BCBA Exam (Board Certified Behavior Analyst) — All Questions

Hair pulling, table slapping, and throwing toys all reliably produce adult attention for a child. Responses that differ in form but share the same effect on the environment are best described as

• a.a functional response class✓
• b.a behavior chain
• c.a single response topography
• d.a stimulus class

A response class is a set of responses grouped by a shared effect or function, here producing attention, even though their topographies differ. A stimulus class groups stimuli, not responses. A behavior chain is a sequence in which each response produces the cue for the next, and a single topography would require the responses to share one form, which these do not.

After several painful injections given by staff wearing white coats, a child starts to cry and tremble at the sight of anyone in a white coat. The crying at the sight of a white coat is best explained by

• a.operant extinction
• b.negative punishment
• c.positive reinforcement
• d.respondent conditioning✓

The white coat was repeatedly paired with a painful unconditioned stimulus and now elicits an emotional response on its own, which is respondent (Pavlovian) conditioning. No consequence is following the crying, so positive reinforcement and negative punishment do not apply, and operant extinction would be withholding a reinforcer for a previously reinforced response.

Whenever a student puts her head on the desk during math, the teacher takes the math worksheet away. Head-down behavior during math becomes more frequent. This is an example of

• a.positive punishment
• b.negative punishment
• c.negative reinforcement✓
• d.positive reinforcement

The response (head down) is followed by removal of a stimulus (the worksheet), and the response increases in future frequency: negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement would add a stimulus. Punishment of either kind would decrease the behavior, and here it increased.

A teen loses phone access for the rest of the day each time he swears at his parents, and swearing becomes less frequent. Which contingency is operating?

• a.Negative reinforcement
• b.Negative punishment✓
• c.Positive punishment
• d.Extinction

Removal of a stimulus (phone access) contingent on the response, followed by a decrease in the response, is negative punishment. Positive punishment adds a stimulus. Negative reinforcement increases behavior. Extinction means withholding the reinforcer that had maintained swearing, not taking away an unrelated privilege.

A child's hand flapping occurs at the same high rate when he is alone, when adults ignore it, and when adults comment on it. Which contingency most likely maintains it?

• a.Access to tangible items delivered by others
• b.Automatic reinforcement✓
• c.Socially mediated attention from adults
• d.Socially mediated escape from demands

The TCO distinguishes automatic from socially mediated contingencies. Behavior that persists when the person is alone and does not change with adult reactions is not depending on anything another person delivers, which points to automatic reinforcement. Attention, escape and tangible contingencies all require another person to deliver or remove something, and the pattern shows no sensitivity to those.

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✓

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.

During a session, a key light is red while a fixed-ratio 5 schedule is in effect and green while a fixed-interval 30-s schedule is in effect. The two components alternate, and each produces food on its own. This arrangement is a

• a.multiple schedule✓
• b.mixed schedule
• c.chained schedule
• d.concurrent schedule

A multiple schedule alternates two or more components, each correlated with its own stimulus and each producing primary reinforcement. A mixed schedule is the same arrangement without distinct stimuli. In a chained schedule, completing one component produces the stimulus for the next and only the final link ends in primary reinforcement. Concurrent schedules are available at the same time, not in alternation.

A student raises his hand only when Ms. Lee is teaching, because Ms. Lee calls on raised hands and the substitute does not. For hand raising, Ms. Lee's presence functions as

• a.an establishing operation
• b.a discriminative stimulus✓
• c.a conditioned punisher
• d.an unconditioned stimulus

A discriminative stimulus is present when a response has been reinforced and absent when it has not, and it comes to evoke the response. Ms. Lee's presence signals that hand raising will be reinforced. An establishing operation changes the value of a reinforcer rather than signalling its availability; an unconditioned stimulus elicits respondent behavior; a conditioned punisher would decrease hand raising.

After being taught to say 'hi' when greeting her teacher, a girl also begins to say 'hello' and 'hey there' to the teacher, although only 'hi' was taught. This is

• a.respondent conditioning
• b.stimulus generalization
• c.stimulus discrimination
• d.response generalization✓

New, untrained response forms occurring under the same stimulus conditions are response generalization. Stimulus generalization would be the trained response ('hi') occurring to new stimuli such as other adults. Discrimination is responding differently to different stimuli, and respondent conditioning concerns elicited, not operant, behavior.

Which statement best distinguishes a motivating operation from a discriminative stimulus?

