Practice question
Concepts and Principles

Behavioral momentum and response persistence: Schedules, persistence, and response allocation.

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

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Question

Difficulty: medium. Skill: apply. Type: concept discrimination.

In a clinic session, learner's leaving the instructional area changes after a specific antecedent and consequence arrangement. Which analysis best matches behavioral momentum and response persistence? The case file includes 5 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

A
Change the intervention immediately based on the concern alone
B
Continue unchanged and ignore the new contextual information
C
Compare the schedule or relative reinforcement conditions before predicting persistence or allocation in relation to learner's leaving the instructional area

Correct answer

D
Add a punishment procedure before clarifying function, risk, or feasibility

Explanation

Answer C

The clue is the combination of four sessions of stable baseline data followed by two overlapping intervention points, leaving the instructional area, and the required task: Behavioral momentum and response persistence. The case file includes 5 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting. Compare the schedule or relative reinforcement conditions before predicting persistence or allocation in relation to learner's leaving the instructional area is best because it answers that clue through schedules, persistence, and response allocation 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 four sessions of stable baseline data followed by two overlapping intervention points, leaving the instructional area, and the required task: Behavioral momentum and response persistence. The case file includes 5 recent sessions, 2 implementers, and 1 setting.

Trap
Common trap

This is weaker because it skips the assessment, integrity, or decision rule needed before changing procedures.

Next
If you missed it, review Schedules, persistence, and response allocation

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

Why the other choices are weaker

A
Choice A

This is weaker because it skips the assessment, integrity, or decision rule needed before changing procedures.

B
Choice B

Ignoring relevant data or context prevents a defensible behavior-analytic decision.

D
Choice D

A punishment-first response is weaker when less intrusive, function-based, or assessment steps have not been addressed.

Study tags

Schedules, persistence, and response allocationBehavioral momentum and response persistenceschedulesbehavioral momentum

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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 Schedules, persistence, and response allocation, Behavioral momentum and response persistence, schedules, behavioral momentum.

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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