BCAT Skill Acquisition Treatment 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Errorless learning is best described as:
- Allowing the learner to make errors so they can self-correct
- Providing prompts that prevent errors before they occur (Correct answer)
- Correcting every error with a verbal reprimand
- Ignoring errors to avoid embarrassing the learner
Correct answer: Providing prompts that prevent errors before they occur
Errorless learning involves delivering prompts proactively to prevent incorrect responses, reducing frustration and increasing success.
Question 2: A transfer trial is used to:
- Move a learner from one program to another
- Shift stimulus control from a prompt to the natural discriminative stimulus (Correct answer)
- Train a skill in a new environment immediately
- Reduce the number of reinforcers given during a session
Correct answer: Shift stimulus control from a prompt to the natural discriminative stimulus
Transfer trials follow a prompted trial and present the same SD without the prompt, transferring control to the natural cue.
Question 3: Natural Environment Teaching (NET) differs from Discrete Trial Training (DTT) primarily because NET:
- Uses no reinforcement
- Is only used with verbal learners
- Embeds teaching within naturally occurring activities and the learner's motivation (Correct answer)
- Requires a structured table-top setting
Correct answer: Embeds teaching within naturally occurring activities and the learner's motivation
NET capitalizes on the learner's natural motivation and daily activities to provide embedded teaching opportunities in context.
Question 4: During incidental teaching, the technician waits for the learner to initiate interest in something, then requires a more elaborate response before providing access. This technique primarily targets:
- Compliance and sitting behavior
- Spontaneous language and communication (Correct answer)
- Gross motor imitation
- Self-care routines
Correct answer: Spontaneous language and communication
Incidental teaching leverages child-initiated interactions to build spontaneous language and functional communication.
Question 5: Shaping involves reinforcing:
- Only the final, perfect form of a behavior from the start
- Successive approximations that increasingly resemble the target behavior (Correct answer)
- Any behavior emitted during the session
- The absence of undesirable behaviors only
Correct answer: Successive approximations that increasingly resemble the target behavior
Shaping reinforces closer and closer approximations to the goal behavior, gradually building the full target response.
Question 6: A technician waits 5 seconds after presenting an SD before delivering a prompt. This procedure is called:
- Simultaneous prompting
- Constant time delay (Correct answer)
- Progressive time delay
- Zero-second time delay
Correct answer: Constant time delay
Constant time delay uses a fixed waiting period (e.g., 5 seconds) before prompting, giving the learner a consistent opportunity to respond independently.
Question 7: Which reinforcement schedule is most appropriate when initially teaching a new skill to a learner with autism?
- Variable ratio schedule
- Fixed interval schedule
- Continuous reinforcement (CRF) (Correct answer)
- Thin variable interval schedule
Correct answer: Continuous reinforcement (CRF)
Continuous reinforcement provides a reinforcer after every correct response, which is most effective for teaching new skills and establishing behavior.
BCAT Skill Acquisition Treatment 3
Errorless learning is best described as: