ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Antecedent-Based Interventions Questions and Answers 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A teacher notices a student becomes disruptive during transitions between activities. Which antecedent-based intervention would BEST reduce transition-related problem behavior?
- Deliver a preferred edible immediately after transition
- Use a visual schedule and verbal warnings before transitions begin (Correct answer)
- Increase the duration of each activity to reduce the number of transitions
- Apply a response cost for each transition-related outburst
Correct answer: Use a visual schedule and verbal warnings before transitions begin
Visual schedules and advance warnings are antecedent strategies that reduce the unpredictability that often triggers problem behavior during transitions.
Question 2: High-probability (high-p) request sequences work as an antecedent intervention primarily because they:
- Punish noncompliance before the low-p request is presented
- Build behavioral momentum by producing a series of compliance responses (Correct answer)
- Eliminate the need to ever present difficult demands
- Increase the magnitude of reinforcement for the target response
Correct answer: Build behavioral momentum by producing a series of compliance responses
High-p sequences establish a momentum of compliance that carries over to the low-probability request that follows.
Question 3: Which of the following is the BEST example of a non-contingent reinforcement (NCR) schedule used as an antecedent intervention?
- Giving praise only when the student completes their assignment
- Providing 2 minutes of attention every 5 minutes regardless of the student's behavior (Correct answer)
- Withholding attention until the student makes eye contact
- Delivering a token each time the student raises their hand
Correct answer: Providing 2 minutes of attention every 5 minutes regardless of the student's behavior
NCR delivers reinforcement on a time-based schedule independently of behavior, thereby abolishing the establishing operation for problem behavior maintained by that reinforcer.
Question 4: An establishing operation (EO) for escape-maintained behavior would INCREASE problem behavior by:
- Making the task easier or shorter
- Providing a break before the task begins
- Increasing the difficulty or duration of a demand (Correct answer)
- Offering a preferred item before the task
Correct answer: Increasing the difficulty or duration of a demand
Increasing task difficulty or duration heightens the aversive value of the demand, which functions as an EO that increases escape-maintained problem behavior.
Question 5: A behavioral analyst recommends that a classroom aide present instructions using a calm, neutral tone of voice. This modification addresses which antecedent variable?
- The motivating operation for attention
- Stimulus control over compliance
- The discriminative stimulus properties of the instructional delivery (Correct answer)
- The schedule of reinforcement for task completion
Correct answer: The discriminative stimulus properties of the instructional delivery
The tone and manner in which an instruction is delivered can function as an SD or part of the stimulus complex that controls compliance or escape behavior.
Question 6: Which antecedent strategy involves structuring the physical environment to reduce opportunities for problem behavior to occur?
- Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI)
- Environmental arrangement (Correct answer)
- Behavioral contracting
- Token economy
Correct answer: Environmental arrangement
Environmental arrangement modifies the physical setting to decrease antecedent triggers and opportunities that occasion problem behavior.
Question 7: A BCBA wants to use a choice-making intervention for a student with intellectual disabilities. The PRIMARY behavioral mechanism through which choice-making reduces problem behavior is:
- It provides a competing reinforcer contingent on good behavior
- It abolishes the establishing operation by increasing task predictability and perceived control (Correct answer)
- It eliminates aversive tasks from the student's schedule entirely
- It increases the response effort required for problem behavior
Correct answer: It abolishes the establishing operation by increasing task predictability and perceived control
Offering choices reduces the aversive value of demands by increasing predictability and perceived autonomy, thereby diminishing the EO for escape-maintained behavior.
ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Antecedent-Based Interventions Questions and Answers 3
A teacher notices a student becomes disruptive during transitions between activities.
Which antecedent-based intervention would BEST reduce transition-related problem behavior?