ABA Exam Coach

B.22: Identify ways behavioral momentum can be used to understand response persistence.

Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.

Before asking a client to start a nonpreferred chore, a BCBA gives three quick, easy instructions ("Touch your nose," "High five," "Clap"), each followed by praise. Compliance with the chore instruction improves. This procedure is most directly based on:
  1. A. Behavioral momentum (high-probability request sequence)
    Correct. A rapid series of reinforced high-p requests builds momentum that increases the persistence of compliance with the low-p request.
  2. B. Differential reinforcement of other behavior
    Incorrect. DRO reinforces the absence of a target behavior. It is not a sequence of requests.
  3. C. Stimulus fading
    Incorrect. Stimulus fading gradually changes a prompt or stimulus dimension, which is not happening here.
  4. D. The Premack principle
    Incorrect. The Premack principle makes access to a high-probability behavior contingent on a low-probability behavior. It does not involve presenting easy requests first.
Two clients have attention-maintained problem behavior at similar baseline rates. Client 1's sessions include attention only for problem behavior. Client 2's sessions also include frequent noncontingent attention in the same room. When both are placed on extinction, behavioral momentum theory predicts that greater persistence will most likely be seen in:
  1. A. Client 1, because there is a smaller total reinforcement rate in the context
    Incorrect. A leaner reinforcement context predicts less, not more, persistence.
  2. B. Neither, because extinction removes all effects of reinforcement history
    Incorrect. Reinforcement history strongly affects how much responding persists during extinction.
  3. C. Client 2, because the richer overall rate of reinforcement in the context strengthens resistance to change
    Correct. Extra reinforcement in the context, even when it is not contingent on the behavior, strengthens the stimulus-reinforcer relation and increases persistence.
  4. D. Client 1, because response rate alone determines resistance to change
    Incorrect. Momentum theory holds that resistance to change depends mainly on the reinforcement rate correlated with the context, not on baseline response rate.
A school BCBA wants to compare the behavioral momentum of a 3rd grader's on-task behavior in two classrooms. According to behavioral momentum theory, which measure is most appropriate?
  1. A. The baseline response rate in each classroom
    Behavioral momentum theory treats baseline response rate (velocity) as separate from resistance to change (mass). A high baseline rate does not by itself show persistence.
  2. B. The number of trials it took to acquire on-task behavior
    How quickly a behavior was acquired is a measure of learning, not of persistence under disruption.
  3. C. The response rate during a disruptor, relative to baseline
    Correct. Behavioral mass is measured as resistance to change. You introduce a disruptor (such as extinction, distraction, or satiation) and compare response rate during the disruptor to baseline, usually as a proportion of baseline.
  4. D. The latency from the teacher's instruction to on-task behavior
    Latency to respond describes how quickly the behavior starts. It does not measure how well the behavior holds up when it is disrupted.

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