BCBA Exam Review - 6th Edition Study Guide A-D

ABA Exam Review: 6th Edition BCBA Exam Study Guide Notes

A. Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

A-1. Goals of Behavior Analysis

  • Description: Describing events that happen, just stating facts about behaviors without hypothesizing or experimenting.

    • Example: Observing what happened when you told your friend about your night.

  • Prediction: Using observations to hypothesize the causes of behavior or events by identifying correlations.

    • Example: Predicting that a client may elope from the room when presented with a task demand.

  • Control: Manipulating variables to control the behavior of interest.

    • Example: Introducing reinforcement to reliably increase behavior, establishing a functional relationship.

A-2. Philosophical Assumptions

  • Selectionism: Behaviors persist based on environmental selection.

    • Phylogenic Selection: Natural selection affecting species evolution over time.

    • Ontogenic Selection: Individual learning history of behaviors.

    • Cultural Selection: Behaviors passed through imitation and modeling.

  • Determinism: Belief in lawful and orderly universe, all behaviors have explanations.

  • Empiricism: Importance of objective observation and data collection in behavior analysis.

  • Parsimony: Favoring the simplest explanation for behavior over complex ones to save resources.

  • Pragmatism: Making choices based on anticipated practical outcomes.

  • Philosophical Doubt: Continuous questioning of findings and validity in studies.

A-3. Radical Behaviorism

  • Introduced by B.F. Skinner: differentiates from methodological behaviorism.

  • SRS Contingency: Antecedents, Behavior, Consequences.

  • Involves recognizing and considering private internal events despite them being unobservable.

  • Mentalism: Utilizing hypothetical constructs (e.g., ego) to explain behavior, which is discouraged in behavior analysis.

A-4. Distinctions in Behaviorism

  • Behaviorism: A guiding philosophy encompassing radical behaviorism.

  • Experimental Analysis of Behavior: Research methodology focusing on controlled experiments, often with animals.

  • Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): Practical application using human subjects in naturalistic settings.

  • Professional Practice Guided by ABA: Implementing treatment plans based on experimental analyses.

A-5. Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis

  • Applied: Focus on meaningful and socially significant changes in behavior.

  • Analytic: Involves demonstrating control over behaviors and establishing functional relationships through interventions.

  • Behavioral: Emphasizes observable and measurable behaviors.

  • Conceptually Systematic: Consistent use of behavior principles in practice.

  • Effective: Achieving significant changes relevant to clients’ needs.

  • Generality: Behaviors should generalize across settings and over time.

  • Technological: Interventions should be replicable by other practitioners.

B. Concepts and Principles

B-1. Behavior, Response, Response Class

  • Behavior: Any action an organism does.

  • Response: A single instance of a behavior.

  • Response Class: A set of responses serving the same function or impact.

    • Example: Writing, stating, or showing “four” in response to “two plus two.”

B-2. Stimulus and Stimulus Class

  • Stimulus: A change in environment that evokes a response.

    • Example: Teacher entering a room prompts students to stop talking.

  • Stimulus Class: A group of stimuli that share similar characteristics.

    • Types: Topographical, functional, relational, and arbitrarily defined classes.

B-3. Operant vs. Respondent Conditioning

  • Respondent Conditioning: Involves the pairing of a stimulus with a reflexive response (e.g., classical conditioning).

    • Example: Loud noises causing a reflexive jump.

  • Operant Conditioning: Focus on consequences that affect future behavior probabilities.

    • Involves reinforcement and punishment.

B-4. Positive and Negative Reinforcement

  • Positive Reinforcement: Introducing a stimulus that increases the future probability of the behavior.

  • Negative Reinforcement: Removing a stimulus that increases the future probability of the behavior.

B-5. Positive and Negative Punishment

  • Positive Punishment: Introducing a stimulus that decreases future behavior probability.

  • Negative Punishment: Removing a stimulus that decreases future behavior probability.

B-6. Automatic vs. Socially Mediated Contingencies

  • Socially Mediated: Involves another person providing a consequence (e.g., a teacher praising a student).

  • Automatic: Consequences occur without the involvement of another person (e.g., scratching an itch).

B-7. Unconditioned, Conditioned, Generalized Reinforcers

  • Unconditioned Reinforcers: Require no prior experience (e.g., food, water).

