BCaBA Practice Exam Answered Questions Graded A+

A behavior analyst is using a partial-interval recording method to see if her client will sit down during class. Each interval is 5 minutes long and there are 12 total intervals. - ANSWER If he never sat in his seat duri ...

A behavior analyst is using a partial-interval recording method to see if her client will sit down during class. Each interval is 5 minutes long and there are 12 total intervals. - ANSWER If he never sat in his seat during the entire hour If a target behavior occurs at high rates during the play condition of a functional assessment, the behavior's function is likely: - ANSWER automatic. Vick loves basketball. He wants to improve his free throw percentage so that he can make his high school's basketball team. On the first day, Vick took 10 free throw shots and made 60% of these shots. On the second day, Vick took 5 free throw shots and made 2 of them. On the final day, Vick took 10 free throw shots and made 80% of these shots. What is Vick's overall free throw percentage from these 3 days? - ANSWER 64% Jebb is a behavior analyst who works with a client named Brandon, who lives in a rural and poverty-stricken area. During a session with Brandon, his guardian says to Jebb, "Hey, I remember that you said that you enjoyed working on cars. Mine stopped working and I can't afford a mechanic right now. Could you take a look at it to see what is wrong?" What would be the most appropriate response for Jebb to give? - ANSWER "I apologize. But according to the ethical code that I have to follow, I cannot work on your car since I already provide behavioral support services for your family." You begin to work with an 8 year-old client by the name of Seth, your new client. His parents informed you in an interview of a few items that he prefers, but said that what he enjoys to play with is very limited. You decide that you will attempt to identify some new stimuli that will function as effective reinforcers for Seth. You consider several options and decide that ___________ is the LEAST effective method out of those you are considering for determining whether a particular stimulus will or will not function as a reinforcer for this client. - ANSWER A multiple-stimuli preference assessment You begin writing behavioral interventions and a treatment plan for your client Benny. You are certain you would like to implement your interventions with Benny. When should you obtain consent from a guardian? - ANSWER before changing an intervention goal. You see a behavior therapist working with her client throughout the day teaching him to respond to greetings with a "Hi" or similar message. The therapist greets him first in the morning saying, "Hi, pal!" at the clinics entrance. She then makes a point to say, "Hey there!" to him when she returns to the play area after a bathroom break. The final time you see the therapist is near the end of the day when she returns from a quick conversation with her supervisor and returns to her client in the table work area saying, "Hello!" to her client. Which method is MOST likely being used by the therapist to promote stimulus generalization that involves changing non-critical aspects of the target Sd so that the response occurs under multiple stimulus conditions? - ANSWER Training loosely In order to identify a punishing stimulus that can be used during a punishment procedure, a BCBA® first presents items non-contingently to the client and records the number of times the client moves away from that particular item. This is an example of: - ANSWER A stimulus avoidance punisher assessment A manager at an office scolds a worker's cellphone use. This scolding resulted in the worker never using his cellphone at work again. During the worker's lunch break, the worker asks his coworkers, "Wasn't it funny how upset Mr. ToughGuy got when I took a call?" All of his coworkers thought it was hilarious and said he should start doing comedy shows down at the theater as his new job. - ANSWER positive punisher. A child is learning to prepare his lunch independently. A therapist stands behind the child and follows the child's hand movements with her own hands, slowly increasing the distance between her hands and the child's hands as steps are completed correctly. If the child does a step incorrectly, the therapist is ready to use hand-over-hand prompting to help with the difficult steps. - ANSWER Graduated guidance During the contingent attention phase of a functional analysis, what should a therapist do prior to the target behavior occurring? - ANSWER The therapist should be in the same room but withhold attention by engaging in an activity such as drawing a picture. A behavior analyst creates an intervention from their newly established treatment plan. After a couple weeks the client successfully learns to set the table for meal-time. Who will determine the social validity of this intervention? - ANSWER Community members A behavior analyst begins working with a client who has several target behaviors. Which one of his problem behaviors would be considered the MOST important to address immediately? - ANSWER Visual self-stimulatory behavior of looking up at the ceiling lights. He engages in this behavior 4 hours per day, on average, and it gets in the way of him interacting with peers and performing tasks at home and school. A therapist has just begun working with a child named Jenson. She wants to determine what Jenson likes to do for fun. She walks with him to the play area of the clinic and he gains access to dozens of toys and different activities. Jenson begins playing with a picture book with buttons that make sounds. He plays with the book for an entire hour. In this scenario, we can confirm that the book is: - ANSWER a stimulus A behavior analyst is teaching her client to exchange coins and bills for monetary transactions. This is a necessary skills for most learners and is one that her client could use as she plans to volunteer at the school library during the upcoming book fair to sell school supplies and library books to her fellow students. The behavior analyst first teaches her client how to exchange bills only in a training room that is adjacent to the library. The behavior analyst has some of her client's actual schoolmates come into the training room to see if she will exchange currency with them, prior to having her do so independently during the book fair. Which method of stimulus generalization is being used in this scenario? - ANSWER Programming common stimuli You meet with the therapist that works with your shared client, Tony, each day. She voices that the token economy you previously established to assist in increasing Tony's motivation to perform tasks each day has begun to be less and less effective. What can you do to increase Tony's motivation to earn tokens? - ANSWER Auction backup reinforcers; the learner who offers the most tokens for that particular item will earn it., Add a highly motivating item to the selection of backup reinforcers, and Increase the number of tokens required to "buy" the backup reinforcer. You are a swimming coach. You want to increase the amount of time that Quinton, a swimmer on your team, can hold his breath underwater. Which measurement procedure would be the best to use in this scenario? - ANSWER Whole-interval recording How often should interobserver agreement (IOA) data be collected? - ANSWER Around one-third of the time and at least once per experimental phase An 11-year-old is having difficulty waking up on time in the morning for school, taking a shower, and preparing her school lunch. Her parents begin a rewards system where each day of the week she will receive a smiley-face sticker if she does all of her morning routine and an "X" if she does not complete all of them. If she has 5 smiley-face stickers by the end of the week, she gets to pick out a $10 item from a nearby store of her choice. They keep the chart on their daughter's bedroom wall that includes what behaviors are expected, what it will take to earn the reward, and when the reward will be delivered. What type of procedure did her parents use? - ANSWER A contingency contract A school teacher asks his student if she wants to read a comic book or magazine, while holding each item up to show her. His student chooses the magazine to read. Which type of preference assessment did the teacher conduct? - ANSWER A paired-stimuli preference assessment An experimenter is analyzing the effects of 3 particular interventions on a single behavior of one person. After a steady baseline was achieved, the first intervention was introduced. When steady responding was achieved with this intervention over the course of 3 days, the experimenter returned to baseline by removing this intervention. After 5 days of steady baseline, the experimenter implemented the second intervention. The second intervention was conducted for 3 days before the experimenter withdrew this intervention and returned to baseline. After 4 days of steady baseline, the experimenter introduced the third intervention for 3 days. The third intervention lasted for 3 days before the experimenter withdrew it and returned to baseline. After 3 days of steady baseline, the experimenter re-introduced the first intervention. What kind of experimental design was the experimenter using? - ANSWER A multiple treatment reversal design A behavior analyst wants to decrease her adult client's offensive language toward others. The behavior is tracked at the client's group home during meal times and social times in the lounging area and the behavior analyst records 12 occurrences per hour during baseline conditions. The behavior analyst begins the intervention in the client's personal quarter's of the group home and the behavior occurs 3 time per hour on average there. Which of the following statements regarding the intervention is true? - ANSWER None of the above (The intervention is not working, The intervention appears to be working but it should be extended to show the intervention itself was responsible for the behavior change, The intervention appears to be working.) Sally is a behavior analyst. She is trying to decrease her client's purposeful fire-alarm-pulling behavior. It has been determined that the fire-alarm-pulling is maintained by attention. Of the following options, what is the most effective way Sally can help decrease her client's frequency of fire-alarm-pulling? - ANSWER Provide a dense schedule of reinforcement for all appropriate responses that are in the same functional response class as the fire-alarm-pulling. Travis, a behavior analyst, accepts a referral for a new client. Shortly after, he identifies that he will need to conduct a functional behavior assessment due to a frequent behavior that the parents would like reduced. What can the conducted functional behavior assessment tell Travis? - ANSWER if a particular intervention is effective, which interventions could worsen the target behavior, and the function of the target behavior. Reversing an intervention will not result in a reduction in skills for behaviors that cannot be "unlearned."Reversing an effective intervention is not always practical in applied settings Reversing an effective intervention can be dangerous and unethical under certain circumstances. These are what? - ANSWER limitations of a reversal experimental design Jerry takes part in short-distance sprint competitions. After walking up to the starting line, he must wait for the sound of a gunshot before he can start sprinting forward, or he will be disqualified. However, Jerry consistently sprints across the starting line before the sound of the gunshot, resulting in disqualification. With regards to starting to sprint, Jerry needs to work on: - ANSWER None of the above (increasing his latency, decreasing his latency, decreasing his interresponse time.) You are working with your new 7-year-old client, Ryan, who has two aggressive behaviors and a significant deficit in requesting for help when necessary. His guardian expressed that they would like to make these 3 behaviors the current main focus for services. When will you know that a targeted behavior no longer needs to be treated with an intervention? - ANSWER When the target behavior occurs at a frequency that is similar to the client's typically developing peers What is the most appropriate response a behavior analyst could make when a learner responds incorrectly on a matching-to-sample trial? - ANSWER Immediately remove the sample stimulus and comparison stimuli and start another trial. You enter your client's third-grade classroom to observe their behavior in an environment outside of the one you typically observe them in (their home). You notice the teacher is using a teaching style that involves teaching the students with a script and having them all answer with choral responding. You identify that it leaves her little room to deviate from her lesson plan, but is effective nonetheless. Which teaching method is the school teacher using? - ANSWER Direct Instruction A teacher requests the use of a behavior analyst because her 8-year-old student, Billy, has severe aggressive behavior of destroying classroom property. The behavior analyst decides to conduct a functional analysis. During what conditions should the behavior analyst provide attention before the target behavior occurs? - ANSWER play condition and escape conditions. A behavior analyst identifies that her client Susan throws rolled up paper balls at classmates to get their attention. She then creates a replacement behavior that serves the same function, instructs the teacher and classroom aide on the replacement behavior as well as the created function-based operational definition so that they can record how frequently Susan utilizes this new replacement behavior. What would be a function-based operational definition for gaining a peer's attention? - ANSWER Saying, "Hello", waving, tapping on a peer's shoulder, or any other behavior that results in gaining eye contact from a peer A client that works with therapists in a center politely asks his therapists to take him to the nearby playground around 30 times per day. However, it is only feasible to take him to the playground 2 times per day and the therapists are annoyed that he constantly asks them to take him. Which differential reinforcement procedure would be best to use for decreasing his "asking to go to the playground" behavior? - ANSWER DRL A preschooler often headbutts her fellow classmates who sit next to her during circle sing-along time, resulting in her being taken away by the classroom assistant from the other children and the activity. It is determined that the headbutting behavior is escape-maintained. Which function-based intervention would likely be