BCBA Exam (Pass the Big Book 5th Edition)

What is improving individuals' everyday lives? Improves socially significant behaviors in real-world settings (e.g. social language, academic, daily-living, self-care, vocational, and/or recreational and leisure skills). Helps significant others (e.g. parents, peers, employers) behave more positively towards the client.

Applied

What is a science that is based on the use of learning principles to improve socially important behaviors, focuses on assessing environmental influences on behavior, is an assessment-based intervention, and involves data based decision-making?

ABA

Functional relation is a part of what dimension of ABA?

Analytic

What is: ABA requires that a functional relationship is shown (AKA: Functional Relation; Experimentation; Control; Causation)? The main issue is: believability: is there enough experimental control to prove a reliable functional relation?

Analytic

I am ______ because, in my work, I analyze for the function of behavior and base my treatments on function versus a _______ practitioner who focuses on what may have subjectively happened to a person in the past to make them behave a certain way.

Analytic, mentalistic

I am ___________ because my work takes place in an applied setting, targeting the socially significant problem behaviors where they occur (home, school, park, etc.) versus a _____________ practitioner who typically works with his clients in clinics, hospitals, or an office

Applied, mentalistic

What are the three main positions of behavioral?

Ask, target, behavior 1. Target the behavior in need of improvement. 2. Behavior must be measurable, including any use of language that is behavioral (not a description of feelings) 3. Must ask whose behavior has changed (the subject's or the observer's)? The reliability of observers must be considered

Pragmatism: Charles S. Peirce and William James: A philosophy that ___

Asks how things come to be as they are and how we can alter things

What is the AB-because-of-C-philosophy?

At the level of behavior, the relation between the setting (A) and the behavior (B) is because of the consequence (C)

What is the acronym for the 7 dimensions of ABA?

BATCAGE

What are the 7 dimensions of ABA?

Behavioral, applied, technological, conceptually systematic, analytic, generality, effective

I am ___________ because, in my work, I focus on measurable and observable behavior versus a _____________ practitioner who focuses on memories, feelings, emotions, repressions, thoughts, etc.

Behavioral, mentalistic

What is any behavior change that persists across time, across other settings, across other behaviors, and across other people - all differing from intervention conditions?

Generality (AKA: Generalization)

I am ________ because my work extends beyond and generalizes to other settings, people, and behaviors versus a ______ practitioner who doesn't necessitate generalization in this way.

Generalizable, mentalistic

What is an example of description?

George hugged his mom 5x today and each time he hugged her, she game him a kiss on the forehead.

What is an example of "control"

Headaches are remedied by pain medicine

What is this an example of?

If you are trying to increase a student's low attention to academic tasks, you wouldn't measure their social behaviors. You would measure the duration of their on-task behaviors.

These are AKAs for __________: Spiritual, psychic, subjective, feelings, attitudes, processing?

Mentalism

Does 2 events occurring at the same time mean 1 causes the other?

No because of prediction. We can make a scientific prediction, but we need a little more to confirm this relationship.

Science asks us to hypothesize and make predictions/scientific guesses. Does prediction = cause?

No. Prediction does not equal cause.

What is the question for truth? Having healthy skepticism/a critical eye about the results of studies/work with clients? Being open to being wrong.

Philosophical Doubt

What is the reliance on the simplest theory requiring the fewest assumptions? Before considering more complex explanations, you must 1st rule out simple and logical explanations.

Pragmatism

Which philosophical assumption involves A probabilist AB-because-of-C philosophy?

Pragmatism

What is it called when repeat observations show that there is a consistent relationship between the occurrence of 2 events (covariation/correlation)?

Prediction

What is repeating experiments? 1 experiment has value, but it is not enough. Experiments should be repeated to determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings. Repetition leads to discovering mistakes, making science a self-correcting operation.

Replication

Who outlined the 7 dimensions of ABA?

Risley, Baer, Wolf Hint: Grizzly, bear, wolf

What is an organized approach for collecting knowledge and and understanding about the natural world?

Science

What is the scientific belief that anything that evolves does so due to the consequences of behavior?

Selectionism

What is the selection by consequences?

Selectionism

What philosophical assumption involves: behaviors that result in positive consequences survive and produce more sophisticated repertoires?

Selectionism

What term involves: evolution is the product of functional selection

Selectionism

What is direct and precisely replicable procedures? ABA requires that procedures are defined clearly and in detail so they are replicable (like a recipe) and have a shot of generating the same results.

Technological

Pragmaticism and _____ go together (Baer, Wolf, Risley, 1968)

behaviorism

What is the 1st level, 2nd level, and 3rd level of scientific understanding?

1st level of scientific understanding: Description 2nd level of scientific understanding: Prediction 3rd level of scientific understanding: Control

What are the purposes of science?

1. To find truths in nature, which are universally understood and independent of any group's beliefs and/or opinions 2. To understand the subject that is being studied. In ABA, this refers to the socially significant behaviors that we aim to change. 3. Provides us with 3 levels of understanding Acronym: Titanic Sunk Under (TSU)

What is meant by "prediction" relation?

Can be used to predict the probability of 1 event occurring when the other event occurs

What is an AKA of "control"

Causation

What is: ABAB is not a collection of tricks? All ABA procedures used should be derived from the basic principles of behavior analysis (punishment, extinction, and reinforcement)? It is an integrated discipline.

Conceptually systematic

I am __________ because the interventions I use are based on the principles of behavior (PER) versus a ___________ practitioner who uses the principles of their science to create interventions.

Conceptually systematic, mentalistic

What are two AKAs of prediction?

Correlation, covariation

What are facts that are derived from systematically observed events, can be quantified and classified to help us test for possible relationships, and facts that help us identify a hypothesis for further explanation?

Description

What are the 3 levels of scientific understanding?

Description, Prediction, Control Acronym: Dana Priya Can (DPC) (help you PASS)

What is the assumption that everything happens because of other events?

Determinism

What terms goes with this: The world is an orderly, predictable, and lawful place, where everything is cause and effect; if/then conditions. Upon what science is based.

Determinism

What are the philosophical assumptions?

Determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism, selectionism Acronym: DEPPS

What is an example of prediction?

During the winter season, people get more colds.

What is a practical improvement? ABA technologies should improve behavior enough that it makes a socially significant different in the person's life. Not theoretical or statistical improvements.

Effective

I am _______ because my work results in significant and measurable changes to the individual's life versus a _____ practitioner who bases success of feeling, emotion, and self-report rather than measurable change.

Effective, mentalistic

What is experimental, data-based scientific approach, requires quantification and detailed description of events, facts derived from experiments, and evidence-based?

Empiricism

What is the act of objective observation and measurement? Upon what knowledge is built.

Empiricism

Hint for empiricism?

Empiricism = evidence + data + facts

What is ABA?

Evidence-based applied science for ASD and other developmental disabilities

What is a basic strategy of most sciences, controlled comparison of the DV under 2 or more conditions (IVs), requires manipulating variables so as to see the effects on the DV, an assessment to determine if 1 event caused another event, and requires that all variables be controlled except the DV?

Experimentation

What is an AKA for experimental analysis?

Experimentation

What are the terms formerly associated with the philosophical assumptions?

Experimentation, Replication, Philosophical Doubt Acronym: ERP

A _______ relationship is demonstrated when the manipulated events (IVs) produce a reliable change in any measurable dimension of the targeted behavior and an experimental can control the occurrence and non-occurrence of the target behavior?

Functional Relation

What is established when science confirms what has been predicted: an experimental demonstration that manipulating 1 event (independent variable (IV) results in a change in another event (dependent variable (DV)), and this change can only be attributable to the independent variable?

Functional Relation

What term is used when describing control?

Functional Relation

What term would be used to describe the following example: In a classroom, students were given breaks every 20 min. exhibited 0 instances of out-of-seat behavior. When breaks were given every 45 minutes, out of seat behavior increased by 80%. This was repeated many times, yielding the same results.

Functional Relation

I am ___________ because my work is replicable. I write out my interventions like a recipe so anyone could step into my shoes and follow my protocols if, for any reason, I am not able to versus a _____________ practitioner who doesn't necessarily have a systematic procedure. If anyone steps in, they would utilize their own recipe for treatment.

Technological, mentalistic