• a.An MO signals a consequence's availability; an SD alters its value
• b.An MO follows a response; an SD is delivered after the reinforcer
• c.An MO alters a consequence's value; an SD signals its availability✓
• d.An MO affects only respondent behavior; an SD affects only operant behavior

Michael (1982) separated the two functions: a motivating operation alters the reinforcing effectiveness of a consequence, while a discriminative stimulus is correlated with the differential availability of that consequence. The reversed statement swaps the definitions. Both operate on operant behavior, and both are antecedent variables, so describing either as following the response or the reinforcer is incorrect.

A new employee puts on gloves before handling food on her very first shift, having read the sign 'Wear gloves when handling food', although she has never contacted any consequence for doing so. Her glove wearing is best described as

• a.respondent behavior
• b.an echoic
• c.rule-governed behavior✓
• d.contingency-shaped behavior

Behavior controlled by a verbal description of a contingency, before the person has contacted the contingency itself, is rule-governed. Contingency-shaped behavior is established by direct contact with consequences, which has not happened yet. Glove wearing is not elicited like a respondent, and it is not a vocal repetition of someone else's speech, as an echoic would be.

A thirsty child with no juice in sight says 'juice' and is given juice. According to Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, this response is

• a.an intraverbal
• b.a tact
• c.an echoic
• d.a mand✓

A mand is a verbal operant under the control of a motivating operation and reinforced by the specific consequence it specifies. Here thirst controls the response and juice reinforces it. A tact is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus in view; an intraverbal by a preceding verbal stimulus without point-to-point correspondence; an echoic by a vocal model with point-to-point correspondence.

A thirsty child sees a glass of juice on the table and says 'juice'. The response is evoked both by thirst and by the sight of the juice. It is best described as

• a.a pure tact controlled by the juice
• b.an echoic controlled by a vocal model
• c.an autoclitic modifying a mand
• d.a response under multiple control✓

Skinner described verbal responses as often having more than one controlling variable. Here a motivating operation (thirst) and a nonverbal stimulus (the juice) both evoke the word, so it is a mixed mand-tact under multiple control. Calling it a pure tact ignores the motivating operation; there is no vocal model for an echoic; and an autoclitic is verbal behavior about one's own verbal behavior.

A learner is taught to match spoken words to pictures (A to B) and pictures to printed words (B to C). Without further training, she now matches printed words to the corresponding spoken words (C to A). This untrained performance demonstrates

• a.symmetry only
• b.stimulus equivalence✓
• c.reflexivity only
• d.generalization

Sidman and Tailby (1982) define equivalence by reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity. A C-to-A relation after A-to-B and B-to-C training requires both symmetry and transitivity combined, the classic equivalence test. Reflexivity is matching a stimulus to itself; symmetry alone would be B-to-A or C-to-B; generalization is responding to physically similar stimuli, which spoken and printed words are not.

According to behavioral momentum theory, a response's resistance to change in a stimulus context is determined mainly by

• a.the delay between each response and its reinforcer
• b.the number of prompts used in that context
• c.the rate of reinforcement in that context✓
• d.the rate of responding in that context

Nevin's work showed that resistance to change depends on the rate of reinforcement correlated with the stimulus context (the Pavlovian stimulus-reinforcer relation), not on the response rate the schedule maintains. A high response rate does not by itself make a response persistent. Prompt count and reinforcer delay are not the variables the theory identifies.

On two concurrent variable-interval schedules, alternative A produces 30 reinforcers per hour and alternative B produces 10 per hour. Strict matching predicts what proportion of responses will be allocated to A?

• a.75%✓
• b.50%
• c.25%
• d.67%

Herrnstein's matching law states that the relative rate of responding matches the relative rate of reinforcement. A's share of reinforcement is 30 / (30 + 10) = 30/40 = 0.75, so 75% of responses are predicted on A. 25% is B's share, 50% would ignore the difference, and 67% does not correspond to the stated rates.

Which feature distinguishes imitation from a response that simply happens to look like someone else's behavior?

• a.The response differs in form from the modeled behavior
• b.The imitator is reinforced by the person who modeled it
• c.The response occurs at least a day after the model
• d.The model's behavior evokes the response✓

In the behavior-analytic definition, imitation requires that the model's behavior evoke the response, with formal similarity and close temporal relation; a coincidental resemblance lacks that controlling relation. Reinforcement by the model is not required, as generalized imitation of unreinforced models shows. A long delay and a different form are the opposite of the defining features.