BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Introduction and Disclosure

This mock exam is based off of the 5th edition task list (introduced in January 2022). This mock
exam contains 150 questions, broken down by task area. An additional 10 questions have been
added to this mock exam for a total of 160 questions. The Answer key is provided at the end of
the document.

This mock exam, this file and its content is in no way, shape or form affiliated with, nor endorsed
by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB ®) in any way.

Please refer to www.bacb.com, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB®) for task list
versions, areas, and content.

The sole purpose of this mock exam is to be used as a study aid only. This mock exam should
not be used as a comparison tool or to compare the complexity and difficulty of the actual exam.
This mock exam was designed with difficulty in mind, however, this should not be considered
representative of the real exam. This mock exam should be used in conjunction with other
training and study material and should not be relied on as a sole study tool. This mock exam
does not guarantee a passing result on the real exam.

The information within this mock exam is believed to be accurate. The author is not responsible
for any errors, misinterpretation of information, factual errors or typographical errors.

This file and its contents are the property of The Behaviour Lab and may not be distributed,
reproduced or duplicated, in whole or in part, physically, electronically, or other means, without
written consent from the author. This file, its content, and any part thereof, is subject to change
at any time, without notice. Version 1.0, created on November 16, 2021.

Please forward all errors, questions and comments to [email protected].

Source

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2019). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd Edition).

Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 1
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Scoring Tool

Task List Area Total correct answers Percentage correct

A ______/ 11

B ______/ 21

C ______/ 17

D ______/ 12

E ______/ 13

F ______/ 15

G ______/ 32

H ______/ 15

I ______/ 14

Bonus ______/ 10

Total ______/160

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 2
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Response Template

Put your selected answer beside each number to reference when comparing to the answer key
Task List Area

A B C D E F G H I Bonus

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.
2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2.
3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3. 3.
4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4.
5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5.
6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6.
7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7.
8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8. 8.
9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9. 9.
10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10. 10.
11. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11. 11.
12. 12. 12. 12. 12. 12. 12. 12.
13. 13. 13. 13. 13. 13. 13.
14. 14. 14. 14. 14. 14.
15. 15. 15. 15. 15.
16. 16. 16.
17. 17. 17.
18. 18.
19. 19.
20. 20.
21. 21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 3
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Task List A Questions

1. A BCBA is conducting a functional analysis for a student who engages in hitting behaviour.
An educational assistant provides a demand and every time she uses a gestural prompt the
student engages in hitting behaviour. When she uses a model prompt the student doesn’t
engage in hitting behaviour. Given only this information, the student engaging in hitting
behaviour when given a gestural prompt is an example of:

A) Poor prompt fading

B) Control
C) Prediction
D) Over prompting and/or not allowing for an independent response

2. A BCBA joins a team meeting for a 33 year old client to help determine goals. The team
shares that they want to teach the client how to do simple language sheets as an important next
goal because the client appears to not mind doing them. You advocate that teaching the client to
make a meal for themselves should be targeted before teaching the simple math sheets
because they are preparing to live independently within the next 6 months. What dimension of
ABA is this BCBA most closely following?

A) Analytical
B) Conceptually systematic
C) Generality
D) Applied

3. A family meets with their previous clinical supervisor from 5 years ago to share all of the
progress their child has made. The BCBA is very excited for the family and explains how the
environment changes an individual over their lifetime. What concept might the BCBA be
referring to:

A) Phylogeny
B) Ontogeny
C) Pathogeny
D) Maturation

4. A graduate student is studying compound schedules of reinforcement using rats as the

participant of their study. They want to determine if a concurrent or conjunctive schedule has the
strongest effect on increasing food seeking behaviour. This is likely:

A) Behaviourism
B) Practice guided by the principles of applied behaviour analysis
C) Experimental analysis of behaviour
D) Applied behaviour analysis

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 4
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

5. A BCBA meets with a teacher regarding a student who is engaging in screaming behaviour.
The teacher explains that the screaming just happens ‘out of the blue’ and that there isn’t a
trigger for the behaviour. The BCBA explains that behaviours don’t happen ‘out of the blue’ and
events in the universe are orderly and predictable. The BCBA must be using:

A) Determinism
B) Empiricism
C) Pragmatism
D) Philosophic doubt

6. The stimulus organism variable response (S-O-R) is best known in what school of
behaviourism:

A) Radical behaviourism
B) Mentalism (mentalistic behaviourism)
C) Pragmatism (pragmatic behaviourism)
D) Methodological behaviourism

7. A client has a behaviour reduction plan for self-injurious behaviour with an operational
definition of the behaviour. An RBT collects antecedent, behaviour and consequence (ABC)
data on the self-injurious behaviour and gives this to their BCBA supervisor. The ABC data from
the RBT would best be considered as:

A) Prediction
B) Control
C) Description
D) Not accurate as RBT’s ethically can not collect ABC data

8. A BCBA is reviewing a school behaviour plan and the target behaviour for reduction is
defined as anytime the student feels frustrated and lashes out at other kids. Focusing just on the
school teams definition of the behaviour, this definition of behaviour isn’t following which
dimension of applied behaviour analysis:

A) Analytical
B) Technological
C) Behavioural
D) Applied

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 5
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

9. Brenda is working with a client who engages in clothes ripping when the clothing has a tag on
it. The therapist explains that the tags create frustration which causes the behaviour to happen.
Charlie explains that feelings make the environment more or less desirable. Charlie is likely
using which school of behaviourism:

A) Radical behaviourism
B) Pragmatism (pragmatic behaviourism)
C) Methodological behaviourism
D) Mentalism (mentalistic behaviourism)

10. A BCBA working in a school provides coaching and modelling to a teacher on how to teach
functional escape using functional communication training and a break card. This is likely:

A) Practice guided by the principles of applied behaviour analysis

B) Behaviourism
C) Experimental analysis of behaviour
D) Applied behaviour analysis

11. An RBT receives a behaviour plan to help reduce elopement behaviour for an adult
attending a residential treatment program. When you attempt to implement the plan you notice
that the steps are not described in detail to replicate the plan and it appears that some steps
may be missing. Which dimension of ABA is likely not being followed?

