24. Functional Behavior Assessment

Question 1

Functional behavior assessment (FBA)

Answer 1

Methods enabling hypotheses about the relations among specific types of environmental events and behaviors. Identifies the reinforcers currently maintaining behavior.

Question 2

Social positive reinforcement (attention)

Answer 2

Immediate attention from others, such as head turns; suprised facial expression; reprimands; attempts to soothe, counsel, or distract; and so on. These reactions can serve to positively reinforce behavior.

Question 3

Tangible reinforcement

Answer 3

Behaviors resulting in access to reinforcing material or other stimuli.

Question 4

Automatic positive reinforcement

Answer 4

Behaviors directly produce their own reinforcement. For example, thumb sucking might be reinforced by physical stimulation of either the hand or the mouth.

Question 5

Social negative reinforcement (escape)

Answer 5

Behaviors learned as a result of their effectiveness in terminating or postponing aversive events.

Question 6

Automatic negative reinforcement

Answer 6

Aversive stimulation, such as a physically painful or uncomfortable condition, is a motivating operation that makes its termination reinforcing. Behaviors that directly terminate aversive stimulation are therefore maintained by negative reinforcement that is an automatic outcome of the response.

Question 7

Topography, or form, of a behavior

Answer 7

Behaviors that look the same.

Question 8

Function

Answer 8

Relationship between a behavior and the conditions that account for a behavior.

Question 9

Altering antecedent variables

Answer 9

Change and/or eliminate either (a) the motivating operation for behavior or (b) the discriminative stimuli that trigger behavior.

Question 10

Altering consequence variables

Answer 10

The behavior can be placed on extinction by ensuring that the reinforcer is no longer delivered following the behavior.

Question 11

Teaching alternative behaviors

Answer 11

Alternative appropriate behaviors that serve the same function (i.e., produce the same reinforcer) as the original behavior could be taught.

Question 12

Functional (experimental) analysis

Answer 12

Antecedents and consequences representing those in the person’s natural environment are arranged so that their separate effects on problem behavior can be observed and measured.

Question 13

Descriptive functional behavior assessment

Answer 13

Encompasses direct observation of behavior; unlike functional analyses, however, observations are made under naturally occurring conditions.

Question 14

ABC continuous recording

Answer 14

An observer records occurrences of the targeted problem behaviors and selected environmental events in the natural routine during a period of time. Codes for recording specific antecedents, behaviors, and consequences can be developed based on information obtained from a functional assessment interview or ABC narrative recording.

Question 15

Conditional probability

Answer 15

The likelihood that a target behavior will occur in a given circumstance.

Question 16

ABC narrative recording

Answer 16

A form of descriptive assessment that differs from continuous recording in that (a) data are collected only when behaviors of interest are observed, and (b) the recording is open-ended (any events that immediately precede and follow the target behavior are noted).

Question 17

Scatterplots

Answer 17

A procedure for recording the extent to which a target behavior occurs more often at particular times than others.

Question 18

Indirect functional assessment

Answer 18

Methods using structured interviews, checklists, rating scales, or questionaires to obtain information from persons who are familiar with the person exhibiting the problem behavior (e.g., teachers, parents, caregivers, and/or the individual him- or herself) to identify possible conditions or events in the natural environment that correlate with the problem behavior.

Question 19

Behavioral interviews

Answer 19

The goal is to obtain clear and objective information about the problem behaviors, antecedents, and consequences. This might include clarifying descriptions of the behavior (consequences); when (times), where (settings, activities, events), with whom, and how often it occurs; what typically precedes the behavior (antecedents); what the child and others typically do immediately following the behavior (consequences); and what steps have previously been taken to address the problem, and with what result.

Question 20

Behavior rating scales

Answer 20

Ask informants to estimate the extent to which behavior occurs under specified conditions, using a Likert scale (e.g., never, seldom, usually, always). Hypotheses about the function of behavior are based on the scores associated with each condition.

Question 21

Contingency reversal

Answer 21

If an increase in problem behavior is observed in one of the test conditions, a contingency reversal is implemented to confirm the hypothesis rather than conducting many repetitions of all the conditions.

Question 22

Funtional equivalent

Answer 22

If problem behavior serves an escape function, then the intervention should provide escape (e.g., in the form of breaks from task demands) for a more appropriate response or involve altering task demands in a fashion that makes escape less reinforcing. Behaviors are functional equivalent.