ABA Exam #3

positive punishment

Nikki interrupts her parents when they are talking, and her parents scold her and explain why interrupting is rude. As a result, Nikki no longer interrupts her parents when they are talking. This is an example of what?

Nonexclusionary time-out

While coloring with other children, Mary begins to use her crayons to mess up the other children’s pictures. Mary is removed from the table for a brief period of time, and can only watch the other children coloring. What type of procedure is the teacher using with Mary?

discrimination

The tendency for a behavior to occur in certain situations but not in others refers to what?

Response cost

Susan comes home past her curfew and is not allowed to use the car for a week. As a result, Susan no longer comes home past curfew. Which procedure is illustrated in this example?

contiguity

In order for punishment to be effective, the consequence should follow the behavior closely in time. This factor is referred to as what?

an uconditioned punisher.

You go to a new bar in town and the music is so loud that it hurts your ears and gives you a headache. As a result, you no longer go to that bar. In this example, the loud music is serving as what?

Shawn's friends, Shawn's parents

Shawn drives faster than the speed limit only when his friends are in the car with him because they tell him he is cool. He doesn’t speed when his parents are in the car because they always tell him to slow down! In this example, the discriminative stimulus (S^D) is the ______ and the s-delta (SΔ) is the ______.

Social positive reinforcement

A hospital patient with a brain injury repeatedly strips naked each time the nurse enters the room for the morning routine. Every time this happens, the nurse reacts with surprise and indignation and orders the patient to get dressed. The patient’s behavior appears to be maintained through what?

intense enough to stop the behavior

For punishment to be maximally effective, it should be what?

intermittent punishment is less effective than continuous punishment.

If a teacher is unable to detect most instances of a behavior to be punished (e.g., threatening their classmates), then the teacher should have serious doubts about the value of implementing a punishment procedure because of what reason?

stimulus equivalence.

As a result of learning to match a light bulb to a lamp, and a lamp to a lamp shade, a child is now able to match a light bulb to a lamp shade without specific training to do so. This is an example of what?

generalization

Chase cheers at a football game when his hometown team scores, and his Dad gives him a high five. Chase later begins cheering when the opposing team scores. In this example, Chase’s cheering behavior has become a problem due to __________.

choosing a distinct signal

The picture below represents which important factor when attempting to effectively teach a behavior using discrimination training?

Self-generated mediators of generalization.

Jackie attends a class in order to learn how to use a specific software program for her computer. She takes notes during the class, and uses the notes to operate her computer when she gets home. Using the notes from the computer class to use her software program at home is an example of which strategy for promoting generalization?

punishment

Which of the following is not a functional non-aversive approach to decrease problem behaviors?

attention, play, escape, and alone.

The typical test conditions found in functional analyses include which of the following?

convenient to dispense

The tokens that are selected for use in a token economy must be what?

Implementing a response cost procedure.

Which of the following components is not always used in a token economy?

Increasing response effort.

When Allison is at home, she spends most of her time on the internet instead of studying. Allison disconnects her internet access at home, so she has to go to the library in order to get on the internet. Which antecedent control has Allison manipulated?

general case programming.

Promoting generalization through the use of multiple exemplars that sample from the range of relevant stimulus situations and response variations is referred to as what?

functional analysis

Which functional assessment method(s) has the ability to demonstrate a functional relationship?

indirect methods

A psychologist is working with a child who is disruptive in the classroom. The psychologist interviews the child’s teacher to learn more about the disruptive behavior and the events that immediately precede and follow the behavior. Which method of conducting a functional assessment is the psychologist using?

defining the target behavior

A researcher plans to implement a token economy with a group of juvenile offenders in a treatment program. What is the first step in planning a token economy?

The practitioner removes the demands that were being placed on the individual

In the “escape condition” of a functional analysis, following the occurrence of the problem behavior (e.g, SIB) the practitioner does which of the following?

when natural reinforcement contingencies can be used to maintain the desired behavior.

