ABA Behavioral Interventions & Techniques 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A practitioner wants to decrease a problem behavior using extinction. The client's behavior is maintained by escape from demands. Which extinction procedure should be used?
- Withhold social attention following the behavior
- Continue demands regardless of the behavior (escape extinction) (Correct answer)
- Remove all demands from the environment
- Deliver preferred items after each demand
Correct answer: Continue demands regardless of the behavior (escape extinction)
Escape extinction involves preventing the learner from escaping or avoiding the demand when the problem behavior occurs, removing the negative reinforcer that maintains the behavior.
Question 2: In Functional Communication Training (FCT), the appropriate communicative response must be:
- Taught only in structured therapy sessions
- Reinforced on an intermittent schedule from the start
- Reinforced on the same schedule as the problem behavior it replaces (Correct answer)
- Physically prompted on every trial indefinitely
Correct answer: Reinforced on the same schedule as the problem behavior it replaces
FCT is most effective when the communicative response produces the same reinforcer, with equal or greater ease, than the problem behavior it is designed to replace.
Question 3: Which prompting strategy involves waiting a set amount of time after an SD before delivering a prompt, allowing the learner the opportunity to respond independently?
- Simultaneous prompting
- Time delay prompting (Correct answer)
- Graduated guidance
- Stimulus fading
Correct answer: Time delay prompting
Time delay prompting inserts a pause (constant or progressive) between the discriminative stimulus and the prompt, creating an opportunity for independent responding.
Question 4: A BCBA implements a token economy. Tokens should function as which type of conditioned reinforcer?
- Unconditioned reinforcer
- Generalized conditioned reinforcer (Correct answer)
- Negative reinforcer
- Natural reinforcer
Correct answer: Generalized conditioned reinforcer
Tokens function as generalized conditioned reinforcers because they can be exchanged for a variety of backup reinforcers, making them effective across many motivating conditions.
Question 5: Which behavioral technique involves presenting an aversive stimulus contingent on a behavior to decrease future occurrences of that behavior?
- Negative reinforcement
- Positive punishment (Correct answer)
- Response cost
- Extinction
Correct answer: Positive punishment
Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulus following a behavior, which decreases the probability that the behavior will occur again in the future.
Question 6: A practitioner is using backward chaining to teach handwashing. What is the FIRST step the learner performs independently?
- Turning on the water
- Applying soap
- Drying hands (the last step in the chain) (Correct answer)
- Wetting hands
Correct answer: Drying hands (the last step in the chain)
Backward chaining teaches the final step of the chain first, reinforcing the learner for completing the last response while the practitioner completes all preceding steps.
Question 7: An antecedent intervention designed to reduce problem behavior by pre-emptively providing access to a reinforcer on a fixed time schedule is called:
- Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)
- Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) (Correct answer)
- High-probability instructional sequence
- Behavioral momentum
Correct answer: Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR)
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) delivers the maintaining reinforcer on a time-based schedule independent of behavior, which reduces the motivating operation for problem behavior.
ABA Behavioral Interventions & Techniques 3
A practitioner wants to decrease a problem behavior using extinction.
The client's behavior is maintained by escape from demands.
Which extinction procedure should be used?