Exam Question Examples

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

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

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

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

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

Duration

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

Every day before lunch

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

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

Latency

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

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?

o50 minutes, does not include the 2 minutes it took to start and using the restroom for 5 minutes 15 + 18 + 7

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?

o67% 10 divided by 15

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

oAccuracy 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?

oAnalytic = correct b/c it seeks to identify a functional relation between IV and DV oNot conceptually systematic b/c this refers to the extent by which behavior can be explained by basic principles oNot determinism b/c this refers to universe being lawful place oNot empiricism b/c this refers to objective observation and subjective interpretation of phenomena

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

oHe can rapidly alternative several different responses and match a treatment to each response Not correct b/c focusing on one response oHe can implement all of the treatments at the same time across several different settings = multiple baseline This is not possible un this study You are changing 2 things at the same time instead of 1 thing so you wouldn't know what caused the change oHe 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 = correct Can return to baseline b/c question does not state that prosocial behavior won't return to baseline levels if you withdraw treatment oHe 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

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?

oMultiple baseline design Could do multiple words oNot 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

oMultiple 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

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?

oNot event recording b/c it is not discontinuous measurement procedure oNot whole interval procedure b/c underestimates behavior they want to decrease Would produce inaccurate low number oPartial interval sampling = correct oNot momentary time sampling b/c can underestimate data

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?

oThis 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 oConcurrent operant reinforcer assessment = correct Can't be single operant reinforcer assessment b/c mentions she wants to allow clients to choose between stimuli

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