Fading is implemented in a token economy _______.

the time and place for token exchange should be planned in advance

Which of the following is true concerning establishing the time and place for exchanging tokens?

Reinforcing instances of generalization.

A child frequently engages in tantrums when requests are made of him by his parents and teachers. In order to promote a generalized reduction in the problem behavior, the child’s behavior of complying with requests without engaging in tantrums is reinforced at home, in school, and in all other settings. Which strategy for promoting generalization is being used with this child?

Arranging a Motivating Operation.

When Matt goes to bed at night he is unable to fall asleep because he usually takes a nap in the evening. Matt stops taking naps so that he is able to get more sleep at night. Which antecedent control strategy is Matt using to increase his desired behavior of getting more sleep at night?

within-stimulus, extra-stimulus

You are working with Timmy to identify which button in an elevator should be used to call for help in the case of an emergency. To help Timmy correctly discriminate between the "call for help" button and other buttons in the elevator, you could make the button bright red and larger than the other buttons, or you could put the word "emergency" on the call for help button. Making the button larger and bright red are examples of _______ prompts, whereas adding the word "emergency" is an example of a ______ prompt.

normal biases of human judgment can affect one’s ability to describe details accurately.

The interview is probably most limited as a functional assessment device because _______.

gestural prompt

Kelly’s basketball coach just put her into the game, but Kelly does not know which player on the opposing team she is supposed to guard on defense. The coach points to the player that Kelly is to guard. Which type of response prompt is Kelly's coach using?

generalized conditioned punisher

Reprimands and social disapproval are considered examples of _______ for most people because they have been paired with a variety of other punishers in the past.

direct observation

A teacher is working with a child who frequently engages in fighting with other children on the playground. The teacher observes and records the events that immediately precede and follow the child’s behavior of fighting. Which method of conducting a functional assessment is the teacher using?

Conducting a functional assessment.

What should be the first step when using behavior modification procedures to decrease a behavior?

High-P Request Sequence

Rachel screams and stomps her feet every time she’s instructed to sit in her chair. Her teacher asks Rachel to touch a picture of a cat and match two shapes before quickly asking her to sit down. Rates of not following instructions have decrease. Which behavior reduction strategy is being used?

matching-to-sample

You're working with Jimmy, a four-year-old boy. During one session, you place an array of pictures that include a picture of a duck, cat, and rabbit in front of him. Then, you hold up another picture of a rabbit and tell Jimmy to find the picture that looks the same. Which discrimination training procedure is being used?

Automatic negative reinforcement; sensory extinction

A child with developmental delays frequently scratches himself when upset, when smiling, when interacting with others, when left alone, and whether or not demands have been placed on him. But when he is required to wear a pair of thin rubber gloves throughout the day, the scratching gradually decreases to zero. His scratching behavior appears to be maintained through _______ and is being decreased using ______?

Negative punishment, extinction

If following the behavior, the reinforcer that was maintaining the behavior is removed and the behavior decreases it is called ______. If a positive reinforcer the person had already acquired is removed following the behavior and the behavior decreases, it is called ______.

negative punishment, positive reinforcement

Jess recently left a long-term relationship and was asked on a date by someone new. She gets really excited before their first date and texts him fifteen long paragraphs about her day. Unfortunately, Jess' date decides he no longer wants to meet with her and cancels the date. As a result, Jess no longer sends lots of really long texts to people she would like to date in the future. This is an example of what?

NCR

Margot is falling behind in school. She frequently elopes from her desk and refuses to complete any work that takes her any longer than ten minutes to finish. Her teacher has begun giving Margot breaks from work about every nine minutes, which has decreased the rate of elopement. Which behavior reduction strategy is being used?

Social negative reinforcement

f a student lies to his teacher about being sick and the teacher lets the student out of doing his class project, the student is more likely to lie about being sick when a class project is due. This is an example of what?

Social positive reinforcement (attention)

Review the following data from a functional analysis. What is the most likely function(s) of behavior? Select all that apply.