  • Conditioned Reinforcers: Previously neutral stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through association (e.g., tokens).

  • Generalized Reinforcer: A type of conditioned reinforcer that is effective across multiple contexts (e.g., tokens used for various rewards).

B-8. Unconditioned, Conditioned, Generalized Punishers

  • Unconditioned Punisher: Primary punishers (e.g., pain, extreme temperatures) not requiring any learning history.

  • Conditioned Punisher: Neutral stimuli that become punishers through association (e.g., reprimands).

  • Generalized Punisher: Can be applied across various contexts (e.g., warnings).

B-9. Simple Schedules of Reinforcement

  • Continuous Reinforcement (FR1): Reinforcement for every instance of behavior.

  • Intermittent Reinforcement: Not every instance is reinforced; includes various schedules based on ratio and interval—fixed and variable options.

B-10. Complex Schedules of Reinforcement

  • Concurrent Schedules: Two or more simple schedules operate simultaneously, allowing choice (matching law).

  • Multiple vs. Mixed Schedules: Overall structure where one operates under a clear discriminative stimulus (SD) while the other does not.

  • Chained Schedules: Requires completing a sequence of behaviors in a specific order for reinforcement.

B-11. Operant vs. Respondent Extinction

  • Operant Extinction: Withholding a previously reinforced behavior's consequence.

  • Respondent Extinction: Separating a conditioned stimulus from unconditioned stimulus understandings, leading unlearning via unpairing.

C. Measurement, Data Display and Interpretation

C-1. Operational Definitions

  • Define behaviors clearly for observable and measurable data collection.

C-2. Direct, Indirect, and Product Measures

  • Direct Measures: Observing the behavior as it occurs.

  • Indirect Measures: Surveys and interviews about the behavior.

  • Product Measures: Assessing the outcome of the behavior, i.e., products produced (e.g., married tickets).

C-3. Measure Occurrence

  • Different types of occurrences such as count, frequency, rates, and percentage calculations.

C-4. Measure Temporal Dimensions of Behavior

  • Duration, Latency, and Interresponse Time as temporal dimensions for behaviors.

C-5. Continuous vs. Discontinuous Measurement Procedures

  • Continuous: Records every instance.

  • Discontinuous: Samples behavior at intervals (e.g., partial vs. whole interval).

C-6. Discontinuous Measurement Procedures

  • Designing how to collect data using intervals or snapshots of behavior at given moments in time.

C-7. Efficiency of Measurement

  • Analyzing trials to criterion, cost-benefit analysis, and training durations to optimize interventions.

C-8. Evaluating Validity and Reliability

  • Validity: Measuring what you intend to.

  • Reliability: Repeatable results across trials.

  • Accuracy: Truthful data collection reflecting reality.

C-9. Measurement Systems

  • Choosing systems based on behavior dimensions and environmental constraints affecting data.

C-10. Graphing Data

  • Various methods of visualizing data to track trends and evaluations.

C-11. Visual Analysis of Graph Data

  • Examining levels, variability, and trends to understand behavioral progress.

C-12. Experimental Designs

  • Types of designs to assess the impact of interventions on behaviors.

D. Experimental Design

D-1. Understanding the Components

  • Independent Variable: The treatment manipulated by the researcher.

  • Dependent Variable: The response measured to assess the impact of the independent variable.

  • Extraneous Variables: Confounding factors that could influence the results but are not the focus of study.

D-2. Types of Experimental Designs

  • Reversal (ABA): Easiest to implement with clear phases of intervention and withdrawal.

  • Multiple baseline: Used for when reversal isn't ethical; multiple behaviors/subjects can receive different baselines.

  • Alternating Treatment Designs: Rapidly testing different treatments to see immediate impacts.

  • Change in Criteria: Analyzing how incremental changes affect behaviors.

D-3. Strengths and Limitations of Designs

  • Single-Subject: Great for individual analysis; may miss larger trends seen in group analyses.

  • Group Designs: More generalizable across populations but lose depth in individual analysis.

D-4. Notations for Experimental Results

  • Interpreting design outcomes based on the behavior and criteria adherence from collected data.

D-5. Comparative, Component and Parametric Analyses

  • Comparative: Evaluating separate treatments against one another.

  • Component: Assessing features within a treatment package.

  • Parametric: Determining the function of certain aspects or dosages within the intervention.