BCBA Mock-Exam Questions

1. A behavior analyst is adhering to which underlying assumption of behavior analysis when she
conducts several tests of her treatment before she writes it in a formal behavior program?
a. Determinism
b. Law of parsimony
c. Empiricism
d. None of the above

2. Providing a complete description of ones procedures in a behavior analytic study of classroom
management techniques is adhering to which dimensions of behavior analysis?
a. Conceptually systematic
b. Applied
c. Technological
d. Analytic

3. Describing behavior program procedures in terms of the basic principles of behavior is adhering to
which dimension of behavior analysis?
a. Conceptually systematic
b. Applied
c. Technological
d. Analytic

4. When asked why a certain behavior happened, the behavior analyst states that the behavior came
out of nowhere. If the behavior analyst meant what he said, he is violating the assumption of
__________________.
a. Philosophical doubt
b. Determinism
c. Technological
d. Being conceptually systematic

5. Which of the following is NOT a dimension of applied behavior analysis?
a. Effective
b. Technological
c. Applied
d. Empirical

6. A behavior analyst is measuring the time it takes for a client to say, Youre welcome after the staff
says, Thank you. The behavior analyst is measuring __________________.
a. Frequency
b. Duration
c. Inter-response time
d. Latency

7. Which measure would probably be the best measure for crying?
a. Frequency
b. Duration
c. Percentage
d. Latency
8. If a behavior analyst states, It took four attempts, but Johnny completed the puzzle, she is using
which measure?
a. Whole interval
b. Percent of occurrence
c. Trials to criterion
d. Frequency

9. Jody had an access-maintained tantrum for 14 minutes and it started 3 seconds after she was told,
No. It had been 2 days since the previous tantrum. The latency is:
a. Unknown
b. 2 days
c. 14 minutes
d. 3 seconds

10. In the above question, 2 days a(n) __________________.
a. Inter-response time measure
b. Duration measure
c. Indirect measure
d. Latency measure

11. The number of time intervals in a specific period of time during which a response occurs continuously
for an entire interval is which measure?
a. Partial-interval recording
b. Whole-interval recording
c. Momentary time sampling
d. Percentage of occurrence

12. In behavior analysis, the __________________ is usually __________________.
a. Independent variable; a measure of behavior
b. Dependent variable; a measure of behavior
c. Baseline measure; unrelated to the behavior
d. Independent variable; implemented before the baseline measure



13. An experimenter examines the effects of three types of prompts on compliance in a developmentally
disabled person. In this experiment, what is the independent variable?
a. The location of the environment
b. The three types of prompts
c. The level of compliance
d. The diagnosis of the individual

14. An experimenter examines the level of noise in a school bus full of children under the following
conditions: baseline, rock music, baseline, classical music. In this experiment, the dependent
variable is:
a. Time
b. The number of children on the bus
c. The level of noise
d. The type of music
15. A person is asked to make his bed. His caregiver checks 30 minutes later and the bed was made.
No one else was present during that time. The caregiver records that the client made his bed even
though he did not observe the behavior directly. The data collection method used is:
a. Duration recording
b. Whole-interval recording
c. Latency recording
d. Permanent product recording

16. Talking out in class results in a child losing a star on his star chart. The loss of a star appears to be
an attempt to implement a(n) __________________ procedure.
a. Response cost
b. Negative reinforcement
c. Aversion therapy
d. Errorless learning

17. A DRI schedule designed to decrease the frequency of running around class and tapping other
children on the head involves:
a. Arranging for the child to earn a reinforcer in the absence of these behaviors
b. Providing a reinforcer contingent on being on task and sitting quietly in his seat
c. Changing the seating arrangement of the class
d. Ensuring the child had breakfast that morning

18. Gradually transferring stimulus control from prompts to other discriminative stimuli is a process called
__________________.
a. Shaping
b. Modeling
c. Maintenance
d. Fading

19. Requiring a student who disrupts the class by throwing papers and tipping over chairs to clean the
mess up and then clean the rest of the room by sweeping and cleaning desktops is a(n)
__________________ procedure.
a. Negative reinforcement
b. Negative punishment
c. Positive punishment
d. Extinction

20. The specific, or technical, name for the type of procedure used in the above question is:
a. Restitution
b. Stimulus shaping
c. Over-correction
d. Corporal punishment

21. Teaching a child to match printed words to pictures, then pictures to the actual objects, and then
testing to determine if the child can now match printed words to the actual objects is known as:
a. PECS
b. Discrete trial training
c. Verbal behavior training
d. Stimulus equivalence
22. Placing a request that a child is least likely to perform at the end of a series of requests that the child
is most likely to perform is a phenomenon known as:
a. The Premack principle
b. High-probability request sequence
c. Errorless learning
d. Mediated transfer

23. The purpose of conducting a functional assessment is to:
a. Complete a functional analysis
b. Manipulate variables that affect behavior
c. Obtain information from which to create a hypothesis statement
d. Determine how effective a treatment intervention is

24. Which is the best definition of a behavior function?
a. What the teacher believes the reinforcer should be for the child
b. How the behavior controls antecedents
c. How the child feels concerning his or her own behavior
d. The reinforcers that maintain a behavior

25. Alternative appropriate behaviors that serve the same function for an individual:
a. Always involve skills the individual already possesses
b. Produces the same reinforcer for the individual
c. Have the same topography as the problem behavior
d. Always requires the same amount of response effort as the problem behavior

26. A __________________ is derived from a descriptive analysis.
a. Hypothesis
b. Statement of causation
c. Data-driven conclusion
d. Hypotenuse

27. When an observer notes everything the client does or says as well as events before and after the
episode of behavior, he or she is using:
a. Duration recording
b. Permanent product recording
c. ABC recording
d. Time sampling

