RBT practice test: Data Collection and Graphing, set 7

A: have a clear start and end and similar length each time. A count is meaningful when each instance is easy to tell apart and roughly equal in length, such as hand raises, requests or throws.

• B: Long behaviors of varying length are better described by duration, because a count treats a 5-second and a 20-minute episode the same.
• C: When instances blur together the observer cannot count them accurately, so another procedure is usually chosen.
• D: Behaviors measured through their products are suited to permanent product recording.

Task A.1 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: Partial interval would score it; whole interval and momentary time sampling would not. Partial interval recording scores any occurrence in the interval, so it scores this one. Whole interval recording needs the behavior for the entire interval, and momentary time sampling needs it at the moment the interval ends; neither condition was met.

• A: Whole interval recording needs humming throughout all 60 seconds, and partial interval recording would score any occurrence.
• B: The client was quiet at the end of the interval, so momentary time sampling would not score it.
• D: Momentary time sampling looks only at the end of the interval, when the client was quiet.

Task A.2 · 40-hour curriculum section C

A: 5 towels folded to criterion out of 8. Products are scored against the operational definition. Five towels meet it, so the record is 5 of 8 (62.5%).

• B: Three of the towels do not meet the definition, so they are not counted as correct.
• C: Three is the number that did not meet the definition.
• D: The definition gives no partial credit for towels folded in half.

Task A.3 · 40-hour curriculum section C

D: Enter no data for it and tell the supervisor they were missed. Data must come from the measurement procedure, not from memory. The session is left without a data point and the supervisor is told the data were not recorded.

• A: A remembered estimate is not data collected under the procedure and could mislead the supervisor.
• B: A zero would state that no tantrums occurred, which is false.
• C: Copying another session's value invents data for this session.

Task A.4 · 40-hour curriculum section C · RBT Ethics Code 2.02

B: Observers can time episodes and tell them apart. Onset and offset criteria tell observers when to start and stop timing and when one episode ends and the next begins.

• A: Consequences come from the behavior plan, not from the onset and offset rule.
• C: Function is identified through assessment, not through the definition.
• D: Start and stop rules do not rate severity.

Task A.5 · 40-hour curriculum section C

A: Mean duration. Mean duration is total duration divided by the number of episodes, which tells how long an episode lasts on average.

• B: Total duration is the sum of all episodes, not the length of a typical one.
• C: Rate tells how often episodes occur per unit of time.
• D: Percentage of intervals is an estimate from interval recording, not the length of an episode.

Task A.6 · 40-hour curriculum section C

D: A brief increase, then a decreasing trend. Right after intervention began, the behavior rose above baseline and then declined steadily. A temporary increase when extinction begins is consistent with an extinction burst.

• A: The first intervention sessions are higher than baseline, not lower.
• B: The behavior rises only at first and then falls.
• C: The intervention data first rise above and then fall well below baseline.

Task A.7 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: An ineffective intervention may look effective and be continued. Undercounting makes the behavior look as if it is improving. The supervisor may keep an intervention that is not producing change and delay needed adjustments.

• A: Undercounting makes the plan look more effective, not less.
• B: The problem is a falsely low level and a misleading downward trend, not added variability.
• D: Recording or not recording does not change how often tantrums happen.

Task A.8 · 40-hour curriculum section C

B: 0.6 mands per minute. Rate is the count divided by the observation time: 18 mands ÷ 30 minutes = 0.6 mands per minute (the same as 36 per hour).

• A: 0.3 would result from dividing 18 by 60, but the session lasted 30 minutes.
• C: 1.67 is 30 divided by 18, which is minutes per mand, not mands per minute.
• D: 18 is the total count for the whole session, not the count per minute.

Task A.1 · 40-hour curriculum section C

B: Label each worksheet with its date when collected. Products can be scored later, but each must still be matched to the session that produced it. Labeling products when they are collected prevents data from being entered in the wrong place.

