Passing The BCBA Exam: Know the Language. Consider the Four Functions of Behavior and Differential Reinforcement

Revised: 11 January 2021

If you aren't learning the correct language and concepts of Applied Behavior Analysis, if you are not talking the language of Applied Behavior Analysis you will not be properly prepared either for the BCBA Exam or to function as a BCBA. You will risk BCBA exam retakes for reasons that are not your doing. And so many different graduate programs; so many different test prep and review systems too often offer a myriad of sometimes significant misrepresentations and mis-perceptions.

As retakes increase, so many folks just type 'BCBA Test Prep' into Google. It's not unlike typing 'autism.' You'll get very large return with both (certainly far more with 'autism') but few of either come with ways to evaluate or establish their relevance, accuracy or credibility. And there is a wide range of information and presentations available based on an even wider number of presenters most often with highly highly variable levels of professional experience and training.

A first priority when studying for the BCBA exam is to consider how these different resources use the language of Applied Behavior Analysis. A second is to be aware of 'promises' being made to prospective students. Those who claim to 'be exactly like the BCBA exam' are misleading from the outset. The only exam 'like the BCBA exam' is the BCBA exam. The question becomes whether or not the test prep provider has a system which simultaneously builds capacity and content in the field while offering extensive and focused practice on the test taking process.

Start with how so many sites and programs identify the four research-based functions of behavior. No matter how often taught by how many persons or programs, the reguarly presented 'SEAT' acronym is incorrect. Sorry....but it really is incorrect. The four research based functions of behavior are: Attention; Escape/Avoidance; Access (not 'tangible') and Automatic Reinforcement (not 'sensory'). 'Tangible' is only one component of the Access category and 'sensory' prioritizes pseudoscience over research-based practices and empiricism.

Automatic Reinforcement represents behavior which is NOT social mediated. It is something an individual does simply because they like doing it. I like to twirl a pen between and across my fingers. I have a few other 'stims,' too. How about you? Self stim, in other words, is one more human behavior. While this can create a kind of sensory feedback loop, saying behavior is 'sensory' driven is a misconstruction. Neither 'Access' nor 'Sensory' will be identified as a behavioral function on the exam. And for questions when the student needs to analyze an FA graph, it is imperative to know, understand and apply the four - correct - research based functions when selecting the answer.

'Tangible' is not behavioral function but a single component of the research based category of 'Access.' While there certainly are Access related behaviors where the individual may want a tangible item, Access also references attempts to change environments, to do a different activity, be with another person and, for individuals with higher rates of self stim behavior...to Access time to stim.

Let's talk next about self stim behavior which, by it's nature, often starts with a presumptive function of Automatic Reinforcement. But I stim; you stim; we all stim. Self stim behaviors are normal and natural until they become interfering to the child's success, learning, access to new choices and preferences and disruptive to the larger group.

But suppose there is a child with a stronger drive to a specific and rather persistent self stim behavior who suddenly discovers she is being blocked from doing so during a learning activity. In such a circumstance, the child may become disruptive less for escape (though that often must come first but would be a secondary function) in order to be sent away to 'think about her behavior' and, perhaps, to do 'calming' and 'deep breathing.' In doing so, the adults risks exactly teaching that child that her stim, which had been maintained by automatic reinforcement, can also be functionally applied for escape/avoidance.

Based on that delivered consequence, the child becomes aware that what had been her previously automatically reinforced stim behavior works really well for escape/avoidance, too. The child's stim behavior has now officially become, based on context as with every other behavior, socially mediated and functionally shaped by adult consequences.

Similarly, a child who prefers to play by him or herself is most often NOT engaged in Automatic Reinforcement. I keep hearing this over and over and it is just not accurate. A child may prefer to play alone simply because it is more in line with her or his general temperament. Others may do so based on explicit social interactive; social engagement and/or more general social skill deficits. Regardless, children need to better and more comfortably interact across peers even as individual preferences are identified and respected.

With this specific example, I've found that Automatic Reinforcement is used as a presumed behavioral function far to often and is more the result of a misunderstood, incorrect and/or mistakenly prioritized assessment process.

Next is information I've had my students tell me they'd been taught about Differential Reinforcement.

