ABA Test #2

Question 1

What is systematic ignoring and how does it work?

Answer 1

• Purposely withholding one’s attention from a child when they are undergoing inappropriate behaviour.
• Only works if it is consistently applied. Most people apply it inconsistently.
• Expect to see an extinction burst and then extinction of behaviour.

Question 2

What did we learn from Iwata et al (1982)?

Answer 2

• (Experimental) Functional analysis relationship between self-injury and environment
• 9 subjects - unstructured play, demand (escape), social disapproval (attention), alone (sensory)
• Low levels of SIB occurred with unstructured play
• By manipulating conditions, they were able to show that self-injury served different functions across subjects

Question 3

What is the difference between functional assessment and functional analysis?

Answer 3

• Functional assessment - assessing function of behaviour, involves many methods, including direct observation, functional analysis and interviews
• Functional analysis - A technique within functional assessment where antecedents and consequences are manipulated to understand their effects

Question 4

What are the general order of steps in developing a behavioural intervention?

Answer 4

• Define the behavior in terms of being measurable and observable
• Collect the data in terms of frequency or rate etc and then use this to make graphs or visuals
• Analyze using a FBA to identify the main triggers which are causing that behavior.
• Treatment plan, develop intervention/ triadic model to train the correct people.
• Evaluate so making sure that is going as planned and adjust accordingly.

Question 5

What is social validity and how is it assessed?

Answer 5

• The goals, procedures, and results of an intervention are socially acceptable to the client, the behavior analyst, and society.
• Ask the parents, teachers, student about whether they are comfortable with treatment/intervention and get them to evaluate treatment acceptability.

Question 6

What is the triadic model?

Answer 6

Training the teacher to help the student.

Question 7

What is the difference between the topography of behaviour vs. function?

Answer 7

• Topography = shape and form of the behaviour

- Function = why it is happening, effect on the environment

Question 8

What are the skills required to be a behavioural analyst?

Answer 8

• Relate to people
• Problem-solving and open-minded
• Positive feedback
• Self-evaluate and prioritize
• Manage deadlines
• Good at writing
• Be flexible

Question 9

What are the main tenants of behaviour?

Answer 9

Behaviour is a function of the environment. Behaviours being maintained by an aspect of the environment.

Question 10

What is the difference between the topographical and functional definition of punishment?

Answer 10

Topographical = what was done
Functional = if it decreased the probability of the response

We are interested in the functional definition, and that is how punishment is defined.

Question 11

What are some of the potential side effects of punishment?

Answer 11

• Emotional reaction
• Aggression
• No generalisation
• Disrupts social relationships
• Has to be continuous in order to be effective

Question 12

What’s the difference between extinction and sensory extinction?

Answer 12

• Extinction = probability of occurrence of response is decreased if the reinforcer is withheld contingent upon its occurrence
• Sensory extinction = extinction on behaviours maintained by automatic reinforcement

Question 13

What is prompting?

Answer 13

• an alternative/additional antecedent to normal one in order to increase the likelihood that the student will provide the desired response

Question 14

What is the difference between respondent, adjunctive, operant and reflexive behaviour?

Answer 14

• Respondent = conditioned behaviours like fears and phobias
• Adjunctive = behaviours that seem irrelevant, occur when another behaviour has been disrupted e.g. stretching at the lights
• Operant = learned behaviour linked to environment
• Reflexive = natural responses to stimuli e.g. squinting

Question 15

What’s the underlying principle underlying Torelli et al. (2017) with raising hands?

Answer 15

• Taught to raise hand under certain stimulus, and to not raise hand under certain stimulus
• Multiple schedules of reinforcement, mate!
• Principle: discrimination training to achieve stimulus control (SD; SΔ)

Question 16

What is resistance to extinction and how does it relate to schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 16

• Intermittent reinforcement increases resistance to extinction, as well as weak reinforcers
• More likely to persist with behaviour in expectation that the reinforcement may resume again, as it has in the past.

Question 17

What are the different conditions that are tested for with FBA?

Answer 17

• Social (social positive - attention)
• Demand (social negative - avoidance)
• Alone (automatic positive - sensory)
• Play (automatic negative - avoidance of stimuli)

Question 18

What are the different types of motivators and maintainers?

Answer 18

Attention, escape, tangible, sensory.

