behavior technician
   • c.Note the change in the next progress report
   • d.Implement it and then explain it at the next meeting

   Answer: a

   Explanation: Code 2.11 lists making substantial changes to interventions as one of the conditions requiring informed consent, and holds the behavior analyst responsible for explaining, re-obtaining and documenting it; Code 2.16 adds that modifications are explained before implementation. Reporting the change later, or getting a technician's agreement, does not satisfy either standard.

7. 7. Behavior Assessment

   A client's self-injury is dangerous to allow repeatedly. Which functional analysis variation limits exposure by ending each session after the first occurrence?

   • a.Latency-based analysis
   • b.Descriptive ABC analysis
   • c.Paired-stimulus analysis
   • d.Extended alone-condition analysis

   Answer: a

   Explanation: Thomason-Sassi and colleagues (2011) evaluated measuring the latency to the first response and ending the session after it occurs, which reduces the number of responses per session while still producing interpretable functional analysis outcomes. An extended alone condition does not limit exposure, a descriptive analysis does not manipulate variables, and paired-stimulus is a preference assessment.

8. 8. Behavior-Change Procedures

   To teach a child to write her name, a teacher gives her a sheet where the letters are printed in dark lines to trace, then makes the lines lighter across sessions until none remain. This is

   • a.stimulus fading
   • b.an extinction procedure
   • c.response shaping
   • d.backward chaining

   Answer: a

   Explanation: Gradually changing a stimulus prompt along a physical dimension, here line darkness, until it is removed is stimulus fading; the name-writing response stays the same throughout. Shaping reinforces successive approximations of a response, backward chaining teaches steps of a chain starting with the last one, and extinction withholds reinforcement.

9. 9. Selecting and Implementing Interventions

   Which goal is written in the most observable and measurable terms?

   • a.Ana will develop better reading skills this year
   • b.Ana will become confident when reading aloud
   • c.Ana will read aloud 9 of 10 sight words correctly
   • d.Ana will show understanding of sight words

   Answer: c

   Explanation: An observable and measurable goal states a countable behavior and a criterion, as the goal of reading 9 of 10 sight words aloud does. Developing better skills, showing understanding and becoming confident name outcomes or inferred states without a behavior two observers could count, so progress on them cannot be measured reliably.

10. 10. Selecting and Implementing Interventions

    A token system for a student would require staff to track points every minute, and classroom staff say they have no time for that. Under the TCO's criteria for recommending interventions, which factor is the BCBA weighing?

    • a.Internal validity
    • b.Interobserver agreement
    • c.Stimulus control
    • d.Contextual fit

    Answer: d

    Explanation: TCO H.2 lists assessment results, scientific evidence, client preferences and contextual fit (for example the expertise required and environmental resources) as bases for recommending interventions. Whether staff have the time and resources to implement a plan is contextual fit. Internal validity, interobserver agreement and stimulus control are measurement or principle concepts, not selection criteria.