28. A good behavior analyst always does what before authoring a behavior intervention?
a. Functional analysis
b. Momentary time sampling
c. Direct observation
d. Implements the least aversive, most effective punisher

29. What are the three elements of informed consent?
a. No coercion, approval, voluntariness
b. Capacity, age, voluntariness
c. Informed, age, voluntariness
d. Capacity, informed, voluntariness
30. Behavior analytic interventions that are effective in changing an individuals behavior in a socially
important way are said to have:
a. Parsimony
b. Social validity
c. Primary importance
d. Interobserver reliability

31. Which of the following would not be a type of function of behavior identified during a functional
assessment?
a. Attention
b. Escape
c. Frustration
d. Access to tangibles

32. Results of a functional assessment reveal that a child engages in hand-biting when she is in a room
by herself. The likely function of behavior is:
a. Attention
b. Access to tangibles
c. Escape/avoidance
d. Automatic reinforcement

33. You are working with a child on teaching swimming. You teach the child to do the front crawl. After a
few weeks of teaching, the child is doing both the front crawl and also starts doing the breast stroke.
What has occurred?
a. Stimulus generalization
b. Response generalization
c. Failure to generalize
d. Maintenance

34. What if you teach the child to swim in a pool and the child goes to the beach and can do the front
crawl in the ocean?
a. Stimulus generalization
b. Response generalization
c. Failure to generalize
d. Natural contingencies

35. In reference to maintenance, functional arrangements between behavior and antecedent and
consequence events that occur in the environment in which the behavior of interest is to be
maintained are called:
a. Stimulus discriminates
b. Natural contingencies
c. Generalization
d. Maintenance schedules





36. A child who learns to say red when presented with a red card, also says red when presented with
an orange card. This is called:
a. Stimulus generalization
b. Response generalization
c. Discrimination
d. Failure to generalize

37. Which schedule of reinforcement is most effective at maintaining behaviors?
a. Continuous reinforcement
b. Intermittent reinforcement
c. Extinction
d. Ratio

38. You are teaching David to clean the workshop to prepare him for working on the cleaning crew. Read
the descriptions below and identify which is LEAST likely to promote generalization of the workshop
cleaning skills to real-life cleaning jobs.
a. Make the workshop as much like a real cleaning situation as possible
b. Transition to variable, delayed reinforcement
c. Teach David to use a checklist, which could be used on the cleaning crew
d. Make the workshop distinctive from the cleaning crew and then gradually make it more like it

39. You are working with a client who finds physical touch to be aversive. When the person is off task,
the program calls for you to give a warning by counting to 10; at that point, you gently touch him if he
is not back on task. The touch remains until he returns to task. Please note that being touched is
aversive for this particular individual. If the person gets back on task during counting, this is an
example of:
a. Escape
b. Avoidance
c. Positive reinforcement
d. Stimulus fading

40. If the person gets back on task when he is touched, this is an example of:
a. Escape
b. Avoidance
c. Positive reinforcement
d. Stimulus fading

41. Staff alert you that one of their clients seems to become aggressive when he has not consumed food
for several hours. This phenomenon demonstrates the effect of a(n):
a. Discriminative stimulus
b. Conditioned stimulus
c. Establishing operation
d. Negative reinforcer




42. A child is exhibiting tantrum behaviors. You believe the tantrum is occurring for your attention. You
therefore ignore the tantrum until it ceases while continuing daily activities. You note that the
tantrums decrease over time. This is an example of:
a. Positive punishment
b. Establishing operations
c. Time-out
d. Extinction

43. Tokens are generally referred to as:
a. Conditioned reinforcers
b. Generalized conditioned reinforcers
c. Negative reinforcers
d. S
D
s

44. In self-control, where does the ultimate control lie? (Or, why is self-control a misnomer?)
a. With the self
b. The choice of the person
c. In the environment
d. With a contract manager

45. Select the best staff training package:
a. Staff are given a book on behavior analysis and asked to read it; comprehension tests are
given after each chapter
b. Staff are given explanation of the procedures, then a weekly feedback system is implemented
to sharpen their skills
c. Explanations of each procedure are given to the staff, then the supervisor demonstrates the
procedures; staff are given opportunities to practice the skills with feedback from supervisors
d. The supervisor conducts role playing sessions with the staff with weekly feedback provided
for performance

46. You are designing a treatment program for Susan. Before getting into details, you wish to identify
some ultimate outcomes towards which Susan will progress. Which of the following is NOT an
appropriate ultimate outcome for Susan?
a. The variety and diversity of events in Susans life
b. Susans access to reinforcers in the community
c. The range of interpersonal interactions with others
d. The convenience of staff with whom Susan works

47. Non-contingent reinforcement is this type of intervention:
a. Antecedent intervention
b. Consequent intervention
c. Punishment strategy
d. Behavioral momentum intervention




48. A teacher uses a group contingency with her students. She states the following rule: If everyone
gets 100% on their spelling test the week, I will turn cartwheels down the hall for you. What type of
group contingency is this?
a. This is not a group contingency
b. Independent group contingency
c. Interdependent group contingency
d. Dependent group contingency

49. A teacher says: Everyone, you have math homework tonight. Tomorrow, I will draw a name from a
hat. If that person has completed his or her homework and remembered to bring it back to school,
everyone will get extra recess. What type of group contingency is this?
a. This is not a group contingency
b. Independent group contingency
c. Interdependent group contingency
d. Dependent group contingency

50. Self-management is best defined as the:
a. Personal application of behavior change tactics that produces a desired change in behavior
b. Personal application of behavior change tactics that produces an increase in a desired
behavior
c. Personal application of behavior change tactics that produces an decrease in a desired
behavior
d. Application of behavior change tactics that causes changes to a particular behavior