BCAT Skill Acquisition Procedures 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which prompt type provides the least amount of assistance in a least-to-most prompting hierarchy?
- Physical guidance
- Verbal prompt
- Gestural prompt
- Independent response (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Independent response
An independent response requires no prompt from the trainer and represents the least assistance level.
Question 2: A learner consistently performs the first step of a chain but skips later steps. Which chaining method would best address this error pattern?
- Backward chaining (Correct answer)
- Forward chaining
- Total task chaining
- Simultaneous chaining
Correct answer: Backward chaining
Backward chaining teaches the last step first, ensuring mastery of terminal steps and may compensate for early-step dependence.
Question 3: What is the primary purpose of a task analysis in skill acquisition?
- To identify reinforcers for the learner
- To break a complex skill into teachable sequential steps (Correct answer)
- To measure the learner's IQ level
- To schedule therapy sessions
Correct answer: To break a complex skill into teachable sequential steps
A task analysis breaks complex skills into discrete, sequential steps to facilitate systematic instruction.
Question 4: During discrete trial training, what should happen immediately after the learner emits the correct response?
- Deliver the next trial
- Provide corrective feedback
- Deliver the reinforcer (Correct answer)
- Record the data then reinforce
Correct answer: Deliver the reinforcer
Reinforcement should be delivered immediately after a correct response to strengthen the behavior-consequence connection.
Question 5: Which of the following best describes stimulus control transfer?
- Moving reinforcement from food to praise
- Shifting response control from a prompt to the natural discriminative stimulus (Correct answer)
- Changing the target behavior over time
- Transferring skills from one therapist to another
Correct answer: Shifting response control from a prompt to the natural discriminative stimulus
Stimulus control transfer is the process by which a behavior comes under the control of the natural SD rather than the prompt.
Question 6: A technician is teaching a child to label colors using pictures. After mastery with cards, the child fails to label colors on real objects. This is an example of:
- Response generalization
- Stimulus generalization failure (Correct answer)
- Extinction burst
- Prompt dependency
Correct answer: Stimulus generalization failure
Failure to generalize a learned response to novel stimuli is called stimulus generalization failure.
Question 7: Which schedule of reinforcement produces the highest and most consistent rate of responding?
- Fixed ratio
- Variable ratio (Correct answer)
- Fixed interval
- Variable interval
Correct answer: Variable ratio
Variable ratio schedules produce the highest and most consistent rates of responding because reinforcement is unpredictable.
BCAT Skill Acquisition Procedures 2
Which prompt type provides the least amount of assistance in a least-to-most prompting hierarchy?