ABA Behavioral Principles and Concepts 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The principle of 'parsimony' in ABA requires that practitioners:
- Use the most complex intervention available to ensure effectiveness
- Consider the simplest, least intrusive explanation or intervention first (Correct answer)
- Apply multiple procedures simultaneously for efficiency
- Default to punishment-based procedures before reinforcement-based ones
Correct answer: Consider the simplest, least intrusive explanation or intervention first
Parsimony requires choosing the simplest, least complex explanation or intervention that is likely to be effective before resorting to more complex options.
Question 2: In ABA, 'spontaneous recovery' refers to:
- A behavior reappearing after a rest period following extinction (Correct answer)
- A sudden increase in a behavior after punishment is removed
- A client independently generalizing a skill to a new setting
- The natural recovery of a behavior after reinforcer satiation ends
Correct answer: A behavior reappearing after a rest period following extinction
Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a previously extinguished behavior after a period of time has passed without conditioning trials.
Question 3: Which of the following is an example of a 'compound schedule' of reinforcement?
- Reinforcing every 5th response
- A multiple schedule with FR in one component and VR in another (Correct answer)
- Continuous reinforcement during initial acquisition
- Thinning the schedule from CRF to FR-5
Correct answer: A multiple schedule with FR in one component and VR in another
A multiple schedule is a compound schedule in which two or more independent schedules alternate, each correlated with a distinct discriminative stimulus.
Question 4: When praise (a conditioned reinforcer) is repeatedly delivered without being paired with backup reinforcers, it may lose effectiveness through a process called:
- Satiation
- Extinction of the conditioned reinforcer (Correct answer)
- Habituation
- Negative reinforcement
Correct answer: Extinction of the conditioned reinforcer
Conditioned reinforcers lose their reinforcing value if they are no longer paired with the unconditioned or backup reinforcers that originally established them.
Question 5: The four-term contingency in ABA adds which element to the traditional three-term contingency?
- The organism's biological state
- The motivating operation (MO) (Correct answer)
- The response topography
- The schedule of reinforcement
Correct answer: The motivating operation (MO)
The four-term contingency adds the motivating operation (MO) to the SD → R → SR three-term contingency, recognizing how deprivation or satiation alters behavior.
Question 6: A behavior analyst notices that a client's aggression increases when a demanding task is removed. This is most consistent with aggression being maintained by:
- Positive reinforcement (attention)
- Negative reinforcement (escape) (Correct answer)
- Automatic reinforcement (sensory)
- Positive punishment
Correct answer: Negative reinforcement (escape)
When aggression is followed by removal of a demanding task, the behavior is negatively reinforced by escape from aversive stimulation.
Question 7: Which term describes an increase in one behavior that occurs when a different, incompatible behavior is put on extinction?
- Behavioral contrast
- Resurgence (Correct answer)
- Induction
- Response covariation
Correct answer: Resurgence
Resurgence is the reoccurrence of a previously reinforced behavior when a more recently reinforced behavior is placed on extinction.
ABA Behavioral Principles and Concepts 5
The principle of 'parsimony' in ABA requires that practitioners: