BCBA Exam (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) — All Questions

A functional analysis shows a student's aggression is maintained by escape from tasks. The BCBA teaches him to hand over a 'break' card, honors each card with a short break, and no longer allows aggression to produce escape. This procedure is

• a.functional communication training✓
• b.differential reinforcement of low rates
• c.a response-cost procedure
• d.noncontingent reinforcement

Carr and Durand (1985) showed that teaching a communicative response that produces the same reinforcer as problem behavior reduces that behavior; combined with extinction of the problem behavior, this is functional communication training, a form of DRA. Noncontingent reinforcement delivers the reinforcer on a time schedule regardless of behavior. DRL reinforces lower rates of the same behavior, and response cost removes a reinforcer contingent on behavior.

A child receives a sticker at the end of each 5-minute interval in which he has not bitten his nails; any biting resets the timer. This procedure is

• a.noncontingent reinforcement
• b.differential reinforcement of low rates
• c.differential reinforcement of other behavior✓
• d.differential reinforcement of alternative behavior

In DRO, a reinforcer is delivered when the target behavior has not occurred for a specified interval, and a resetting DRO restarts the interval after each occurrence. DRA would reinforce a specific alternative response, DRL reinforces the behavior when its rate is at or below a criterion, and noncontingent reinforcement delivers reinforcers on a time schedule regardless of behavior.

A student asks relevant questions in class, but at a rate so high it disrupts the lesson. The teacher wants fewer questions, not none. Which procedure fits this goal best?

• a.Differential reinforcement of other behavior
• b.Differential reinforcement of high rates
• c.Differential reinforcement of low rates✓
• d.Extinction of all question asking

DRL reinforces a behavior when it occurs at or below a set rate, which lowers the rate of an acceptable behavior without eliminating it; Deitz and Repp (1973) used it to reduce classroom misbehavior. DRO and extinction aim to eliminate the behavior, and DRH is used to increase rates, the opposite of the goal.

A client's attention-maintained yelling is treated by delivering 10 seconds of praise and conversation every 2 minutes whether or not he has yelled. This is

• a.differential reinforcement of other behavior
• b.noncontingent reinforcement (fixed-time)✓
• c.a fixed-interval schedule of attention
• d.differential reinforcement of alternative behavior

Delivering the maintaining reinforcer on a time-based schedule, independent of responding, is noncontingent reinforcement using a fixed-time schedule, as Vollmer and colleagues (1993) did with attention. A fixed-interval schedule, DRO and DRA all make reinforcement depend on some response or its absence; a fixed-time schedule does not.

A teacher introduces a token system, but the tokens are not increasing work completion. Which step is most likely to establish the tokens as conditioned reinforcers?

• a.Wait until the end of the week to exchange tokens
• b.Use tokens only as a response-cost penalty
• c.Exchange tokens often for backup reinforcers✓
• d.Give the tokens noncontingently to build familiarity

Tokens acquire reinforcing value by being exchanged for backup reinforcers; early in a token economy, frequent exchange strengthens that relation, as in Ayllon and Azrin's token economy. Noncontingent tokens are not paired with the target response, long delays to exchange weaken the tokens' value when they are new, and using tokens only for removal gives them no link to backup reinforcers.

A therapist wants the learner to make as few errors as possible while learning a new skill. Which prompting approach is best matched to this aim?

• a.Most-to-least prompting✓
• b.Prompting only after an error
• c.Least-to-most prompting
• d.Delivering all prompts at once

Most-to-least prompting starts with the most intrusive prompt that ensures a correct response and fades to less intrusive prompts, which minimizes errors during acquisition. Least-to-most prompting gives the learner a chance to respond independently first and adds assistance after incorrect or absent responses, which allows errors. Prompting only after errors has the same effect, and combining all prompts at once is not a prompt hierarchy.

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

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.

A therapist reinforces a child for 'buh', then only for 'bah', then only for 'ball', each time no longer reinforcing the earlier form. This procedure is

• a.shaping✓
• b.prompt delay
• c.chaining
• d.stimulus fading

Shaping is the differential reinforcement of successive approximations to a target behavior: each closer form is reinforced while earlier forms are placed on extinction. Chaining links different responses into a sequence, and stimulus fading and prompt delay change antecedent prompts rather than the response that is reinforced.

To teach tooth brushing, the therapist completes every step except the final rinse, which the learner does; once that is mastered, the learner does the last two steps, and so on. This is

• a.shaping
• b.backward chaining✓
• c.forward chaining
• d.total-task chaining

In backward chaining the trainer completes all but the last step, the learner performs the final step and contacts the terminal reinforcer, and steps are added in reverse order. Forward chaining begins with the first step, total-task chaining teaches every step in each session, and shaping reinforces successive approximations of one response rather than linking several steps.

