Practice question
Concepts and Principles

Response maintenance: Stimulus control, discrimination, and generalization.

Original BCBA scenario practice question with answer explanation and wrong-choice notes.

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Question

Difficulty: hard. Skill: analyze. Type: concept discrimination.

Student responds differently when the antecedent, consequence, or learning history changes. Which concept from response maintenance is most relevant? The case file includes 10 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

A
Proceed informally because the team believes the action will help
B
Tell everyone to try harder and review the case next month
C
Treat the most recent data point as proof of the final conclusion
D
Analyze the antecedent conditions and whether responding occurs across trained and untrained stimuli in relation to student's calling out during independent work

Correct answer

Explanation

Answer D

The clue is the combination of frequency data that vary from 3 to 11 responses per session, calling out during independent work, and the required task: Response maintenance. The case file includes 10 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting. Analyze the antecedent conditions and whether responding occurs across trained and untrained stimuli in relation to student's calling out during independent work is best because it answers that clue through stimulus control, discrimination, and generalization instead of treating the scenario as a generic behavior problem. On exam items like this, name the decision point first, then eliminate options that rely on one report, a label, a familiar protocol, or an action that skips the relevant data check.

Why this question is hard

Clue
Key scenario clue

The clue is the combination of frequency data that vary from 3 to 11 responses per session, calling out during independent work, and the required task: Response maintenance. The case file includes 10 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

Trap
Common trap

Good intent does not replace consent, documentation, competence, or other safeguards.

Next
If you missed it, review Motivating operations versus discriminative stimuli

Then answer a few related scenarios before moving back to broad practice.

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

Good intent does not replace consent, documentation, competence, or other safeguards.

B
Choice B

Vague delayed feedback does not create a measurable plan for improvement.

C
Choice C

A single point rarely supports a strong conclusion without considering trend, variability, and context.

Study tags

Stimulus control, discrimination, and generalizationResponse maintenancestimulus controldiscrimination

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Related study guides

GuideDistractor patternsUse this if the wrong answer sounded plausible.GuideMissed-question reviewUse this if you want to turn the miss into a study rule.GuideScore plateau guideUse this if similar mistakes keep repeating.

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Question FAQ

What BCBA domain does this question cover?

This practice question is tagged to Concepts and Principles. It also includes study tags for Stimulus control, discrimination, and generalization, Response maintenance, stimulus control, discrimination.

How should I review this practice question?

Answer the scenario before reading the explanation, compare your reasoning with the correct answer, then review why the distractors are weaker.

Is this an official BACB exam question?

No. This is an original study question for BCBA Scenario Tutor and is not an official BACB exam item.

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