DRO is not a strategy of 'omission' but one of differential reinforcement with extinction leading to a reduction in behavior. Yes, I am aware that Cooper makes such a reference which, subsequently, has been picked up and misapplied by those among the cottage BCBA test prep industry. But a strategy of omission;' omitting what, exactly? DRO is correctly understood as a reduction or reductive strategy focusing on the non-occurrence of the target interfering behavior.

DRO is also the only one of the differential reinforcement strategies which does not teach alternative behaviors but works to shift attention from a higher risk interfering behavior to a range of more generally positive behaviors. If anything, DRO might be considered a strategy of 'non-occurrence' since the primary point is to reinforce that which is generally appropriate versus the targeted interfering behavior.

Another example of an often incorrect representation in differential reinforcement is related to DRL and DRD schedules.

While both are reduction prioritized, it is still imperative to be teaching functionally aligned appropriate alternative behaviors. The difference is use of a DRL schedule (Differential Reinforcement of Lower Rates of Behavior) is to reduce - not eliminate in any way - a target behavior which you want to keep in the child's repertoire.

Perhaps a child is constantly participating in class. She answers questions without waiting to be called on; she talks over and doesn't wait for peers to stop talking. Since we do not want to discourage her from participating, the goal would be to reduce the intensity to more classroom normative standards while teaching skills to include raising her hand, waiting her turn and giving other kids their own turn.

A DRD schedule (Differential Reinforcement of Diminishing Behaviors), on the other hand, is used when the goal is to either eliminate, or come as close to eliminating as possible, the target behavior. That is, when the target behavior does not need to remain in the child's repertoire. This collection would include, but isn't limited to, self injury and head banging, aggression, property destruction or elopement. And, no...head banging into a therapy ball or pillow is not only NOT an alternative behavior but, most likely, will only serve to reinforce and maintain that behavior. Appropriate alternative skills would be guided by the FBA in order to make the higher risk behavior ineffective, inefficient and irrelevant.

A DRD used to almost eliminate behavior would be considered in the case of high rate interfering self stimulatory behaviors. Since stim is a human behavior, it may not be exactly ethical to think we can, or need to, fully eliminate it from a child's repertoire. The key is to put high rate stim behavior under more effective stimulus control since this will most often work to greatly reduce it's frequency and intensity...but not to full elimination.

Which differential reinforcement strategy is reductive?

A. DRO

B. DRI

C. DRA

D. DRH

Something else students have asked about is behavior contract effects. Behavior contrast effects do not result when a target behavior increases due to the presentation of a more favorable reinforcer than offered previously. Instead, Behavior Contract Effect happens when differential schedules of reinforcement or schedules of reinforcement and punishment are utilized across different settings.

Be sure you are learning, and understanding, the correct language for behavior analysis.

If your grad program required BDS modules and called it a course; it probably wasn't. If your grad program required you to buy BDS while paying for a full course which did not have an active classroom teacher but insisted you complete a specific number of modules each week, you might consider talking to the Dean. A principle flaw in the BDS modules is that they are primarily designed for rote memorization rather than learning and studying.

Rote memorizing and rote memorizing flash cards for speed is also not a primary test prep model. For one, the BCBA exam is not a vocabulary test. Content is key but memorization is not learning or understanding. The key is when your #BCBAtestprep focuses on 'WWCS' or...'What Would Cooper Say.' Anything else will mislead.

If you haven't yet done a full FBAssessment to include developing and implementing a comprehensive BIP, that can represent a gap in learning which I directly address as part of my test prep services. And, by the way, using the FAST is not generating a full and original FBAssessment and BIP.

If you think a particular mock exam is confusing, it's because you are very likely correct. That, along with the many which come with incorrect or confusing questions and/or explanations. It takes a lot of training and even more practice to know how to write exams and test questions. And scoring low...or high...on the range of mock exams out there does not presume #BCBAexam outcomes by itself.

It's not you because in far to many cases and through far too many programs, students are not being taught correctly.

Relax a bit and reorganize. Don't continue to do the same thing. Contact me through LinkedIn or my website. Passing the BCBA exam requires authentic content AND non-content knowledge....and we will practice both extensively. I have 40+ years proving behavioral services to include 10 in higher education. Experience matters.

My first conversation is without charge or obligation. Contact me via LinkedIn or my website (www.drlousandler.com). Let's talk - I can help.