Free RBT & BCBA Practice Questions

1. A learner asks for a break and the difficult task is removed for two minutes. Afterwards, the learner asks for breaks more often. What is this?

  1. Positive reinforcement
  2. Negative reinforcement
  3. Positive punishment
  4. Negative punishment

Answer: Negative reinforcement. Something unpleasant (the task) was removed and the behavior (asking for a break) increased. Removal plus an increase in behavior is negative reinforcement.

2. A teacher says 'line up' and the student begins walking 40 seconds later. Which measure describes the 40 seconds?

  1. Duration
  2. Inter-response time
  3. Latency
  4. Rate

Answer: Latency. Latency is the time from a cue or instruction to the start of the behavior.

3. Session lengths change from day to day. What should you use to compare how often a behavior occurs across sessions?

  1. Total count
  2. Rate
  3. Duration
  4. Percentage of trials

Answer: Rate. Rate (count divided by time) allows fair comparison when observation periods differ in length.

4. Which session note entry is the most objective?

  1. Client was frustrated and refused to work.
  2. Client seemed tired today.
  3. Client pushed materials off the table 3 times during matching trials.
  4. Client had a bad attitude during session.

Answer: Client pushed materials off the table 3 times during matching trials.. Objective notes describe observable, measurable behavior. The third option states what happened and how many times.

5. In discrete trial teaching, what typically comes immediately after the learner's response?

  1. The discriminative stimulus
  2. The consequence
  3. The inter-trial interval
  4. The prompt

Answer: The consequence. A discrete trial follows the order: instruction (SD), optional prompt, response, consequence, then an inter-trial interval.

6. A caregiver asks you to babysit their child on the weekend for extra pay. What should you do?

  1. Accept, since you already know the child well
  2. Accept, but only for a few hours
  3. Politely decline and inform your supervisor
  4. Ask another technician to do it instead

Answer: Politely decline and inform your supervisor. Babysitting a client creates a multiple relationship. RBTs should decline and tell their supervisor.

7. ABC data show that a child's screaming is usually followed by an adult removing a demand. Which function is most likely?

  1. Access to tangibles
  2. Escape
  3. Attention
  4. Automatic reinforcement

Answer: Escape. When behavior reliably ends a demand, escape (negative reinforcement) is the most likely hypothesized function. A functional analysis can confirm it.

8. Which procedure teaches a socially appropriate response that produces the same reinforcer as the problem behavior?

  1. Extinction
  2. Functional communication training
  3. Response cost
  4. Noncontingent reinforcement

Answer: Functional communication training. Functional communication training teaches a communicative replacement response that accesses the same reinforcer that maintained the problem behavior.

9. A behavior analyst cannot withdraw treatment for ethical reasons and wants to show experimental control across three settings. Which design fits best?

  1. Reversal (ABAB) design
  2. Multiple baseline across settings
  3. Alternating treatments design
  4. Changing criterion design

Answer: Multiple baseline across settings. A multiple baseline design staggers treatment introduction across settings and does not require withdrawing an effective treatment.

10. What are the four components of behavioral skills training (BST)?

  1. Assessment, intervention, evaluation, maintenance
  2. Instructions, modeling, rehearsal, feedback
  3. Prompting, fading, shaping, chaining
  4. Observation, data, graphing, review

Answer: Instructions, modeling, rehearsal, feedback. BST consists of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, repeated until the skill is performed correctly.

11. Praise increases on-task behavior for one student but decreases it for another. What does this illustrate?

  1. Reinforcers are defined by their effect on behavior
  2. Praise is always a punisher
  3. Extinction is occurring
  4. Stimulus generalization

Answer: Reinforcers are defined by their effect on behavior. Whether a consequence is a reinforcer or punisher is defined by its effect on future behavior for that individual, not by its form.

12. Which measure is best for a behavior with no clear beginning or end that occurs at very high rates, such as continuous rocking?

  1. Frequency
  2. Latency
  3. Partial or whole interval recording
  4. Inter-response time

Answer: Partial or whole interval recording. Interval recording methods estimate occurrence when individual responses are hard to count. Choose partial or whole interval based on the goal.