B.15: Identify examples of response maintenance.
Free practice questions for this part of the BCBA, with an explanation for every option.
An adult client was taught to use a self-monitoring checklist at work. Six months after all intervention and staff support ended, follow-up probes show he still completes the checklist at rates similar to the end of treatment. This is an example of:
- A. Response generalizationIncorrect. No new, untrained responses are described.
- B. Response maintenanceCorrect. A learner continuing to perform the target behavior after the intervention has been withdrawn is response maintenance.
- C. ResurgenceIncorrect. Resurgence is the reappearance of a previously extinguished behavior when a more recent behavior goes on extinction.
- D. Setting/situation generalizationIncorrect. Setting generalization concerns new settings. Here the key dimension is time.
A third grader learned her multiplication facts through a fluency program. Two months after the program ended, with no further practice sessions, she still answers the facts quickly and accurately on classroom quizzes. This is best described as:
- A. Stimulus generalizationStimulus generalization means the response occurs in new settings or with new stimuli. The key feature here is that the skill lasted over time after instruction ended.
- B. Response maintenanceCorrect. Response maintenance is the continued performance of a target behavior after the intervention that produced it has been partly or fully withdrawn.
- C. Response generalizationResponse generalization means untaught, functionally similar responses occur. She is giving the same trained answers.
- D. Behavioral contrastBehavioral contrast is a change in one behavior's rate when the schedule for another component changes. It does not apply to this situation.
Which of the following is the clearest example of response maintenance?
- A. A teen taught to say "thank you" also says "thanks so much" without being taughtProducing untrained forms that serve the same function is response generalization.
- B. A child who learned to greet teachers at school now greets the bus driver as wellGreeting a new person in a new context is stimulus generalization. It is not persistence over time after the intervention ended.
- C. A nurse still uses a safety checklist correctly months after a feedback program endedCorrect. The checklist use continues long after the intervention (feedback) was withdrawn. That is response maintenance.
- D. A man uses a newly taught coping skill during sessions while his therapist prompts himThe skill occurs only while the intervention (prompting) is still in place. This shows acquisition under support, not maintenance.