ABAT Procedures and Intervention 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In a backward chaining procedure, instruction begins with which step?
- The first step of the task analysis
- The step the learner finds easiest
- The last step of the task analysis (Correct answer)
- The step immediately before the final step
Correct answer: The last step of the task analysis
Backward chaining starts training at the final step so the learner always completes the chain and contacts the natural reinforcer immediately.
Question 2: Which antecedent intervention involves presenting several high-probability requests before a low-probability request to increase compliance?
- Functional Communication Training
- Behavioral momentum (Correct answer)
- Non-contingent reinforcement
- Stimulus fading
Correct answer: Behavioral momentum
Behavioral momentum uses a sequence of easy, frequently followed requests to build compliance momentum before introducing a difficult demand.
Question 3: Stimulus generalization has occurred when a learned behavior:
- Is performed only in the presence of the original training stimulus
- Occurs in the presence of novel stimuli not used during training (Correct answer)
- Is maintained over time without additional training sessions
- Transfers to a different but related response class
Correct answer: Occurs in the presence of novel stimuli not used during training
Stimulus generalization occurs when a response trained with one stimulus spreads to new, similar stimuli in the learner's natural environment.
Question 4: In shaping, which principle determines which responses should receive reinforcement?
- Only the exact terminal target behavior should be reinforced from the beginning
- Successive approximations progressively closer to the target behavior are reinforced (Correct answer)
- Any behavior that occurs during the session should receive reinforcement
- Behaviors incompatible with the terminal target should be reinforced
Correct answer: Successive approximations progressively closer to the target behavior are reinforced
Shaping reinforces each progressive step toward the final target, gradually raising the criterion as the learner's performance improves.
Question 5: Non-contingent reinforcement (NCR) is classified as which type of behavioral intervention?
- Consequence-based intervention
- Antecedent-based intervention (Correct answer)
- Skill acquisition intervention
- Response cost intervention
Correct answer: Antecedent-based intervention
NCR delivers reinforcement on a fixed-time or variable-time schedule independent of behavior, thereby reducing the motivating operation for problem behavior before it occurs.
Question 6: What is the primary purpose of conducting a task analysis before implementing a chaining procedure?
- To identify the function that maintains the learner's problem behavior
- To break a complex skill into discrete, teachable sequential steps (Correct answer)
- To measure the baseline frequency of the target behavior
- To determine the learner's most preferred reinforcers
Correct answer: To break a complex skill into discrete, teachable sequential steps
A task analysis decomposes a complex skill into ordered component steps that can each be taught and assessed individually.
Question 7: Which generalization strategy involves training a behavior across many different examples, settings, people, and materials during instruction?
- Incidental teaching
- Programming common stimuli
- General case instruction
- Multiple exemplar training (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Multiple exemplar training
Multiple exemplar training exposes the learner to varied examples during acquisition so the behavior generalizes broadly without requiring separate generalization training.
ABAT Procedures and Intervention 3
In a backward chaining procedure, instruction begins with which step?