A) Conceptually systematic
B) Applied
C) Generality
D) Technological

Task List B Questions

1. An RBT is working with a client who engages in biting, spitting, and scratching which all serve
the function of escape and attempted escape. Biting, spitting and scratching would all be
considered members of the same:

A) Response class
B) Stimulus class
C) Function class
D) All of the above

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 6
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

2. Mark manages a small landscaping team and decided to implement some ABA strategies to
help improve his team's output. He told his team that if they planted 10 trees, sold 5 gardening
products and established 10 leads in one day, they would get to leave work for the rest of the
day. Assuming that getting a paid day off is reinforcing, what type of behaviour does establishing
this contingency contract initially involve?

A) Contingency-shaped behaviours
B) Rule-governed behaviours
C) Premack principle
D) Hypothetical constructs

3. A therapist is working with a client and spontaneously they tell the therapist “guess what I
know” and state that “1+1, a couple and a pair all equal 2!”. This is an example of:

A) Arbitrary stimulus class

B) Hypothetical constructs
C) Reflexivity
D) Point-to-point correspondence

4. Jackson attends an ABA program and is currently using a token economy. The token board
has 10 tokens and Jackson is working on a VR3 schedule of reinforcement. Each token board
takes about 5-10 minutes to get through before he is able to access his selected item/reinforcer.
What would the tokens be considered in this example:

A) Conditioned reinforcers
B) Reinforcers
C) Unconditioned reinforcers
D) Generalized conditioned reinforcers

5. Jessica always uses the same ringtone for their alarm clock on her phone in the morning and
turns it off. Her husband decides to play a trick on her and changes her alarm clock to a funky
different ringtone. Jessica still wakes up no problem and turns it off. The funky different ringtone
is part of a:

A) Function class
B) Unconditioned behaviour response chain
C) Response class
D) Stimulus class

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 7
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

6. Jeremy loves to eat chicken wings and decided to try a new pub nearby. He ordered hickey
smoked flavoured wings and unfortunately the batch of wings he got made him extremely sick.
Now whenever someone mentions the word “hickory”, Jeremy gags and begins to feel
nauseous. What best describes Jeremy’s behaviour of gagging and feeling nauseous when he
hears “hickory”:

A) Operant conditioning
B) Respondent conditioning
C) S-R-S
D) Pavlovian behaviourism

7. An RBT is doing some stimulus equivalence training with a client and holds up a picture of a
giraffe and the client says “giraffe”. The RBT then places the picture of the giraffe on the table,
gives the child a second picture of the same giraffe, and the child matches the picture. This is an
example of:

A) Transitivity
B) Reflexivity
C) Symmetry
D) Not enough information to determine

8. A client has an FR5 and FI3 schedule of reinforcement. Reinforcement is provided when the
client either answers 5 questions or answers a question after 3 minute has elapsed, whichever
comes first. This is an example of what type of compound schedule?

A) Conjunctive
B) Alternative
C) Chained
D) Tandem

9. A client’s most preferred reinforcer are peanut M&M’s. The staff break the M&M’s into 4
pieces to avoid satiation. The client eats lunch around 12:30pm and returns to doing discrete
trial training around 12:45pm. The staff always find that M&M’s are not effective at 12:45pm and
the client tends to select the iPad instead. What might explain why M&M’s are not effective
around 12:45pm?

A) EO
B) AO
C) CMO+
D) CMO-

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 8
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

10. Charlie has a long history of aggression, non-compliance and elopement. After several
interventions Charlie’s behaviour is at near zero levels. He currently works on a VR3 schedule
during his table work tasks without engaging in challenging behaviour. This continues for
several weeks and the BCBA decides that they want to thin the schedule of reinforcement.
Since Charlie has been so compliant, the BCBA opts for a VR7. After making this change,
Charlie begins to become non-compliant and engage in elopement. What is the likely cause of
the increase in challenging behaviour?

A) Ratio strain
B) Spontaneous recovery
C) Resurgence of behaviour
D) Limited hold

11. A BCBA puts in an intervention for a client who engages in swearing behaviour. If they
engage in swearing during a 5 minute interval, they do not receive 2 minutes on the iPad,
however, they immediately get another opportunity during the next 5 minute interval. What type
of intervention might this be?

A) VI-DRA
B) FI-DRH
C) VI-DRL
D) FI-DRO

12. Melinda joins an exercise class and the participants must do 125 jumping jacks and keep
doing jumping jacks for at least 10 minutes before they can end the exercise class for the day.
Assuming that ending the exercise class for the day provides negative reinforcement, what
compound schedule is being used in this example?

A) Concurrent
B) Conjunctive
C) Mixed
D) Chained

13. A Speech Language Pathologist provided a consult to a school team and told the team that
they needed to create more opportunities for requesting. The school team tells their BCBA that
the student just won’t request anything. The BCBA states that there must be ________ present
in order for a verbal operant to be considered a mand:

A) An SD
B) An adult
C) An MO
D) An S-delta

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 9
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

14. A classroom teacher tells the BCBA that they want an intervention to reduce a student’s out
of seat behaviour but they don’t want to necessarily eliminate it as this is a natural behaviour
that all her students do. What intervention would best fit this criteria:

A) DRL
B) DRA
C) DRD
D) DRH

15. The mother of a baby always puts her baby down to sleep and always wears Chanel No. 5
perfume. When Dad tried to put the baby down to bed the baby wouldn't fall asleep. Dad gets
clever and puts a spray of Chanel No. 5 on himself and then he is able to put the baby to sleep.
The Chanel No. 5 perfume is serving as the:

A) CMO-T
B) CMO-S
C) CMO-P
D) CMO-R

16. An RBT is teaching a client using a fixed-interval schedule of 2 minutes. If the client does
not respond within 2 seconds after the 2 minute interval, reinforcement is not delivered, even if
they respond after 2 seconds has elapsed. What can explain the RBT’s behaviour:

