Skill Acquisition Programming Flashcards

A learner with ASD has mastered tacting 10 items across multiple exemplars but fails to tact novel items outside of training. The BCBA suspects the learner is responding to a single irrelevant feature of the training stimuli. Which programming strategy most directly addresses this?

Answer: Conduct a stimulus control analysis and introduce varied exemplar training targeting the relevant stimulus dimension

When a learner fails to generalize tacts to novel exemplars, narrow stimulus control (i.e., responding to irrelevant features) is the likely culprit. A stimulus control analysis identifies which feature controls responding; varied exemplar training (multiple exemplars across the relevant dimension) then loosens inappropriate control and promotes abstraction to the relevant feature.

During discrete trial teaching of receptive identification, a technician notices the learner consistently selects the picture on the left regardless of which card is correct. The BCBA should first:

Answer: Conduct a position preference assessment and systematically rotate stimulus positions across trials

A consistent position preference indicates the learner's responding is under positional stimulus control rather than the target stimulus. The first corrective step is to identify the preference through assessment and then systematically vary card positions across trials so that position is no longer a reliable cue—a prerequisite before adding prompt fading or difficulty adjustments.

A BCBA is programming for generalization of a newly acquired mand for 'break' across three school settings. The learner readily mands in the therapy room but not in the classroom or cafeteria. Which of the following represents the most conceptually systematic approach grounded in Stokes & Baer (1977)?

Answer: Program common stimuli by embedding salient features of the classroom and cafeteria into therapy room sessions before exposing the learner to the natural settings

Programming common stimuli (a generalization strategy from Stokes & Baer, 1977) involves identifying salient stimuli present in the generalization setting and incorporating them into training. This proactively increases the likelihood that the trained response will come under control of stimuli present in natural environments before the learner is placed there—making it the most conceptually systematic proactive approach among these options.

When using a total-task chaining procedure for a 12-step toileting routine, data show the learner consistently completes steps 1–7 independently but requires a full physical prompt on steps 8–12 despite 8 weeks of intervention. The MOST appropriate adjustment is:

Answer: Conduct a task analysis review to determine whether steps 8–12 require prerequisite skills not yet in the learner's repertoire

Persistent prompting requirements on a specific subset of steps after extended training most often indicates a missing prerequisite skill rather than a reinforcement or scheduling issue. Before altering prompt levels, reinforcement magnitude, or session frequency, the BCBA should re-examine the task analysis to determine whether steps 8–12 depend on skills (e.g., fine motor, sequencing) not yet mastered—and address those foundational deficits first.

A BCBA is designing a skill acquisition program using a simultaneous treatment design to compare two prompt fading procedures—most-to-least versus time delay—for teaching sight words. After 15 sessions, data paths are overlapping with no clear differentiation. The most appropriate methodological response is:

Answer: Examine whether an alternating treatment design confound (e.g., multiple treatment interference) is present and consider a preference assessment to select the superior procedure

Overlapping data paths in a simultaneous or alternating treatment design may indicate multiple treatment interference—where carry-over or contrast effects between rapidly alternating conditions obscure true performance differences. The BCBA should evaluate design confounds and consider a learner preference assessment (e.g., choice between procedures) as supplemental data, rather than declaring an inconclusive effect as definitive or artificially manipulating the data by introducing extinction.

A learner consistently acquires new skills in massed-trial formats (10 consecutive trials per target) but shows rapid skill decay between sessions. According to behavioral skills programming principles, the BCBA should modify the schedule to:

Answer: Transition to a distributed practice format with maintenance probes interspersed across sessions, incorporating expanding retrieval schedules

Rapid skill decay after massed-trial acquisition is a hallmark of poor maintenance, which distributed practice and expanding retrieval (spaced retrieval) schedules are specifically designed to address. Interspersing mastered and newly acquired targets across sessions, with systematically increasing intervals between practice opportunities, leverages the spacing effect and testing effect to produce durable retention—far more effectively than simply adding booster sessions or altering intertrial interval length.