• A: Entering all three as Friday's data puts results in the wrong sessions and distorts the graph.
• C: Averaging hides the separate results for each day.
• D: Scoring only one worksheet discards data from the other two days.

Task A.3 · 40-hour curriculum section C · RBT Ethics Code 2.02

D: Plot it at the next session at 2, connected to the previous point. The new session goes at the next position on the horizontal axis and at its value on the vertical axis, connected to the previous point because it is in the same condition.

• A: Data paths connect points only within the same condition, never across the phase change line.
• B: No condition changed, so no phase change line is added.
• C: Each session gets its own data point; values are not added together on a session-by-session graph.

Task A.4 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: To show observers what to count and what to leave out. Examples and nonexamples show what to count and what to leave out, especially for responses that look similar, so different observers score the same way.

• A: A definition describes what the behavior looks like; it does not explain its cause.
• B: Consequences are part of the behavior plan, not the definition.
• D: Where behavior tends to occur is assessment information, not part of defining it.

Task A.5 · 40-hour curriculum section C

B: 75%. With 5 errors in 20 trials, 15 trials were correct, and 15 / 20 x 100 = 75%.

• A: 25% is the percentage of errors, not correct responses.
• C: 15 is the number of correct trials, not a percentage.
• D: This is a calculation error; 15 / 20 is 0.75.

Task A.6 · 40-hour curriculum section C

A: Faster improvement per session. Steepness shows how quickly the measure is changing. A steeper increase means larger gains per session.

• B: A steep path rises more per session, which is faster, not slower.
• C: Steepness describes how fast the data change, not how much they bounce.
• D: The data path shows the client's performance, not the criterion.

Task A.7 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: The new data cannot be compared with earlier data and may mislead. Different measurement procedures produce different kinds of numbers: a frequency count gives the number of call-outs, while partial-interval recording gives the percentage of intervals with any call-out and does not count each one. A switch makes the data before and after it hard to compare, so a change on the graph could come from the method rather than the student. Measurement changes are the supervisor's decision.

• A: Good agreement would not make data from two different methods comparable.
• B: Easier scoring does not make the data more accurate; partial-interval recording estimates rather than counts.
• D: Partial-interval recording is discontinuous, not continuous.

Task A.8 · 40-hour curriculum section C

B: When a response occurs relative to another event. Latency (time from a stimulus to a response) and interresponse time (time between two responses) both locate a response in time relative to another event. Count reflects repetition and duration reflects how long a response lasts.

• A: How many times a response is repeated is captured by a count.
• C: How long a response lasts is its duration.
• D: Force describes the magnitude of a response, not its timing.

Task A.1 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: The stack of folded shirts in the drawer. A permanent product is a tangible result of the behavior that remains after it is done. Folded shirts can be counted and checked against the definition of "folded."

• A: A statement about the work is a report, not the product of the behavior itself.
• B: Time spent in the room is not a product and does not show any folding happened.
• D: A rating of effort is an opinion, not a physical product of the behavior.

Task A.3 · 40-hour curriculum section C

D: So the supervisor can make timely decisions from current data. Supervisors make treatment decisions from graphed data. Up-to-date graphs let them spot problems and progress quickly.

• A: Graphs are clinical records for decision making, not scorecards for the client.
• B: Changing the plan is the supervisor's role; the RBT reports what the data show.
• C: Billing comes from billing and session records, not from behavior graphs.

Task A.4 · 40-hour curriculum section C

C: Uses a toy the way it is made to be used, such as rolling a car. This describes what the client does with the toy and gives an example observers can match.

• A: "Nicely" is a judgment that is not defined.
• B: This repeats the target name without saying what it looks like.
• D: Enjoyment is an inferred feeling.

Task A.5 · 40-hour curriculum section C

B: 80%. Divide independent requests by opportunities and multiply by 100: 12 / 15 x 100 = 80%.

• A: 12 is the number of independent requests, not a percentage.
• C: 20% is the percentage of opportunities without an independent request.
• D: This is a calculation error; 12 / 15 is 0.80.

Task A.6 · 40-hour curriculum section C