Practice question
Behavior-Change Procedures

Use shaping for gradual response improvement.

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

Question

Difficulty: hard. Skill: analyze. Type: applied scenario.

A client cannot yet complete handwashing, but can perform a close approximation. What strategy is most appropriate? The team wants the next step to be defensible from the current data.

A
Reinforce successive approximations toward the terminal response

Correct answer

B
Require the terminal response before any reinforcement
C
Use extinction for all approximations
D
Change the goal every session without criteria

Explanation

Answer A

Shaping builds new behavior by reinforcing successive approximations to the target response.

Why the other choices are weaker

B
Choice B

That may be ineffective when the learner cannot yet perform the terminal response.

C
Choice C

Shaping depends on reinforcing closer approximations.

D
Choice D

Shaping should use planned criteria for approximation changes.

Study tags

ShapingSkill AcquisitionChaining

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