Procedures and Intervention Flashcards

A BCBA is using a multiple schedule to treat automatically reinforced stereotypy. During the extinction component (Ext), the client's stereotypy rate is 12 responses/min; during the reinforcement component (SR+), it drops to 2 responses/min. The behavioral contrast ratio is most accurately described as:

Answer: Positive behavioral contrast, because responding in Ext increased relative to a pre-multiple-schedule baseline

Positive behavioral contrast occurs when reinforcement is introduced (or increased) in one component of a multiple schedule and responding in the other component—where conditions have not changed—increases above its pre-multiple-schedule baseline. The key comparison is to baseline, not simply between components. If Ext responding exceeds what it was before the multiple schedule was introduced, that is positive behavioral contrast.

During NCR treatment for aggression maintained by attention, a client's aggression extinguishes but a novel behavior—property destruction—emerges and escalates. The MOST procedurally precise explanation is:

Answer: Resurgence of property destruction that was previously reinforced by attention and suppressed by the current contingency

Resurgence is the re-emergence of a previously reinforced behavior when a currently reinforced behavior undergoes extinction or a reduction in reinforcement. NCR provides dense attention regardless of behavior; if property destruction was historically reinforced by attention, it can resurge when the client's overall operant repertoire is tested by the NCR-plus-extinction arrangement. This is distinct from response generalization (which involves untrained topographies spreading due to stimulus similarity) and from spontaneous recovery (which is time-based recovery of the extinguished response itself).

A practitioner implements a DRO with a 5-min reset interval for self-injurious behavior (SIB). After 3 weeks, SIB is suppressed during sessions but caregivers report it remains elevated at home. The LEAST likely contributing factor is:

Answer: The DRO reinforcement interval being too short to allow behavioral flexibility across settings

A short DRO interval (5 min) is a common early-treatment parameter that is later thinned; interval length per se does not impede generalization across settings—it simply affects how dense reinforcement is. The more clinically plausible barriers to home generalization are: (A) insufficient stimulus control transfer (the clinic is a discriminative stimulus for the contingency), (B) no competing reinforcement arrangement at home, and (D) a different functional reinforcer operating at home that the clinic DRO never addressed. Interval length is not 'too short' to allow cross-setting flexibility.

A behavior technician is implementing PECS Phase IV (sentence structure) with a learner who spontaneously begins combining more than two picture symbols without prompting. Per the PECS protocol, the MOST appropriate immediate response is:

Answer: Honor the communicative attempt by providing the requested item and record the novel combination as data

PECS is a functional communication system; its primary goal is spontaneous, functional communication. When a learner spontaneously emits a more complex communicative response than the current phase target, the protocol calls for honoring the request (delivering the reinforcer) and documenting the behavior—never withholding reinforcement for a more elaborate communicative attempt. Returning to Phase III or requiring a two-symbol form would punish communicative elaboration, directly undermining the treatment's purpose.

An analyst is using a concurrent-schedule arrangement (conc VI 30-s VI 120-s) to assess preference. Matching law predicts relative response allocation. If the client allocates 82% of responses to the VI 30-s alternative but the matching law prediction is 80%, this discrepancy is BEST characterized as:

Answer: Overmatching, because the client is more sensitive to the richer schedule than strict matching predicts

Overmatching occurs when an organism allocates a higher proportion of behavior to the richer alternative than the strict matching law (Herrnstein's equation) predicts. Here, the predicted allocation is 80% but the observed is 82%—the client is over-sensitive to the reinforcement differential, which is the definition of overmatching. Bias refers to a systematic shift from matching attributable to non-reinforcement factors (e.g., position preference, effort), not to schedule-sensitivity magnitude. Undermatching is the opposite: less sensitivity than predicted.

A BCBA is conducting an FA in an outpatient clinic. During the alone condition, the client's SIB rate is 18 responses/min. During the attention condition it is 2 responses/min, and during the demand condition it is 3 responses/min. The MOST defensible interpretation is:

Answer: The SIB is automatically reinforced, because the alone condition produces the highest rate and social conditions suppress it

In a standard FA, the alone condition serves as the test for automatic (sensory) reinforcement. When responding is highest in the alone condition and substantially lower across all socially mediated conditions (attention, demands), the pattern indicates automatic reinforcement—social contingencies have little control over the behavior. Rates above zero in social conditions do not indicate multiple control; some automatic behavior will persist in any condition. The demand condition rate (3/min) is close to attention (2/min) and both are far below alone (18/min), providing no evidence of social function.