A) Limited hold
B) Delayed reinforcement procedure
C) Fixed-interval restricted reinforcement procedure
D) Interval delayed reinforcement procedure

17. Melody is talking on the phone with her boyfriend and tells him how she had such a long day
at work and didn’t get a chance to sit. She says “my feet feel like they’re on fire”. What type of
tact extension is the sentence “my feet feel like they’re on fire”:

A) Generic extension
B) Metonymical extension
C) Metaphorical extension
D) Solistic extension

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 10
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

18. A teacher calls in a BCBA regarding a student that they recently consulted on. The student
was engaging in screaming behaviour in the classroom and the BCBA told them to ignore the
behaviour as part of the plan. When the school team ignored the student, he began screaming
louder, throwing objects and flipped a desk. What might explain the increase in challenging
behaviour:

A) Positive punishment
B) Extinction burst
C) Negative punishment
D) The BCBA likely got the function wrong because the behaviour should have been
reducing and not increasing if the function was actually attention

19. A young child is playing near a stove and accidentally touches the red hot coil causing a
burn on their hand. From that moment on, the child never goes near a hot coil again. What is
this an example of:

A) Contingency shaped behaviour

B) Rule-governed behaviour
C) Conditioned punishment
D) Premack principle

20. A wife always cooks her husband his favourite meal when he takes out the garbage before
garbage day. As a result, she notices that he is always taking the garbage out before garbage
day. He then realizes what’s happening and asks his wife, “are you cooking me my favourite
meal when I take out the garbage on time?”. The wife responds with “yeah, I am”. What might
be going on here:

A) Contingency contract
B) Rule governed behaviour
C) Operant conditioning
D) Respondent conditioning

21. An RBT is working with a client and they go for a walk. During the walk they come across an
ice cream truck and the client says “ice cream truck”. Later on in the session the client sees a
picture of an ice cream truck and says, “ice cream truck”. What type of tact extension is this:

A) Metaphorical extension
B) Metonymical extension
C) Generic extension
D) Solistic extension

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 11
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Task List C Questions

1. A BCBA supervisor is having a meeting with an RBT and asks them to go and count how
many 24-piece jigsaw puzzles a client completed during their session today which are sitting on
a shelf in the client’s area. The BCBA tells the RBT that the client has already left for the day so
they can collect the data whenever they have a moment before ending their shift. What type of
data might this be:

A) Momentary time sampling

B) Total count
C) Total frequency
D) Permanent product recording

2. Jake’s buddy always goofs around when they are doing yard work and starts using the leaf
blower to blow wind against Jake’s face. The wind blowing against Jake’s face is:

A) A covert behaviour
B) An overt behaviour
C) Both a covert and overt behaviour
D) Not a behaviour

3. A new BCBA is trying to get a comprehensive operational definition of elopement. Which

example below is the best form of an operational definition for elopement:

A) Any time the client runs away from their therapist because they are either frustrated or
upset with a task demand
B) Any time the client passes through the doorway, when they have not been given
permission to do so, and successfully or attempts to move 3 feet away from their
therapist
C) Any time a task demand is presented and the client leaves the area because they are
upset or angry and leaves the eye sight of their therapist
D) Any time the client runs away because they are looking for attention (i.e., laughing) or
are upset and gets beyond the eye sight of the therapist

4. You attend your child’s soccer practice and notice that the coach is measuring how many
times a goalie can stop a shot over a set number of opportunities. This coach is using what
measurement:

A) Trials to criterion
B) Rate
C) Percentage of occurrence
D) Total count

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 12
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

5. A BCBA is collecting partial interval data for standing up behaviour in a classroom. After the
observation, the teacher asks what the disadvantages are when using this data collection
method. The BCBA states that:

A) You don’t have to observe the rest of the trial after the target behaviour occurs
B) It overestimates the total duration of behaviour and underestimates the frequency of high
rate target behaviours
C) You have to observe for the full interval and it usually underestimates the occurrence of
behaviour
D) It overestimates and underestimates the continuous duration measure when the interval
is greater than 2 minutes

6. A BCBA is running a social skills group for adults diagnosed with autism. The participants are
given an independent research activity and the BCBA wants to do timed checks on the
participants every 10 minutes to determine if they are on task or off task. The BCBA uses a
vibrating timer so that the participants are not aware of her checking on them working. At the
end of 10 minutes they record this exact moment on whether the participants were on task or off
task. Despite some potential ethical concerns with this method, what measurement are they
using:

A) Momentary time sample

B) Total duration interval 10 minutes
C) Permanent product check
D) Whole interval 10 minutes

7. A BCBA supervisor reads an article that states the pace of DTT should be under 2 seconds.
The BCBA supervisor comes out to watch an RBT deliver DTT. The BCBA supervisor has some
concerns around how fast the client is selecting the objects after the SD is presented. What
would be the most accurate measure to capture this concern:

A) Rate
B) Duration
C) Interresponse time
D) Latency

8. An RBT is studying to become a BCBA and wants to get 100% on their mock exam. The RBT
decided that they wanted to see how many times they needed to complete the mock test in
order to score 100%. The RBT is using what measurement system:

A) Rate
B) Trials to criterion
C) Percentage of occurrence
D) Celeration

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 13
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

9. A BCBA is observing a client on their caseload who engages in non-contextual vocalizations.

The BCBA conducts an exactly 120 minute observation, exactly 60 minute observation and
exactly 140 minute observation of the client and wants to record how many occurrences of the
behaviour happen. What measurement would provide the most accurate data to compare all of
the observations:

A) Count
B) Duration
C) Rate
D) Frequency

10. A BCBA is reviewing a skill acquisition program for their client. They are looking at a graph
which tracks the client’s mastered targets. They notice that the data only increases or remains
flat and seems to follow a stepwise pattern. What type of graph is the BCBA likely looking at:

A) Cumulative record
B) Trials to criterion
C) Progressive record
D) All of the above

