- Applied Behavior Analysis Autism Core Knowledge Questions and Answers Flashcards

A behavior analyst is working with a child with autism who engages in self-injurious behavior (SIB) maintained by automatic reinforcement. After implementing a sensory extinction procedure, the analyst notices a rapid increase in SIB intensity before it decreases. This phenomenon is best described as:

Answer: An extinction burst specific to automatic reinforcement

An extinction burst can occur with automatic reinforcement just as with socially mediated reinforcement. When sensory extinction (blocking the sensory consequence) is implemented, the behavior temporarily increases in intensity before decreasing — this is the extinction burst. It is not behavioral contrast (which involves changes in reinforcement schedules across settings), resurgence (which occurs when a previously reinforced behavior returns after a new behavior is placed on extinction), or spontaneous recovery (which is the reappearance of an extinguished behavior after a rest period without any extinction manipulation being newly applied).

During a discrete trial training session, a BCBA notices that a child with autism consistently responds correctly only when the same therapist delivers instruction, but not with other staff. The MOST appropriate term for this stimulus control problem is:

Answer: Faulty stimulus control due to therapist-as-SD

When a learner responds correctly only in the presence of a specific therapist and not to the actual discriminative stimulus (SD) as intended, this is called 'faulty stimulus control due to therapist-as-SD' — the therapist themselves has become the controlling antecedent rather than the target instructional cue. Overselectivity is a related but distinct concept referring to responding to only one element of a compound stimulus. Stimulus discrimination failure implies the learner cannot discriminate at all. Blocking is a Pavlovian conditioning phenomenon where a previously conditioned stimulus prevents conditioning of a new stimulus — not the mechanism here.

A behavior analyst is using a lag schedule of reinforcement (Lag 1) to increase variability in a child's verbal responses. The child has said 'blue' for the last response. Under a Lag 1 schedule, which of the following would be reinforced?

Answer: Saying any color other than 'blue'

A Lag 1 reinforcement schedule requires that each response differ from the immediately preceding response (lag of 1). If the child just said 'blue,' the next response must be different from 'blue' to be eligible for reinforcement. Option A (saying 'blue' again) would not be reinforced. Option C describes a lag-2 concept applied loosely but misrepresents Lag 1. Option D confuses session-level history with response-by-response lag contingencies.

A child with autism demonstrates manding for items using full sentences but frequently emits echolalic repetitions of caregiver speech that are not functional mands. A behavior analyst wants to use a differential reinforcement procedure to reduce echolalia while maintaining functional manding. Which approach is MOST consistent with the verbal behavior framework and supported evidence?

Answer: Extinction of echolalic responses paired with FCT to strengthen functional mands

Within the verbal behavior framework, echolalia can serve communicative functions but non-functional echolalia is best addressed by placing it on extinction while simultaneously strengthening functionally equivalent mands through Functional Communication Training (FCT). DRO (Option A) would reinforce the absence of echolalia but does not directly build communication repertoires. DRI (Option C) targeting motor behaviors does not address vocal topography or communication. NCR (Option D) is used for attention- or tangible-maintained behaviors and does not address echolalia maintained by automatic or unknown reinforcers without a thorough FBA.

During a functional analysis (FA), a child's self-stimulatory behavior occurs at equally high rates across the attention, demand, and alone conditions, but at near-zero rates in the play/control condition. A behavior analyst interprets this pattern as MOST indicative of:

Answer: Automatic reinforcement, with the play condition serving as an abolishing operation

When behavior occurs at high rates in the alone condition AND across demand and attention conditions, but drops to near zero in the enriched play/control condition, this pattern is characteristic of automatic reinforcement — the behavior is maintained by its sensory consequences. The play condition, which provides access to preferred stimuli, functions as an abolishing operation (AO) that reduces the value of the automatic reinforcer and thus the behavior. This is NOT an undifferentiated result (which would show uniformly elevated rates across all conditions including control). Option A requires elevated rates selectively in attention and demand conditions, not the alone condition.

A BCBA is training a new RBT and reviews a data sheet showing that the RBT recorded a prompted correct response as 'correct' on the data sheet rather than as 'prompted correct.' Over several sessions this has led to an inflated skill acquisition graph. This recording error is BEST categorized as:

Answer: A procedural fidelity error that constitutes a confound in the data

Recording a prompted response as an independent correct response is a procedural fidelity (treatment integrity) error — the data collection procedure was not followed as defined, which introduces a systematic confound making the skill acquisition data uninterpretable. Observer drift (Option A) refers to gradual, unintentional changes in how an observer applies measurement criteria over time, typically across both correct and incorrect categories. Reactivity (Option B) refers to changes in the subject's behavior due to being observed, not the observer's recording errors. IOA failure (Option D) refers to disagreement between two independent observers, which is not the scenario described.