ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Antecedent-Based Interventions Questions and Answers 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When conducting a functional behavior assessment, the MAIN purpose of identifying antecedents is to:
- Determine appropriate punishers for problem behavior
- Understand the events that set the occasion for problem behavior to occur (Correct answer)
- Identify the reinforcement history for appropriate behavior
- Assess the student's skill deficits in the target area
Correct 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.
Question 2: Providing a student with a 'first-then' board (e.g., 'First work, then play') before a demand is presented is an example of:
- A conditioned punisher
- A predictability-based antecedent intervention (Correct answer)
- Extinction of escape behavior
- A continuous reinforcement schedule
Correct 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.
Question 3: Task interspersal as an antecedent intervention involves:
- Embedding preferred or easy tasks among difficult ones to maintain engagement (Correct answer)
- Presenting tasks only in settings where reinforcement is abundant
- Removing all aversive tasks from the instructional day
- Delivering reinforcement at variable intervals throughout the task
Correct 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.
Question 4: 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:
- Antecedent manipulations targeting sensory maintaining variables (Correct answer)
- Consequence-based interventions targeting attention
- Extinction procedures for automatically reinforced behavior
- Reinforcement-based strategies for on-task behavior
Correct 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.
Question 5: Which statement BEST describes how abolishing operations (AOs) are used in antecedent-based intervention design?
- AOs increase the reinforcing value of a specific consequence to strengthen desired behavior
- AOs decrease the reinforcing value of a maintaining consequence, reducing the motivation for problem behavior (Correct answer)
- AOs signal that reinforcement will be withheld for problem behavior
- AOs are used exclusively to address automatically reinforced behaviors
Correct 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.
Question 6: 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:
- A consequence-based intervention using negative punishment
- An antecedent intervention that builds tolerance for denied access (Correct answer)
- A punishment procedure targeting verbal refusal
- An extinction procedure for attention-maintained tantrums
Correct 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.
Question 7: In antecedent-based intervention research, 'stimulus control' refers to:
- The ability of a consequence to suppress future behavior
- The relationship in which a stimulus reliably evokes or occasions a specific response (Correct answer)
- The process of pairing a neutral stimulus with a punisher
- The schedule under which discriminative stimuli are presented
Correct 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.
ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Antecedent-Based Interventions Questions and Answers 4
When conducting a functional behavior assessment, the MAIN purpose of identifying antecedents is to: