BACB Exam Question Examples

•A behavior analyst teaching Julian a new skill across sessions such that his initial session only requires the completion of the first step. After mastering this step, the next session would require Julian to complete the first 2 steps until mastered. This continues until Julian has mastered all the steps. which procedure is described here? oShaping oBackward chaining oForward chaining oGraduated guidance

Forward chaining

Tristan wants to publish data that he plans to collect on the parents of children that go to his center. He is trying to determine if the parents report of anxiety or stress have changed over time. Which of the following should Tristan do?

Graph frequency of reports of anxiety or stress, rather than actual anxiety or stress

After the 3rd day of collecting BL data on hand mouthing, the BCBA implemented social disapproval procedure.10 days after implementing the procedure, the instances of hand mouthing begin to increase and maintained at high levels for rest of the social disapproval treatment phase. Which of the following can BCBA say w/certainty?

Hand mouthing increased in frequency

When teaching a novice learner to emit echoics, which of the following is the best procedure to follow?

Model sounds that are in the clients current repertoire and reinforce when the client immediately reports that sound. Shape until client imitates entire words

Kareem is working w/a student to improve students correct word identification. Which experimental design would be best to examine functional relations between an increase in the student's correct word identification and the intervention?

Multiple baseline design (Could do multiple words. Not changing criterion b/c cannot easily set clear goal)

Shelley is a classroom teacher w/30 students and an aide who assists 2-3 times per week, for half of the day. There are 3 students struggling w/word acquisition, and Shelley has one intervention she believes will work for all of them. Which design would be the most practical for Shelley to implement

Multiple probe design across subject's b/c she can only be in the classroom 2-3 times per week for half the day (There are gaps in time which are not appropriate for multiple baseline)

Of the following, which is the best description of an intraverbal training procedure

Show the client the problem 1+1= model the response 2, then only reinforce the clients response "2" when that problem is presented

•Stacy is planning on using a chaining procedure but needs to figure out which steps her client has learned and which steps need to be trained. What should Stacy do to identify these responses? oTask analysis oFunctional analysis oProcedural analysis oChaining analysis

Task analysis

The discussion section of a journal article about teaching children to tact their own private events suggests that these skills could be taught w/operant conditioning. Of the following, which is the most appropriate analysis of this interpretation in the discussion section?

This interpretation in the discussion section seems consistent w/radical behaviorism

After the teacher says, "ok, class is out," a student continues to remain at his desk for 2 minutes before he gets up and packs his bag. It takes him 2 minutes to gather his books, 3 minutes to put them in his backpack, and 1 minute to walk back to his desk and take a seat. What is this student's latency of packing relative to the announcement?

2 minutes

Sophie engaged in 24 episodes of crying. The observation period was 6 hours. What was Sophie's rate of crying?

4 episodes/hour

Tommy's mom says he eats his food quickly: He takes 12 bites of food per minute. What would be the estimated average IRT?

5 seconds

Scottie start his homework 2 minutes after his mom asked him to start. It took him 15 minutes to complete his math assignment, 28 minutes to complete his writing assignment, and 7 minutes to complete his science assignment. In between math and writing, he used the restroom for 5 minutes. What was the total duration of completing his homework?

50 minutes, does not include the 2 minutes it took to start and using the restroom for 5 minutes (15 + 28 + 7 = 50)

Christina puts a toy in front of Judy on 15 different occasions. Judy approached the toy on 10 occasions and just walked away on 3 occasions. What is the percent occurrence of Judy approaching the toy?

67% (10 divided by 15)

If Alex is using a shaping procedure to teach Lauren to use the complete ASL sign to mand for water, what would the procedure look like?

Alex gives Lauren water contingent on modified time. Over time, Alex only gives water as each sign becomes more like really sign for water

A student's hand raising is immediately praised by the teacher during class. As a result, the students hand raising decreases in subsequent classes. Which of the following best describes the teachers praise

A positive punisher

Usson would like to use a design that would not require a steady state before moving to the next intervention, but wants to compare the effectiveness of 4 different interventions. Which design would best fit Usson's requirements?

ATD

Trina reviewed a video recording of a student 3 times, and took data on the student's eye contact using a stopwatch, each time she counted 17 seconds. The client actually engaged in 23 seconds of eye contact. The fact that these 2 numbers don't match is because Trina's measurement lacks

Accuracy (Reliable b/c she viewed the video recording 3 times, But it is not accurate)

Samantha used a withdrawal design to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment. The use of the withdrawal design exemplifies which dimension of ABA?

Analytic is correct b/c it seeks to identify a functional relation between IV and DV (Not conceptually systematic b/c this refers to the extent by which behavior can be explained by basic principles. Not determinism b/c this refers to universe being lawful place. Not empiricism b/c this refers to objective observation and subjective interpretation of phenomena)

What is not a possible unwanted effect of using food as a reinforcer w/a client oAppropriate behavior will increase oIf the food is candy/sweets, it can cause dental/health issues oClient may start seeking out person who provided reinforcers oIf the food is not delivered ASAP, it's possible a problem behavior could be reinforced

Appropriate behavior will increase

Basma wants her student to correctly tact as many pictures as possible from a very large array of pictures. Of the following, which best describes a free-operant arrangement oBasma individually places the cards while asking student to name them, corrects error, collects data on accuracy of count oBasma places all cards face up on table at the same time, asks the student to name them, and counts tacts per minute oBasma model the correct response, waits for the student, to response, reinforce successive approximations, and collect data on numbers correct oBasma individual presents the cards while asking the student to name them, collect errors, and collect data on accuracy as percentage

Basma places all cards face up on table at the same time, asks the student to name them, and counts tacts per minute

Of the following, which is the best description of a mand training procedure

Before lunch, show a cracker to the student; if he signs "cracker" give him the cracker. If he signs again w/no cracker in sigh, give him 2.

Of the following, which is the best description of extinction

Boys sister stopped laughing when the boy told jokes, and as a result, the boy stopped telling his sister jokes.

Mrs. French has been trained to implement a treatment package w/her son. What could the behavior analyst do to see which portions of the package are the most effective at maintaining the current levels of behavior?

Component analysis

After completing a preference assessment, Stella has several possible reinforcers she'd like to use w/her client/ If she wants to assess whether or not these stimuli function as reinforcers for the client by allowing the client to choose to work for either one stimulus or another, what assessment procedure can she use?

Concurrent operant reinforcer assessment (This is talking about a reinforcer assessment not a preference assessment b/c it mentions she completed a preference assessment and that she wants to assess whether stimuli function as reinforcers)

Practitioner is looking to quickly reduce clients rate of pinching others. Pinching is maintained by escape from tasks and client is capable of asking for breaks and help. Whats the most appropriate intervention

DRA

If an experimenter plans to use noncontignet procedure, which of the following would be most useful?

Deliver attention every 15 s regardless of occurrence of target behavior

•Charlie would like to increase the occurrence of appropriate manding for food. Contingent on the mand, what should Charlie do? oRemove food oDeliver praise oRemove demands oDeliver food

Deliver food

When teaching a person to tact a cookie, which of the following is critical for tact training

Deliver praise after the emission of the word "cookie" when there is a cookie in sight

To maximize the effectiveness of a stimulus of a punisher, stimulus should be

Delivered on FR1 schedule

•Of the following, which would likely be included only in a behavioral language assessment? oDetermine correct and incorrect use of autoclitics oDetermine variance of pitch and intonation oAssess correct use of syntax and sentence constriction oAssess morphological deficits and ability

Determine correct and incorrect use of autoclitics

Sally is taking data on how long it takes Carina to swim around the pool Which dimension of behavior is Sally measuring?

Duration

The caregivers of child are convinced that punishment will be necessary to reduce child's SIB. Which of the following punishment strategies is likely the best?

