- Applied Behavior Analysis Prompting and Fading Procedures Questions and Answers Flashcards

A behavior technician is teaching a child to tact colors using a most-to-least prompting hierarchy. After 3 sessions at 100% accuracy with a full verbal model, the technician fades to a partial verbal prompt but the child's accuracy drops to 40%. Which of the following is the MOST likely explanation and appropriate next step?

Answer: The prompting schedule was thinned too rapidly; insert an intermediate prompt level such as a delayed full verbal prompt before moving to partial verbal

A steep drop in accuracy following prompt fading is a classic sign that the fade occurred too quickly — the steps in the hierarchy were too large. Inserting an intermediate prompt level (e.g., a time-delayed full verbal prompt) bridges the gap between the full model and the partial prompt, allowing the learner to maintain accuracy while building independence. Returning to the full prompt without adding intermediate steps would likely recreate prompt dependency rather than resolve the fading problem.

Which of the following scenarios BEST illustrates the difference between stimulus fading and stimulus shaping?

Answer: Stimulus fading changes an extraneous dimension of the SD (e.g., color or size) while holding the critical feature constant; stimulus shaping gradually morphs the physical form of the SD toward the final target stimulus

Stimulus fading manipulates a non-critical (extraneous) dimension of the discriminative stimulus — such as intensity, color, or size — while keeping the critical feature intact, so responding transfers to the natural stimulus. Stimulus shaping, by contrast, starts with a stimulus that already controls responding and progressively morphs its physical characteristics toward the terminal SD. The distinction lies in whether an extraneous dimension is removed (fading) or the stimulus form itself is transformed (shaping).

A practitioner uses a simultaneous prompting procedure to teach a student to identify sight words. After 3 days of instruction the student never independently responds during probe trials. What is the MOST likely procedural issue and the appropriate correction?

Answer: Probe trials are being conducted before instructional trials in the same session, eliminating the opportunity to contact reinforcement for unprompted responses

In simultaneous prompting, probe trials (where no prompt is given) should occur at the beginning of a session BEFORE instructional trials so the learner can contact reinforcement for correct unprompted responses without having just been primed by a controlling prompt. When probes follow instructional trials, the controlling prompt creates a recency effect that masks independent responding. Reversing the order — probes first, instruction second — corrects this procedural flaw.

During graduated guidance for teaching a child to brush teeth, a practitioner uses hand-over-hand assistance through the entire chain. To fade this prompt, the practitioner begins applying gentle pressure only when the child's movements deviate from the correct path. This specific variation of graduated guidance is called:

Answer: Shadowing

Shadowing is a specific technique within graduated guidance in which the trainer's hands hover very close to — but do not contact — the learner's hands, providing physical assistance only when the learner begins to deviate from the correct response. It represents a less intrusive level of graduated guidance than full hand-over-hand contact and is used as the fade step between full physical guidance and no physical assistance.

A BCBA is supervising an RBT who is implementing errorless discrete trial teaching with a learner who has a history of prompt dependency. The learner currently responds correctly only when a full physical prompt is provided. The BCBA recommends transitioning to a 'most-to-least' prompting strategy with a 0-second delay for the first two sessions, then increasing to a 3-second delay. The RBT asks why a delay is added if the hierarchy is already being faded. The BCBA's BEST response is:

Answer: The delay allows the learner to attempt the response independently before a less intrusive prompt is delivered, creating an opportunity to contact reinforcement without any prompt

Introducing a time delay within a most-to-least prompting hierarchy creates a brief response opportunity before the prompt is delivered. If the learner responds correctly within the delay interval, they contact reinforcement for an unprompted (or less-prompted) response, which is the mechanism that builds independent responding and counteracts prompt dependency. The delay is not a fixed procedural requirement but a deliberate strategy to generate unprompted correct responses as the hierarchy is being faded.

A practitioner is fading a within-stimulus prompt used to teach letter discrimination. The letter 'b' was initially presented in a highly exaggerated bold font (critical feature highlighted) alongside foils in a standard font. Across training, the 'b' is gradually normalized to match the foils. The learner has been accurate throughout, but on the final normalization step, errors return. This outcome MOST likely indicates:

Answer: The learner was responding to the extraneous dimension (font weight) rather than the critical feature (letter shape), indicating the prompt did not transfer stimulus control

When errors emerge at the final normalization step of within-stimulus fading, the most clinically significant explanation is that the learner was under control of the manipulated extraneous dimension (the bold font weight) rather than the intended critical feature (the distinctive letter shape). This is a stimulus control problem: the prompt dimension, not the target SD, was actually controlling behavior. The practitioner must reassess whether the critical feature was truly being highlighted by the within-stimulus modification and may need to restructure the prompt to more directly accentuate the letter's defining features.