BCAT Skill Acquisition Procedures 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following best describes 'shaping'?
- Teaching by physically guiding the learner through the behavior
- Reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behavior (Correct answer)
- Using a visual schedule to guide behavior
- Providing verbal instructions for complex skills
Correct answer: Reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behavior
Shaping involves reinforcing behaviors that progressively resemble the target behavior until the full behavior is achieved.
Question 2: A learner has mastered a skill in therapy but no longer demonstrates it after several weeks without practice. This is best described as:
- Generalization failure
- Spontaneous recovery
- Skill decay or maintenance failure (Correct answer)
- Prompt dependency
Correct answer: Skill decay or maintenance failure
When a previously mastered skill deteriorates without continued practice, it is referred to as skill decay or maintenance failure.
Question 3: Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of natural environment teaching (NET)?
- Instruction occurs in everyday settings
- The learner's motivation drives the learning opportunity
- Trials are massed and highly structured (Correct answer)
- Skills are embedded in functional routines
Correct answer: Trials are massed and highly structured
Massed and highly structured trials are characteristic of DTT, not NET, which uses distributed, child-led opportunities.
Question 4: What is the purpose of incorporating multiple exemplars during skill acquisition?
- To prevent satiation of reinforcers
- To promote stimulus and response generalization (Correct answer)
- To increase the number of sessions per week
- To simplify the task analysis
Correct answer: To promote stimulus and response generalization
Teaching with multiple exemplars exposes the learner to varied examples, promoting broader generalization of the skill.
Question 5: A technician always uses the same chair, table, and materials when teaching. A learner masters the skill in this setting but fails elsewhere. The most likely solution is to:
- Increase reinforcer magnitude
- Add more prompts during training
- Vary the training setting and materials (Correct answer)
- Reduce the number of trials per session
Correct answer: Vary the training setting and materials
Varying the training setting and materials promotes generalization by preventing the learner from becoming dependent on specific stimuli.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'incidental teaching'?
- Structured trials delivered in rapid succession
- Taking advantage of learner-initiated interactions to teach language in the natural environment (Correct answer)
- Teaching skills that were not planned for the session
- Using accidental reinforcement to shape behavior
Correct answer: Taking advantage of learner-initiated interactions to teach language in the natural environment
Incidental teaching capitalizes on naturally occurring, learner-initiated moments to prompt and reinforce communication in natural contexts.
Question 7: In behavioral skills training (BST), what is the correct order of components?
- Model, practice, feedback, instructions
- Instructions, model, rehearsal, feedback (Correct answer)
- Feedback, instructions, model, rehearsal
- Rehearsal, model, instructions, feedback
Correct answer: Instructions, model, rehearsal, feedback
BST follows the sequence: instructions → modeling → rehearsal → feedback, to teach new skills effectively.
BCAT Skill Acquisition Procedures 4
Which of the following best describes 'shaping'?