- Applied Behavior Analysis Antecedent-Based Interventions Questions and Answers Flashcards

When conducting a functional behavior assessment, the MAIN purpose of identifying antecedents is to:

Answer: Understand the events that set the occasion for problem behavior to occur

Antecedent identification in FBA reveals the conditions under which problem behavior is most likely to occur, guiding selection of antecedent-based interventions.

Providing a student with a 'first-then' board (e.g., 'First work, then play') before a demand is presented is an example of:

Answer: A predictability-based antecedent intervention

First-then boards communicate the sequence and outcome, increasing predictability and thereby reducing escape-motivated problem behavior before the task begins.

Task interspersal as an antecedent intervention involves:

Answer: Embedding preferred or easy tasks among difficult ones to maintain engagement

Task interspersal mixes mastered or easier items with novel or difficult ones, reducing the overall aversive value of the instructional session.

A behavior analyst adjusts the lighting in a classroom and reduces background noise to decrease a student's stereotypic behavior. These modifications are best classified as:

Answer: Antecedent manipulations targeting sensory maintaining variables

Altering sensory aspects of the environment targets the antecedent stimuli that may evoke or maintain automatically reinforced stereotypic behavior.

Which statement BEST describes how abolishing operations (AOs) are used in antecedent-based intervention design?

Answer: AOs decrease the reinforcing value of a maintaining consequence, reducing the motivation for problem behavior

Abolishing operations reduce the current effectiveness of a reinforcer, thereby decreasing the motivation to engage in behavior maintained by that reinforcer.

A student frequently engages in tantrums when told 'no' by adults. Introducing a delay-of-gratification training program where the student gradually learns to wait for preferred items is BEST described as:

Answer: An antecedent intervention that builds tolerance for denied access

Delay-of-gratification training systematically modifies the antecedent condition (denial of access) by building the student's tolerance, reducing the EO for tantrum behavior.

In antecedent-based intervention research, 'stimulus control' refers to:

Answer: The relationship in which a stimulus reliably evokes or occasions a specific response

Stimulus control exists when a discriminative stimulus reliably increases the probability of a specific behavior due to a history of differential reinforcement in its presence.