ABAT Prompting and Fading Procedures 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In 'graduated guidance,' physical prompting is faded by:
- Increasing physical guidance as errors occur
- Gradually reducing physical contact from full guidance to partial contact to shadowing (Correct answer)
- Moving from verbal prompts to physical prompts
- Delivering guidance only after incorrect responses
Correct answer: Gradually reducing physical contact from full guidance to partial contact to shadowing
Graduated guidance fades physical assistance along a continuum from full hand-over-hand to partial contact to a shadow just above the skin.
Question 2: In 'constant time delay,' the delay interval is:
- Increased gradually across trials
- The same across all trials after the initial zero-delay phase (Correct answer)
- Varied randomly across trials
- Determined by the learner's response latency
Correct answer: The same across all trials after the initial zero-delay phase
Constant time delay uses a fixed delay period (e.g., 4 seconds) consistently following the initial zero-delay training trials.
Question 3: How does 'progressive time delay' differ from constant time delay?
- The delay remains the same throughout training
- The delay decreases as the learner improves
- The delay increases gradually across sessions or trials (Correct answer)
- The delay is based on a variable schedule
Correct answer: The delay increases gradually across sessions or trials
Progressive time delay systematically increases the delay interval (e.g., 0→2→4→6 seconds) to provide more opportunity for independent responding.
Question 4: Within-stimulus prompts work by:
- Having the trainer point to the correct answer
- Modifying an attribute of the SD itself to highlight the correct choice (Correct answer)
- Providing a verbal label before the learner responds
- Using physical guidance during the response
Correct answer: Modifying an attribute of the SD itself to highlight the correct choice
Within-stimulus prompts alter a feature of the discriminative stimulus (e.g., exaggerating size or color of the correct option) to increase correct responding.
Question 5: Which fading technique involves adding extra cues outside the original discriminative stimulus?
- Within-stimulus fading
- Stimulus shaping
- Extrastimulus prompting (Correct answer)
- Response shaping
Correct answer: Extrastimulus prompting
Extrastimulus prompts are cues added alongside the original SD (e.g., placing the correct card closer) that are later systematically faded.
Question 6: A primary risk of failing to systematically fade prompts is:
- Stimulus overselectivity
- Prompt dependency (Correct answer)
- Response generalization
- Discrimination errors
Correct answer: Prompt dependency
Without systematic fading, learners may rely on prompts rather than natural SDs, resulting in prompt dependency.
Question 7: 'Stimulus shaping' refers to:
- Changing the trainer's behavior across trials
- Gradually changing the physical form of the SD toward the terminal stimulus (Correct answer)
- Increasing the intensity of a verbal prompt
- Presenting stimuli in random rotation
Correct answer: Gradually changing the physical form of the SD toward the terminal stimulus
Stimulus shaping gradually changes the physical dimensions of a stimulus across trials until it matches the final target form.
ABAT Prompting and Fading Procedures 3
In 'graduated guidance,' physical prompting is faded by: