ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Test Applied Behavior Analysis Core ABA Principles 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following correctly identifies the three components of the three-term contingency in operant behavior?
- Setting event, behavior, and reinforcer
- Antecedent, behavior, and consequence (Correct answer)
- Motivating operation, response, and punisher
- Discriminative stimulus, operant, and extinction
Correct answer: Antecedent, behavior, and consequence
The three-term contingency (ABC) consists of the Antecedent (the event or stimulus preceding the behavior), the Behavior itself, and the Consequence (the event following the behavior). This framework is foundational to ABA assessment and intervention.
Question 2: Positive punishment is best defined as:
- Removing a stimulus following a behavior to increase its future frequency
- Adding a stimulus following a behavior to increase its future frequency
- Adding a stimulus following a behavior to decrease its future frequency (Correct answer)
- Removing a stimulus following a behavior to decrease its future frequency
Correct answer: Adding a stimulus following a behavior to decrease its future frequency
Positive punishment involves adding (presenting) a stimulus contingent on a behavior, which results in a decrease in the future frequency of that behavior. The word 'positive' refers to the addition of something, not to a pleasant outcome.
Question 3: When a previously reinforced behavior is placed on extinction and the organism initially responds at a higher rate or with greater intensity before the behavior decreases, this phenomenon is called:
- Spontaneous recovery
- Behavioral contrast
- Extinction burst (Correct answer)
- Resurgence
Correct answer: Extinction burst
An extinction burst is the temporary increase in the frequency, duration, or intensity of a behavior when reinforcement is first withheld. Practitioners must anticipate and plan for extinction bursts when implementing extinction procedures.
Question 4: Which schedule of reinforcement delivers reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses and produces the highest, most steady rate of responding with the greatest resistance to extinction?
- Fixed ratio
- Fixed interval
- Variable interval
- Variable ratio (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Variable ratio
A variable ratio (VR) schedule delivers reinforcement after an average but unpredictable number of responses. Because the learner cannot predict when reinforcement will occur, responding is high and steady, and the behavior is very resistant to extinction — slot machines are a classic real-world example.
Question 5: When a behavior that was trained in one setting begins to occur in other untrained settings, stimuli, or with different people, this is an example of:
- Stimulus discrimination
- Stimulus generalization (Correct answer)
- Behavioral momentum
- Response differentiation
Correct answer: Stimulus generalization
Stimulus generalization occurs when a behavior trained under specific stimulus conditions begins to occur in the presence of other, untrained stimuli. ABA programs actively promote generalization so that skills transfer beyond the training environment.
Question 6: A 'motivating operation' (MO) in ABA is an environmental variable that:
- Directly reinforces a target behavior by adding a preferred stimulus
- Both alters the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus and alters the current frequency of behavior related to that stimulus (Correct answer)
- Specifies which behavior will produce reinforcement in a given context
- Permanently changes the function of a conditioned reinforcer
Correct answer: Both alters the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus and alters the current frequency of behavior related to that stimulus
A motivating operation has two defining effects: (1) the value-altering effect — it changes how reinforcing or punishing a stimulus is at that moment — and (2) the behavior-altering effect — it changes the current frequency of behavior that has been reinforced by that stimulus. Deprivation and satiation are common examples.
ABAT - Applied Behavior Analysis Test Applied Behavior Analysis Core ABA Principles 1
Which of the following correctly identifies the three components of the three-term contingency in operant behavior?