Sam’s behavior is likely escape-maintained, since he dislikes school and is removed from class after misbehaving. Because time-out lets him avoid academic tasks, it reinforces rather than punishes the behavior. Instead, the teacher should use a function-based intervention, such as DRA, by reinforcing an appropriate way to request help or a break. Seating changes could limit access to peers he picks on, and academic supports or curriculum adjustments may also be needed to address skill deficits contributing to escape behavior.

Sam is a 6^th grader who is failing most of his classes. He is often truant from school and claims that he hates to be in school. In the classroom, Sam engages in a problem behavior in which he picks on some of the other students. He grabs books or papers from their desks and pokes or pinches them during class.

The teacher decided on a time-out procedure for Sam. Whenever he engaged in one of the problem behaviors, the teacher made him sit outside the classroom in the hallway for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the teacher went out and told him to come back into the classroom. Although the teacher used this time-out procedure for several weeks, the problem behaviors persisted.

Address the following questions:

• Based on what you think is the function of Sam's behavior, what is wrong with this use of time-out?

• What would you recommend to the teacher to improve Sam’s behavior? 

This response cost procedure is inappropriate because removing Tina’s meal is unethical and violates the right to food, and punishment was used before attempting reinforcement-based strategies. Since Tina’s behavior is likely maintained by access to food, taking away her meal increases deprivation and may worsen the problem. A better approach would be to use DRA, reinforcing an appropriate way to request more or different food, and teaching that skill through BST if needed. Punishment also risks negative side effects such as avoidance, emotional responses, and modeling.

Tina, a 40-year old woman with profound intellectual disabilities living in a group home, ate supper at a dining table with five other residents with intellectual disabilities. Tina often grabbed food from other residents’ plates and ate it. This upset the other residents and caused problems at meals. The staff implemented a response cost procedure to decrease the food stealing. As soon as Tina grabbed food from somebody’s plate, the staff took her plate and she lost the remaining portion of her meal. after this response cost procedure was implemented, the food stealing decreased to only a few occurrences a month. Interestingly, Tina also began avoiding eating staffers who had previously taken away her food and occasionally aggressed against them. In addition, Bill, another resident of the group home, began taking food from other residents' plates when they did something that bothered him.

Address the following two questions:

• Identify what is wrong with how this response cost procedure is being implemented.

• Describe how the staff could address this issue without using response cost.

• We discussed four problems associated with the use of punishment during lecture. Name and describe at least two of these problems that are represented in this scenario.

Indirect FBA methods are convenient and help generate hypotheses, but they rely on memory and judgment, making them less accurate and less supported by research. ABC direct observation can be done through ABC continuous recording, ABC narrative recording, or a scatterplot. An FBA is a broad process that includes indirect assessments, descriptive assessments, and possibly an FA to hypothesize function. A functional analysis specifically and experimentally manipulates antecedents and consequences to confirm the function of behavior, making it the only method that can demonstrate a functional relation.

Describe the process of functional behavioral assessment (FBA). In your response, explain:

• At least one benefit and one limitation of indirect functional assessment methods.

• At least 1 of the 3 ways that you can conduct an ABC direct observation assessment.

• How a functional behavior assessment differs from a functional analysis (FA).

You could use within-stimulus prompts, such as making the hole larger and then gradually shrinking it to regulation size, or using an oversized putter and slowly reducing it to normal size. You could also slope the green toward the hole and then gradually flatten it. For extra-stimulus prompts, you might add a visual guide line on the green and fade it out, or place bumpers along the putting path and remove them gradually.

You are interested in playing golf, but your putting is so bad that you are too embarrassed to play with any of your friends. You decide that you will use stimulus prompting and fading to improve your putting (and enhance stimulus control). Let’s suppose that you have access to a putting green. Describe at least two ways you could use stimulus prompting and fading to improve your putting. Be creative and assume that you can manipulate the putter, the green, the golf ball, or the hole in any way you want. (Module 8, MO4)