A teacher tells her class they will earn a movie on Friday only if the class average on the spelling quiz is 85% or higher. Which type of group contingency is this?

• a.Noncontingent
• b.Interdependent✓
• c.Independent
• d.Dependent

Litow and Pumroy (1975) described three group contingencies: independent (each member earns by their own performance), dependent (the group's reward depends on the performance of one or a few members), and interdependent (everyone earns based on the performance of the group as a whole, such as a class average). A noncontingent arrangement delivers the reward regardless of performance.

A child learns to greet people in the clinic with one therapist. To promote generalization, the BCBA has the child practice greetings with several adults in several rooms. Which Stokes and Baer tactic is this?

• a.Use indiscriminable contingencies
• b.Program common stimuli
• c.Train sufficient exemplars✓
• d.Introduce to natural maintaining contingencies

Stokes and Baer (1977) described training sufficient exemplars as teaching across enough examples of stimuli or responses that the behavior generalizes to untrained ones, which several adults and rooms provide. Natural maintaining contingencies refers to handing behavior over to reinforcers already in the environment; indiscriminable contingencies make it hard to tell when reinforcement is available; programming common stimuli brings features of the target setting into training.

After functional communication training, a child asks for breaks so often that little work gets done. Which approach supports maintenance while keeping problem behavior low?

• a.Thin the reinforcement schedule gradually with signals✓
• b.Replace the break card with a punishment procedure
• c.Return to the original escape contingency for aggression
• d.Stop honoring break requests altogether starting tomorrow

Hanley, Iwata and Thompson (2001) evaluated ways of thinning reinforcement after FCT and found that gradually introduced multiple schedules, in which distinct stimuli signal when requests will and will not be reinforced, kept requests at practical levels with low problem behavior. Abruptly ending reinforcement for requests risks the return of problem behavior. Reinstating escape for aggression or switching to punishment abandons the replacement behavior.

Each time a student disrupts a difficult writing lesson, he is sent to sit in the hallway for five minutes. Disruptions during writing increase. What most likely explains this?

• a.Time-out lets him escape the task✓
• b.The hallway gives too little adult attention
• c.Five minutes of time-out is far too brief to work
• d.Time-out always increases problem behavior

Time-out is intended to remove access to reinforcement, but if the time-in environment is aversive, as a difficult task may be, removal from it can function as negative reinforcement by escape, increasing the behavior. The duration is not the issue when the procedure itself reinforces the behavior. Time-out does not always backfire, and reduced adult attention is what time-out is supposed to provide, not a reason for an increase.

A child who draws on the classroom wall is required to clean that mark and also to wash the rest of the wall. This is an example of

• a.positive practice overcorrection
• b.restitutional overcorrection✓
• c.response cost
• d.exclusionary time-out

Foxx and Azrin (1972) described restitutional overcorrection as requiring the person to restore the disturbed environment to a state better than before the behavior. Positive practice overcorrection requires repeated practice of the correct form of behavior. Response cost removes a reinforcer such as tokens, and exclusionary time-out removes the person from the setting.

Shortly after extinction begins for attention-maintained screaming, the child also begins to hit and cry in ways not seen before. These behaviors are best described as

• a.evidence that extinction has already failed
• b.emotional side effects of extinction✓
• c.positive punishment effects of ignoring
• d.response generalization produced by praise

Lerman, Iwata and Wallace (1999) reported that extinction was sometimes accompanied by bursting and extinction-induced aggression, emotional effects that a plan should anticipate. Their early appearance does not show that extinction has failed. They are not new responses produced by praise, and withholding attention is not positive punishment, which would add a stimulus.

A teacher arranges the classroom so that toys a child likes are visible but out of reach. When the child initiates by pointing at a toy, the teacher prompts a more elaborate request before handing it over. This is

• a.incidental teaching✓
• b.a changing-criterion procedure
• c.discrete-trial training
• d.a DRO procedure

Hart and Risley (1975) described incidental teaching: the environment is arranged so the learner initiates, and the adult uses those child-initiated moments to prompt more elaborate language, then gives the requested item. Discrete-trial training is adult-initiated with a set trial structure. DRO reinforces the absence of a behavior, and a changing criterion is a design or stepwise criterion, not a teaching arrangement.

In a matching-to-sample task, a learner selects the red card when the sample is the word 'RED' and the blue card when the sample is 'BLUE'. The correct selection depends on the sample. This is

• a.an echoic relation
• b.a conditional discrimination✓
• c.a simple discrimination
• d.response generalization

In a conditional discrimination, which comparison stimulus is correct depends on another stimulus, the sample. In a simple discrimination one stimulus is always correct regardless of context. Response generalization concerns untrained response forms, and an echoic is a vocal response that copies a vocal model.