Question 19

What did the Hall, Lund and Jackson (1968) study demonstrate in terms of study and non-study behaviours?

Answer 19

• Attention when doing good study, and ignored when ignoring, bad study behaviour, then overall study increased (and vice versa).

Question 20

What did Hegel and Ferguson (2000) show?

Answer 20

• DRO, in reducing aggressive behaviour.
• Multiple-baseline
• Used shaping by getting him to sit quietly for longer and longer periods of time

Question 21

What is the difference between DRO, DRA, DRI and FCT

Answer 21

DRO = differential reinforcement of other behaviour - reinforcer given if absence of targeted behaviour
DRA = differential reinforcement of alternative behaviour - reinforcer given for more appropriate alternative behaviour
DRI = differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour
- e.g. reinforcing sitting if you want the child to stop running
FCT = functional communication training - teaching them a different way to communicate what they want

Question 22

What is the difference between reactive and proactive behaviour?

Answer 22

Reactive = Reprimand child when their disruption escalates to an unacceptable level

• Ignore appropriate behaviour
• Infrequent reinforcement for appropriate behaviour
• Weak reinforcers, lean schedules
• Too much behaviour required for too little reinforcement
• Behavioural expectations are often beyond child’s existing level
• Praise/rewards

Proactive
- Environmental alterations/modifications

Why is reactive more prevalent?
-Easier, immediate result

Question 23

What are some variables that influence the efficacy of DRO?

Answer 23

• The reinforcement chosen (as part of the reinforcement component of DRO) must be powerful enough to compete with the already successful reinforcing inappropriate behavior and should be varied in order to avoid satiation
• For DRO to be most effective, the other behavior needs to be reinforced before the target behavior occurs i.e. shorter interval is preferred

Question 24

What are the purposes of a functional behavioural assessment?

Answer 24

• identify conditions in which behaviour is likely to occur
• identify antecedents
• identify reinforcers
• hypothesise function of behaviour

Question 25

What is response efficiency and what would make a response more efficient?

Answer 25

• The principle that responses which require less effort and produce more reinforcement will occur more frequently than responses that require more effort and produce the same or less reinforcement.

Question 26

What is functional communication training?

Answer 26

• Replacing problem behaviour with a functionally equivalent alternative.
• Needs functional equivalence
• New communication response must be more efficient

Question 27

What is the train and hope strategy?

Answer 27

Train the behaviour and hope it will generalise

Question 28

What is sequential modification?

Answer 28

train in classroom and probe for generalization to playground, lunchroom etc. If generalisation did not occur, train in playground and probe for generalisation in lunchroom. If generalisation does not occur, train in lunchroom (and so on).

Question 29

What is introducing natural maintaining contingencies?

Answer 29

Train skills that will likely get reinforcement in natural environment

Question 30

What is training sufficient exemplars?

Answer 30

Teach them more than one response

Question 31

What is training loosely?

Answer 31

Train response to a range of different responses

e.g. take a seat, sit down etc

Question 32

What is introducing intermittent reinforcement?

Answer 32

Increase resistance to extinction

Question 33

What is programming common stimuli?

Answer 33

Make the training environment like the natural environment

Question 34

What are some other ways of mediating generalisation?

Answer 34

• Self-talk (e.g. think and respond)
• Problem solving
• Self-management

Question 35

What would the logical approaches for attention-motivated behaviour be?

Answer 35

• Use attention as a reinforcer for the absence of problem behaviour (Dro)
• Use attention as a reinforcer for any appropriate behaviour (DRA)
• Teach the child a better way of getting attention (FCT)
• Systematically ignore problem behaviour

Question 36

What would the logical approaches for escape-motivated behaviour be?

Answer 36

• Use escape as a reinforcer for the absence of problem behaviour (DRO)
• Use escape as a reinforcer for any appropriate behaviour (DRA)
  e. g. telling students to not pack up stuff then let them go at the end of the lecture
• Teach the child a better way to get escape (FCT)
• Systematically ignore attempts by the child to escape using problem behaviour (escape extinction)

Question 37

What would the logical approaches for tangible-related behaviours be?

Answer 37

• Use tangible as a reinforcer for the absence of problem behaviour (DRO)
• Use tangible as a reinforcer for any appropriate behaviour (DRA)
• Teach the child a better way to get/request the tangible (FCT)
• Systematically ignore attempts by the child to get object using problem behaviour (simple extinction)