RBT (Registered Behavior Technician)

Free practice

Sample RBT (Registered Behavior Technician) questions

A few real questions from the bank, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Every question is free — no signup to start.

1. Data Collection and Graphing

   1. Maya's program says to record how long it takes her to start brushing her teeth after the instruction 'Time to brush' is delivered. The RBT starts a stopwatch as the instruction ends and stops it the instant Maya picks up the toothbrush. Which measurement procedure is the RBT using?

   • a.Latency recording, timing from the instruction to the start of the responseCorrect
   • b.Duration recording, timing from the start of the response to its end
   • c.Interresponse time, timing from one response to the next response
   • d.Frequency recording, counting each toothbrushing response in the session

   Why: (a) is correct: latency is the elapsed time between the onset of a stimulus — here the instruction — and the beginning of the response, which is exactly what the stopwatch captures. (b) is plausible because duration is also a timed measure, but duration would begin when Maya starts brushing and end when she stops; the RBT stops the watch at the moment brushing begins, so no duration is recorded. (c) is plausible because interresponse time is timed too, but IRT runs from the end of one response to the start of the next, and only one response is involved here. (d) is wrong because frequency produces a count, not a time value; it would tell the team how often Maya brushed, not how long she took to begin.

2. Data Collection and Graphing

   2. Devon's plan asks the RBT to record how much time passes between one hand-raise and the next during a 20-minute lesson. The RBT starts timing when Devon lowers his hand and stops when he raises it again, repeating this for every pair of raises. Which measure is being recorded?

   • a.Latency, the time from the teacher's question to Devon's hand-raise
   • b.Duration, the total time Devon's hand stays in the air each time
   • c.Interresponse time, the time between the end of one raise and the nextCorrect
   • d.Rate, the number of hand-raises divided by the total minutes of the lesson

   Why: (c) is correct: interresponse time is the interval between the end of one response and the beginning of the next, which is precisely what the RBT times. (a) is plausible because latency is also measured in seconds, but latency is anchored to a stimulus such as the teacher's question, and no stimulus is being timed from here. (b) is plausible because duration is timed as well, but duration would run from the moment the hand goes up to the moment it comes down — the RBT is timing the gap between raises instead. (d) is wrong because rate is a count divided by time and would yield hand-raises per minute, not the spacing between individual responses.

3. Data Collection and Graphing

   3. Nora's crying episodes vary from a few seconds to nearly ten minutes, and the team wants to know whether the episodes are getting shorter over time. What should the RBT record?

   • a.Frequency, by counting each crying episode that occurs in the session
   • b.Duration, by timing each crying episode from its onset to its endCorrect
   • c.Latency, by timing from the demand to the start of each crying episode
   • d.Rate, by dividing the number of crying episodes by the session length

   Why: (b) is correct: the team's question is about how long episodes last, and duration recording times each episode from onset to offset, so a shrinking duration answers it directly. (a) is plausible because counting is the most common measure, but a count would stay the same whether an episode lasted five seconds or five minutes. (c) is plausible because latency is a timed measure, but it captures how quickly crying begins after a demand, not how long it continues. (d) is wrong for the same reason as (a): rate standardizes a count for session length but still says nothing about episode length.

4. Data Collection and Graphing

   4. An RBT counts Ellis's blurt-outs in a 30-minute session on Monday and in a 50-minute session on Tuesday. The BCBA wants the two days compared fairly on a single graph. Which summary should the RBT plot?

   • a.Total count of blurt-outs, because the raw number is what was observed
   • b.Duration of blurt-outs, because it controls for how long each one lasts
   • c.Percentage of intervals with blurt-outs, because percentages compare well
   • d.Rate of blurt-outs per minute, because it controls for session lengthCorrect

   Why: (d) is correct: when observation periods differ in length, a raw count is not comparable, and dividing the count by the minutes observed produces a rate that puts both days on the same footing. (a) is plausible because the counts are what the RBT actually collected, but a larger count in a longer session may reflect more time, not more behavior. (b) is plausible because duration also controls for something, but it measures how long each blurt-out lasts, which is not what was counted here. (c) is plausible because percentages are comparable across sessions, but interval data were never collected; the RBT cannot report a percentage of intervals from a simple tally.

5. Data Collection and Graphing

   5. Which description defines interresponse time?

   • a.The time from a stimulus to the beginning of the first response
   • b.The time from the beginning of a response to the end of that response
   • c.The time from the end of one response to the beginning of the next oneCorrect
   • d.The number of responses divided by the time the behavior was observed

   Why: (c) is correct: interresponse time measures the gap between consecutive responses — from the end of one to the onset of the next — and is used when the team cares about how closely responses are spaced. (a) defines latency, which is anchored to a stimulus rather than to a preceding response. (b) defines duration, which measures the length of a single response rather than the space between two. (d) defines rate, which is a count standardized by observation time; it can be high while individual interresponse times still vary widely.

6. Data Collection and Graphing

   6. Kai claps once, briefly, several times an hour, and each clap has a clear beginning and end. Sessions are always exactly 60 minutes. The BCBA wants the simplest count-based measure of how much clapping occurs. What should the RBT record?

   • a.Frequency, tallying each clap as it occurs throughout the sessionCorrect
   • b.Duration, timing how long each individual clap lasts in seconds
   • c.Latency, timing how long after arrival the first clap occurs
   • d.Partial interval, marking each interval in which a clap occurs

   Why: (a) is correct: clapping is a discrete response with a clear onset and offset that occurs at a manageable rate, so a simple tally captures it accurately, and because sessions are always 60 minutes the counts are already comparable. (b) is plausible because duration is a continuous measure, but a clap lasts a fraction of a second, so timing it adds nothing the count does not already say. (c) is plausible because latency is easy to collect, but it describes only the first clap of the session. (d) is plausible because interval recording is common, but it is an estimate and it would lose the exact count that this behavior easily supports.