Each time the child engages in SIB, present the punisher while differentially reinforcing each instance of an alternative response

During preliminary assessment, caregivers of child explain problem behavior occurs when child is hungry. When is best to observe child?

Every day before lunch

If Angie is attempting to teach a new response, which schedule of reinforcement would be most effective? oVR2 oFR2 oFR1 oVI1

FR1

Josh has several treatments he thinks would be effective to teach pro-social behavior. After taking baseline data, what is one way he can systematically arrange the treatments to determine which one has an effect on behavior

He can implement one of the treatments for several sessions until the response reaches a steady state, return to baseline, and repeat for all of the treatments (He can implement one treatment and require a targeted response rate. Once the criterion is met, change treatments and require a new response rate = changing criterion - Not appropriate b/c do not want to change treatment, not good design to compare treatments. o He can rapidly alternative several different responses and match a treatment to each response - Not correct b/c focusing on one response. He can implement all of the treatments at the same time across several different settings = multiple baseline -This is not possible in this study)

Tommy's doctor suggested that he slow his pace of eating. Which continuous measurement procedure should be used in order to monitor Tommy's behavior and implement an appropriate behavior plan to help him take bites at a slower pace?

IRT

Chrissy has not yet learned consistently to look at the teacher and relevant objects during training sessions. The BCBA would like to teach her how to brush her teeth. Which of the following would NOT be an appropriate procedure to teach her this skill? oImitation training oPrompt fading oGraduated guidance oShaping

Imitation training

Fernando is working w/a client in a classroom. The teach would like the student o begin packing up his backpack immediately when given a prompt. What dimension should be used

Latency

A client is prompted to find the key that will open the door to his house. When he selects the appropriate key, the therapist provides a social praise and allows him to access the inside of the house. What training procedure is being implemented?

Listener training

After Carson threw dirt on a peer at recess, teacher made Carson sit on the bench for the rest of recess. Carson never threw dirt against. Which of the following best describes interaction between behavior and environment

Negative punishment

Due to a parent only implementing punishment procedures, she finds that her son begins to avoid her. Which of the following best explains this effect? oParent became SD for negative reinforcement oParent became conditioned aversive stimulus oParent elicited emotional response oParent became unconditional aversive stimulus

Parent became conditioned aversive stimulus

Trudy often interjects loudly during instruction which disrupts the other 28 students in her classroom. B/c the teacher can't collect data on this, a 1:1 aide was assigned to help Trudy. What's the best discontinuous measurement procedure to train the aide to use?

Partial interval sampling o (Not event recording b/c it is not discontinuous measurement procedure. Not whole interval procedure b/c underestimates behavior they want to decrease. Not momentary time sampling b/c can underestimate data)

Sam has a special reading program in which only text is used Sam has mastered, but pictures are added above new words upon instruction. As Sam mastered these words, visibility of the pictures is systematically reduced. What procedure was used to teach him new words? oPrompt fading oModeling oShaping oChaining

Prompt fading

What experimental design should be used if a BCBA wants to test whether a specific consequence is a reinforcer for hand raising in a classroom and the teacher is willing to remove an effective intervention for a few days to make that determination?

Reversal design

Stephanie has sufficiently trained a family to use differential reinforcement to teach a replacement behavior for mild aggression maintained by escape. Which of the following actions is most critical for Stephanie to take? oShe should ensure there is no eye contact or talking during the procedure oShe should train the parents how to effectively use restraint procedures oShe should review the possibility of an initial increase of aggression oShe should begin to target other problem behaviors

She should review the possibility of an initial increase of aggression

Across 3 days, there was low IOA on data collected during a new procedure implemented with a student. For the student's behavior measured by two observers, agreement was calculated at 40%, 50% and 45% for each respective day. What could be a potential issue?

The definition of the target behavior is unclear

Jasper counted that Felicity sneezed 8 times. Which dimensional quantity of behavior is measured

frequency