11. A BCBA receives a referral for a student in a classroom who continues to leave their desk
without permission. The BCBA states that they want to conduct a baseline and aren’t super
concerned with how many times per day it is occurring, they want to determine the total length
of time the student is actually away from their desk for. The student is at school for 2.5 hours per
day and the observation is scheduled for the whole 2.5 hours. What measurement would
provide the BCBA with the information they are looking for:

A) Rate
B) Latency
C) Inter-response time
D) Duration

12. A BCBA is helping an RBT train for their board exam and asks them what term describes
the extent to which the observed value, after measuring an event in quantitative form, matches
the true state or true value of the event as it exists in nature. This best describes:

A) Causation
B) Validity
C) Reliability
D) Accuracy

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 14
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

13. An olympic speed skater doing a 400 metre race continues to practice for the olympics.
They wear a watch that tracks distance and begin to notice that sometimes their watch says that
they skated 395 metres, 405 metres and 403 metres. The official distance was measured using
a Jones counter (device that provides a true measure of distance) and 400 metres is considered
the true value of the track. It would be safe to say that your watch is not:

A) Valid
B) Accurate
C) Believable
D) Reliable

14. A BCBA states that they want to track spitting behaviour using a discontinuous
measurement. Which of the options below represents a discontinuous measurement:

A) Whole interval recording

B) Partial interval recording
C) Momentary time sampling
D) All of the above

15. An RBT is told to collect data on a student raising their hand during circle time. The
observation will last 20 minutes and each interval is 1 minutes long. The RBT is told that they
don’t have to attend to the student for the remainder of the interval after the student raises their
hand during an interval. What type of data are they likely collecting:

A) Partial interval recording

B) Momentary time same
C) Scored interval recording
D) Whole interval recording

16. A BCBA describes a client’s aggression as looking like any of: hitting, slapping, kicking
and/or punching. This definition of aggression would be considered a:

A) Magnitudinal definition
B) Topographical definition
C) Functional definition
D) All encompassing definition

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 15
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

17. A BCBA is reviewing a graph for self-injurious behaviour and states that the level of the
behaviour is high but there is zero trend. Is this possible:

A) No because trend can never be zero

B) Yes because the level of behaviour can be high and have zero trend
C) No because the level of behaviour is only measure as vertical, diagonal or horizontal
D) No because the level of behaviour is not measured by high/low and trend can never be
zero

Task List D Questions

1. A BCBA receives a referral for an adult engaging in self-injurious biting behaviour which is
posing a significant safety concern as the clients bites are breaking the skin. You determine that
it would be too dangerous and pose too much of a safety risk to the client to do a baseline and
instead jump right into a single treatment. Which withdrawal design represents the BCBA’s
decision:

A) A-B-A
B) A-B-C-A
C) B-B-A
D) B-A-B

2. A BCBA has recently been hired for a research company. The first experiment that they are a
part of has three test conditions which are presented in a rapidly alternating succession
independent of the level of responding for the participant. The BCBA must be using which
experimental design?

A) Alternating treatments design

B) Multiple treatment design
C) Multiple baseline reversal design
D) Multiple treatment reversal design

3. The clinical supervisor implemented three strategies for a client to help decrease the client’s
aggression. The clinical supervisor added a DRO, FCT and response cost. They have a feeling
that the FCT is the most effective intervention. What can they do to determine which strategy is
most effective?

A) Multi parametric analysis

B) Component analysis
C) Parametric analysis
D) Multi element analysis

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 16
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

4. The BCBA researcher stated that a significant advantage of this design is that if behaviour is
very stable, it is unlikely to change and this design limits some threats to internal validity. The
BCBA researcher was talking about:

A) Alternating treatments design

B) Changing criterion design
C) Multiple baseline design
D) Multiple probe design

5. The BCBA supervisor is trying to determine what the most effective time is for the client to be
on YouTube exploring videos before it appears to lose its value. He wants to compare YouTube
use between 3 minutes, 7 minutes and 10 minutes. What type of analysis would provide this
information?

A) Parametric analysis
B) Non-parametric analysis
C) Component analysis
D) None of the above could determine this

6. A BCBA is trying to determine a client's skill at playing stringed instruments. They want to get
a true measure of performance and want to use an experimental design that will minimize
sequence effects the best. What design would meet the BCBA’s requirements?

A) Multiple treatment design

B) Changing criterion design
C) Multiple baseline design
D) Multi-element baseline design

7. A BCBA is conducting an experiment to determine if a DRL intervention will reduce

elopement behaviour to a clinically significant amount. They will also have another BCBA
collecting blind IOA during the experiment. It should also be noted that this experiment is
occurring in the client’s normal working area. Which component is the independent variable in
the experiment:

A) The client
B) Elopement behaviour
C) DRL intervention
D) The BCBA conducting the experiment

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 17
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

8. A BCBA conducts an experiment and puts in a DRA intervention to reduce nail biting
behaviour. The experiment demonstrated convincingly that the DRA intervention was the only
variable that produced the reduction in nail biting and not any other confounding variables.
Based on this information, it can be said that the experiment demonstrated strong:

A) Internal validity
B) External validity
C) Causal validity
D) Confounding validity

9. A colleague tells you that they are using an A-B design for their experiment. You ask them
what type of experimental design that is and they reply with:

A) Single baseline-withdrawal design

B) A-B reversal design
C) Single subject design
D) None of the above

10. A BCBA attends a conference and is educated on a new intervention to help reduce
aggression. The participants in the study have similar demographics, functions and topography
of behaviour and the BCBA feels that their client matches all of these variables. The BCBA
replicates the study and is able to achieve a successful reduction in their clients aggression,
although there may be some confounding variables as well. It can be said that the BCBA has
demonstrated strong:

A) Causal validity
B) External validity
C) Confounding validity
D) Internal validity

11. What type of analysis determines which parts of an independent variable are responsible for
behaviour change:

A) Component analysis
B) Conduct analysis
C) Comparative analysis
D) Parametric analysis

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 18
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

12. A BCBA named Jimmy is leading a single-subject design experiment on a 26 year-old

individual named Smitty. Carlos, an RBT, is taking data for inter-observer agreement. Sarah, the
Clinical Supervisor and BCBA-D, is collecting double-blind data in a secluded room. Given only
this information, who serves as the control for the experiment:

A) Jimmy
B) Smitty
C) Carlos
D) Sarah
Task List E Questions

1. When working and navigating ethical decisions, which is not a step in the ethical decision
making guidelines:

A) Identify all relevant individuals

B) Consider your personal learning history and biases in the context of the relevant
individuals
C) Evaluate the outcomes to ensure that the action successfully addressed the issue
D) These are all steps in the ethical decision making guidelines

2. Melissa is a BCBA who has been working with a family for about 3 years now. Right around
the winter holiday the family gives her a present which includes a beautiful tree ornament. The
family states that it was normally $24.99 but they got it on sale for $9.99. What decision most
accurately reflects the ethical code:

A) Not accept the gift because it is against the ethical code to accept gifts of any monetary
value
B) Accept the gift because it is under $10.00 of monetary value
C) Not accept the gift because this creates a conflict of interest for future interactions
D) Not accept the gift because the gift must be $5.00 or less

3. A BCBA works in Utah as the Senior Therapist at a clinic and is supervised by a BCBA-D as
the Clinical Supervisor. The client has been involved in a legal dispute and the Clinical
Supervisor tells the Senior Therapist that they need to coach the client on specific legal advice
for the case. The law in Utah states that only Lawyers can provide specific legal advice. What
should the Senior Therapist do:

A) The Senior Therapist should provide the legal advice as the client is not mentally fit to
understand the information and requires coaching
B) The Senior Therapist should only provide legal advice with an intervention plan that
includes specific goals and outcomes
C) The Senior Therapist should follow the law and not the advice of the Clinical Supervisor
D) The Senior Therapist should first receive training from the lawyer before coaching the
client on legal advice

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 19
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

4. Jared is a BCBA who dated Sarah seven months ago in a romantic relationship. Jared and
Sarah now work at the same clinic and Sarah is seeking BCBA supervised hours and has Jared
to be her supervisor. Jared decides to pick up Sarah as a supervisee, ethically, Jared can:

A) Accept Sarah as a supervisee as the relationship ended over 6 months ago

B) Not accept Sarah because the relationship did not end at least 12 months ago
C) Not accept Sarah as a supervisee ever because they were in a romantic relationship
D) Not accept Sarah because the relationship did not end at least 18 months ago

5. Brianna is the Clinical Supervisor at an ABA clinic and has a school team reaching out to her
for an assessment and programming report of the mutual client they share. The school team
states that they talked to Mom (the legal caretaker) and that she has given permission for the
clinic to share reports. Brianna should:

A) Share the report because informed consent was received by the school but not provide
any identifying information (e.g., name, address etc.) in the report
B) Share the report as is because the school team has received informed consent from
Mom
C) Not share the report as Brianna does not have informed consent to share information
D) Share the report but only by hand delivery/pick-up with a double locked briefcase to
prevent any breach of confidential information

6. Marcus is a BCBA working with a client who feels that the client would benefit from working
with a Speech Language Pathologist. Marcus is friends with Allison who has been a Speech
Language Pathologist for 12 years and is very competent at their job. Marcus should:

A) Document any referrals made, including relevant relationships and fees or incentives
received, and make appropriate efforts to follow up with the client and/ or relevant
stakeholders
B) Document the referral, ensure they have completed the FBA for the referral and
follow-up on a prorated basis with a specific plan measuring goals and outcomes to
ensure that the referral is working
C) Marcus can not make a referral to Allison because they are friends and this is a conflict
of interest
D) Document the referral, provide transitional support, help support with goal development
and data tracking, outline their relationship to the Speech Language Pathologist and
ensure that compensation is collected from the Speech Language Pathologist

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 20
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

7. Jackie is a BCBA supervisor and currently has 5 RBT’s she is supervising. Her boss tells her
that they have a new staff starting which requires supervised hours bringing her caseload to 6
supervisees. Jackie states that she is only able to effectively take on the 5 RBT’s. Jackie should:

A) Take on the additional RBT as the ethical guides state that RBT’s must receive 5%
supervision of their behaviour analytic work
B) Not take on the additional RBT as she should only take on an amount of staff she can
effectively supervise and train
C) Take on the additional RBT as this is both a job requirement and ethical code
D) Both A and C are correct

8. A new BCBA, Michelle, lands her dream job at a clinic called ‘ Making Changes’. The Director
of the clinic posts a flyer around the clinic and in the community which has a client testimonial
that states “ABA is the only therapy which can help your child”. This statement is not true and
Michelle should:

A) Michelle should make a reasonable efforts to remediate the situation, documenting all
actions taken and the eventual outcomes
B) Not correct the statement as this is up to the clinic and clinic owner/director
C) Immediately report this to the local authorities and BACB for ethical violation
D) Remove the flyers around the clinic and in the community to stop this information from
being shared

9. A BCBA-D wants to conduct research around a potential extinction procedure which may
revolutionize the way extinction is done. They currently have 12 clients in the clinic they work at
and feel that two clients would benefit from this. The BCBA-D obtains written informed consent
from each client’s family and they agree for research to be conducted. What else does the
BCBA-D need:

A) Approval from a formal research review committee

B) Approval from the BACB
C) Nothing else, written informed consent has been obtained
D) Both A and B are required

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 21
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

10. Bradley, a BCBA, is reading through the ethical guidelines and notices an ethic about
delegating tasks to RBTs’ and BCaBAs’. Bradley is super busy and decides that he is going to
delegate some tasks. He has recently finished determining the function of a client’s hitting
behaviour and asks the RBT to write up a DRA procedure for the behaviour. The RBT is
currently in a Master’s program for ABA and is the primary therapist for the client. The RBT:

A) Can write the intervention plan as the function and intervention has been determined but
not implement the plan
B) Can write the intervention plan as the function and intervention has been determined,
obtain written informed consent but not implement the plan
C) Can write the intervention plan as the function and intervention has been determined,
obtain written informed consent and also implement the plan if the caregiver allows them
to
D) Cannot write intervention plans

11. Remy is a BCBA working in a clinic and has obtained written two-way consent to release,
share and disclose information about Jackson, her client, with an agency called ‘Making Gains’
providing Occupational Therapy. Remy can:

A) Provide information to the agency but not any identifiable information (e.g., name,
address etc.)
B) Provide information pertinent to what the agency needs in relation to the therapeutic
relationship
C) Provide the entire client file, including information that the family said only Remy’s clinic
should know about
D) Not provide any information as they can obtain any required information from the family

12. Dianne put in a DRO intervention for pinching behaviour for a client she works with. After
several weeks with no progress, she changed the intervention to a systematic desensitization
program for the trigger contributing to the behaviour. Dianne should:

A) Should be ending services with a client when interventions are no longer working
B) Should never change an intervention after only several weeks
C) Should obtain consent to change an existing intervention
D) Has made the correct decision as the previous intervention was not working and consent
would have already been obtained at the onset of the relationship

13. When it comes to the delivery of behaviour analytic services, who may be considered a
stakeholder as per the BACB ethical guidelines:

A) Employer
B) Funder
C) Parent
D) All of the above are potential stakeholder

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 22
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Task List F Questions

1. A Clinical Supervisor is provided with data from the Senior Therapist after completing a
functional analysis. As the Clinical Supervisor is reviewing the data they notice that the target
behaviour, property destruction, occurs at a similar frequency across all conditions. The Clinical
Supervisor tells the Senior Therapist:

A) This data is not possible because a functional analysis always determines a clear
function of the target behaviour
B) Property destruction would only be maintained by either escape or attention
C) Only the person who conducted the functional analysis should be reviewing the data to
determine the function
D) The results are inconclusive or the function may be maintained by automatic
reinforcement

2. A BCBA tells an RBT to collect about 12 toys for a client who they have been working with for
about 6 months. The RBT is quite familiar with the client’s preferences and gets 12 items they
think the client will love. The BCBA tells the RBT to let the client have continuous access to all
of the items for exactly 30 minutes. The RBT is also asked to collect partial interval data to
determine the duration of time the child engages with each toy. What type of preference
assessment is this:

A) Free range
B) Multiple stimulus without replacement
C) Free operant
D) Single stimulus

3. A BCBA is collecting baseline data for a skill based assessment for a 6 year old client
conducting at least three baseline trials, non-consecutively, over the course of the day. During
the first trial of a matching pictures task, the client makes an error. What should the BCBA do
next?

A) Repeat the SD, use least-to-most prompting, move onto the next skill
B) Repeat SD, full prompt, 3-5 distractor trials, repeat SD, independent opportunity
C) Repeat the SD, use most-to-least prompting, move onto the next skill
D) Move onto another task

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 23
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

4. A new client, Susanna, starts and you decide to conduct a preference assessment for her
around food preferences. You present Susanna with two foods at once and collect data on
which food the teenager eats first. You have a casual meeting scheduled in exactly an hour and
want this preference assessment to be finished by then. If it takes longer, that’s fine and you can
just reschedule their meeting.You that all of the foods are matched with each other randomly
throughout the assessment. What type of preference assessment might this be?

A) Multiple stimulus without replacement

B) Multiple stimulus with replacement
C) Paired stimulus
D) Not enough information to determine the type of preference assessment

5. A BCBA is providing supervised hours and is covering the topic of FBA’s. The BCBA tells
their trainee that the components that can make up a Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA)
are:

A) Indirect assessment, analog assessment, descriptive direct assessment

B) Reinforcer assessment, direct observation, functional analysis
C) Record review, direct assessment, functional analysis
D) Preference assessment, interview with caregiver, direct observation

6. A BCBA gets called into a case for a non-verbal child who recently began cheek poking. The
behaviour looks like the child making a pointer finger and pressing it into the left side of their
face in the cheek area. The team working with the child reports no history of this behaviour and
that this has just happened out of the blue and they need immediate support to do this. The
BCBA immediately puts in an intervention to try to alleviate the behaviour. A week later, the child
had a dentist appointment and it turns out that the child needed a root canal. The cheek poking
behaviour is now gone. What should the BCBA have done first?

A) The BCBA was correct in putting in a plan as the cheek poking behaviour could have
hurt the child
B) The BCBA should have considered possible medical/biological variables first before
intervening
C) The BCBA should have collected more data to determine the function
D) The BCBA should have given the behaviour at least one more week to see if it would
stabilize

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 24
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

7. A BCBA gets a referral for a client with severe self-injurious behaviour which looks like biting
the wrist area to the bone. The history of the client indicates that they have a complex restraint
system in place for their safety and the function of the behaviour has not been determined
although there is believed to be a dual function of sensory and escape. The BCBA has worked
with client’s with some challenging behaviour but never this severe and has no experience with
restraint systems. What might be the most appropriate next step for the BCBA:

A) Make a referral, with consent, to an ABA agency that specializes in complex

self-injurious behaviour and restraint systems
B) Take on the client because ABA works for any challenging behaviour. Since the function
is likely sensory and escape, A DRA or DRO would be sufficient
C) Pick up the client and determine an intervention based on a literature review for
self-injurious behavior maintained by sensory and escape
D) None of the above are appropriate to do

8. A BCBA is consulting for a school team for a student who engages in aggression. The BCBA
asks to see the ABC behaviour log from the past week. The teacher states that they haven’t
really had time to collect data but the teacher is certain about the function being escape. The
teacher states that even though they don’t have data, every time they present a demand the
student engages in aggression. What should the BCBA do:

A) Ask the teacher for a second opinion from another staff member to confirm the function
B) Collect data yourself to determine patterns and a potential function
C) Move forward with writing an intervention to decrease escape maintained aggression
D) All of the above

9. A BCBA is working in a family home supporting a teenager diagnosed with autism. THe
BCBA creates an ABC data collection form for the parents to fill out when their teenager
engages in elopement. The teenager hasn't left the home and only elope to different parts of the
home. The function has not been determined and the BCBA is hoping to get some patterns from
the ABC data. The BCBA provides thorough training and supports the parents with IOA to
ensure that the parents can accurately and effectively collect ABC data. After a week, the BCBA
returns and the parents inform them that they didn’t really like the ABC form and instead have
been collecting data with a clicker. The data shows that the teenager eloped 26 times across the
week. What should the BCBA do?

A) Use the data and implement an intervention as elopement poses a safety concern and
determine the function later
B) Calculate the rate and write an intervention plan to reduce the rate
C) Use the data, write an intervention but tell the parents next time to use the ABC data
form
D) Not write an intervention as a function has not been determined and the behaviour does
not pose a safety concern

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 25
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

10. A new BCBA is helping support a transition meeting for an adult transferring into residential
care with a behaviour reduction plan in place. The transition meeting includes the parents,
personal support worker, registered nurse, speech and language pathologist, a social worker
and an occupational therapist. The BCBA really wants to make a first impression, how should
the BCBA share the report:

A) Use terminology suitable for the understanding of the individuals at the table
B) Use complete and precise ABA terminology throughout as you have to ensure that the
plan remains behaviour analytic in nature
C) Ensure that a technical ABA term is given to each strategy and that each strategy is
provided with the research/evidence on why the strategy is effective
D) Only option B and C are correct

11. Review the functional analysis graph above. What is the likely function:

A) Contingent attention
B) Contingent escape
C) Access to tangible
D) Automatic/sensory and/or undifferentiated

12. Jacob, a new BCBA, recently read that only a BCBA or BCBA-D can conduct a functional
analysis. Jacob is supervising a senior therapist, Michelle, who is a BCaBA. Michelle asks
Jacob if she can join the functional analysis to collect data. What should Jacob do:

A) Michelle can not participate in any aspect of a functional analysis because she is a
BCaBA
B) Michelle can only review the result of a functional analysis and help implement the
outcomes from a functional analysis
C) Michelle can help participate in the functional analysis under Jacob’s supervision
D) Michelle can only participate in a functional analysis if Jacob was a BCBA-D

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 26
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

13. A functional analysis consists of _____ test condition(s) and ____ control condition(s):

A) 3, 1
B) 4, 1
C) 1, 3
D) 1, 4

14. Jessica is a BCBA working as a clinical supervisor in a clinic which delivers discrete trial
training. She hears about the assessment of basic language and learning skills revised
(ABLLS-R) which is an autism curriculum assessment tool, a non-standardized test. Based on
the ethical code, who can test the skills on the assessment:

A) BCBA/BCBA-D Only
B) BCBA/BCBA-D, BCaBA Only
C) All of BCBA/BCBA-D, BCaBA, RBT
D) Psychomotrist/psychologist only

15. Review the functional analysis graph above. What is the likely function:

A) Contingent attention
B) Contingent escape
C) Access to tangible
D) Automatic/sensory and/or undifferentiated

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 27
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Task List G Questions

1. A BCBA at an ABA clinic is teaching a client functional communication via the use of an
augmentative communication device and isn’t having great success. They begin to collect data
and the BCBA notices that staff are accepting gestures nine out of ten times to grant access to
preferred items and only accepting the augmentative communication device two out of ten times
to grant access to preferred items. What concept explains this lack of success with the
augmentative communication device:

A) Behavioural response mirroring

B) Matching law
C) Practice effects
D) Behavioural contrast effects

2. A BCBA working with a client has a picture card with a picture of a car on it and the word car
written over it in black. After the client can successfully label the picture/word as car, the BCBA
introduces a next picture card that has a more transparent picture of a car with the same word
car written in black over it. After the client can successfully label this picture card, the BCBA
introduces a last picture card with only the word car on it. What might be going on here:

A) Stimulus salience
B) Stimulus fading
C) Response prompt
D) None of the above

3. A BCBA is at their son’s hockey game and the team finds themselves in a shootout situation
and will win the tournament if the next shooter can score. They select their best player who has
a 100% scoring average in shootouts compared to everyone else on the team who score 80%
of the time or less. In this exact moment, what group contingency is being used:

A) Interdependent group contingency

B) Independent group contingency
C) Dependent group contingency
D) More than one of the above

4. A BCBA gets stuck in a case conference which has now gone through their lunch break.
Their stomach growls around 12:45pm and cues them that they need to eat. They suddenly
realize that they are very hungry and food seeking behaviour increases. This is an example of:

A) Conditioned reinforcement
B) AO
C) CMO-R
D) EO

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 28
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

5. A BCBA wants to buy his daughter her favourite video game on Christmas Eve and the store
closes at 9:00pm. The BCBA knows that they can not be late and that even showing up 1
minute late will result in them not getting the opportunity to buy the game and their daughter
being completely upset and disappointed. The time leading up to the store closing is the
________ while the time after 9:00pm is the _________:

A) SD, S-delta
B) SD+, SD-
C) Positive reinforcer, negative punisher
D) R+, P-

6. The staff party happens at an escape room. The clinical supervisor decides to break up
everyone into teams and puts $500 into a lock box which requires a key. The team who can
solve the puzzle of the escape room will gain access to the key to open the lock box with the
$500. The key to unlock the lock box is:

A) CMO-R
B) CMO-T
C) CMO-S
D) None of the above

7. A BCBA is taking over a case and one of the client’s has an expressive identification of
prepositions program which is being taught errorlessly but doesn’t have any direction around
fading out prompts. What is the most appropriate method of fading out prompts:

A) Stimulus fading and most-to-least prompting

B) Stimulus salience and most-to-least prompting
C) Stimulus equivalence and least-to-most prompting
D) Stimulus pairing and most-to-least prompting

8. Jacob agrees to do a walk-a-thon for his son’s school fundraiser. After about 30 minutes into
the walk, he begins to feel a burning sensation in his knee which he knows from the past that
this is the start of the pain leading up to his thigh and his knee becoming completely immobile.
This is an example of:

A) CMO-T
B) CMO-S
C) CMO-P
D) CMO-R

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 29
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

9. Bill’s ABA professor states that this conditioned motivating operation gains its effectiveness
by accompanying some other MO and has established the same behaviour-altering and
value-altering effects as the MO that it has accompanied. What might the professor be talking
about:

A) CMO-S
B) CMO-T
C) CMO-P
D) CMO-R

10. A BCBA puts in an intervention for a client who spits and after 4 weeks of treatment they
begin to see a steady decrease in the rate of spitting behaviour to near zero rates in the home.
One day later the BCBA gets a call from the school stating that the client is spitting in the
classroom now. What might be going on:

A) Behavioural contrast effect

B) Matching law
C) Practice effects
D) Contingency-shaped behaviours

11. A BCBA working for an OBM firm tells the boss of a company to put in an intervention where
whichever one of her staff gets all of their sales reports handed in before the end of the day gets
to go home early. What group contingency is the boss using:

A) Hero procedure group contingency

B) Dependent group contingency
C) Interdependent group contingency
D) Independent group contingency

12. A BCBA is helping a teacher develop a self-management system for a student diagnosed
with ASD in her class. The teacher states that the student has a tough time remaining seated at
the table for a nutrition break. What would be the best example of a self-management skill:

A) Remaining seated and putting a checkmark in a log then receiving a reinforcer

B) Requests to leave the table instead of getting up without permission
C) Leaving his table to tell a peer that he is all done eating
D) Standing instead of sitting at the table

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 30
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

13. A teacher wants to set up a token economy for one of her students and decides that it is
best to consult with her school based BCBA. The BCBA explains to the teacher that the most
critical component which determines the effectiveness of a token economy is:

A) Tokens have highly preferred designs on them

B) The token economy doesn’t have more than 10 tokens on the board
C) The tokens are age appropriate and not stigmatizing
D) The reinforcing power of the back-up reinforcers

14. A BCBA is giving a presentation to a group of RBT’s and explains that functional
communication training (FCT) is:

A) A differential reinforcement procedure

B) An antecedent based procedure
C) A consequence procedure
D) The same as differential reinforcement of communicative behaviour (DRC)

15. A BCBA is reviewing a contingency contract that a group home has put in place for one of
their adult clients. The group home ensured that there was a description of the task, a
description of the reward, however, they were missing a third element which is:

A) A task record
B) A description of the punisher(s)
C) A description of positive behaviours
D) A time limit to complete the task

16. An RBT tells their BCBA supervisor that the iPad is forsure a reinforcer and that the client
absolutely loves it. The BCBA begins reviewing the data from the programming and notices that
the client isn’t making progress when the iPad is used as a reinforcer. The iPad is likely:

A) A reinforcer
B) A preferred stimulus
C) A punisher
D) A conditioned reinforcer

17. A client receiving therapy absolutely loves his laptop. When he works on his therapy goals
he makes tons of progress when the laptop is delivered contingently. It is very clear that the
laptop is an effective reinforcer. Given this information, the laptop would be considered a:

A) Secondary reinforcer
B) Primary reinforcer
C) Type I reinforcer
D) All of the above

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 31
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

18. An RBT, Kyle, is using imitation training as a mode of teaching gross motor skills under the
supervision of their BCBA, Micah. The current target is teaching the client, Leo, to do a jumping
jack. Who serves as the controlling behaviour for an imitative behaviour:

A) Leo
B) Kyle
C) Micah
D) There is no controlling behaviour when using imitation training

19. A BCBA is giving a presentation at a conference on imitation training and explains that when
using imitation training as a method of teaching, the model is a:

A) Consequence stimulus which evokes imitative behaviour

B) Prompting strategy in the antecedent category
C) Imitation should not be used for teaching
D) Antecedent stimulus which evokes imitative behaviour

20. An RBT is working with a young child diagnosed with ASD. The RBT notices that a
conditioned response, labelling a red car as “car”, is exhibited in the presence of similar stimuli.
This best demonstrates:

A) Stimulus discrimination
B) Response discrimination
C) Stimulus generalization
D) Response generalization

21. A BCBA providing supervision to an RBT tells them that this form of instruction provides
practice with a variety of response topographies which helps to ensure the acquisition of desired
response forms and helps to promote response generalizations in the form of untrained
topographies. What concept are they likely talking about:

A) Multiple exemplar training

B) Natural environment training
C) Incidental teaching
D) Teaching loosely

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 32
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

22. An adult client is learning how to navigate the community for a variety of purposes. Part of
her program includes making purchases. She is taught to purchase a calling card from the
convenience store using physical cash then is taught to purchase groceries at the grocery store
using her debit card. This is an example of:

A) Teaching loosely
B) Multiple exemplar training
C) General case analysis
D) None of the above

23. An ABA student has a placement in Brazil for two months over the summer and begins to
learn some Spanish from being exposed to so many people speaking Spanish. The ABA
student learning Spanish in this instance is an example of:

A) Trial based learning

B) Exposure learning
C) Replication
D) Incidental learning

24. A Clinical Supervisor is trying to establish some pivotal skills to list as goals on their clients
service plan. Which behaviour is an example of a pivotal behaviour:

A) Self-initiation
B) Choice making
C) Self-management
D) These are all pivotal behaviours

25. A group of tourists are on an excursion in the desert with a tour guide. Throughout the
journey the tour guide explains that scorpions live in the desert but not all of them are
poisonous. The tour guide picks up non-poisonous scorpions and shows the group up close, but
when he comes across a poisonous scorpion, he ensures that everyone stays away. What might
explain the tour guide's ability to identify poisonous versus non-poisonous scorpions:

A) Stimulus discrimination
B) Response discrimination
C) Stimulus generalization
D) Response generalization

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 33
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

26. During a supervision session, the BCBA supervisor is explaining the importance of
behavioural cusps and how these are important skills which can lead to further progress with
programming. The supervisor asks the supervisee which behaviour is not a behavioural cusp:

A) Learning how to read

B) Learning how to open a door
C) Generalized imitation
D) These are all examples of behavioural cusps

27. A feeding clinic using the principles of ABA is teaching a client how to eat pureed food. Part
of the process involves teaching the client how to use a spoon to scoop the puree into their
mouth. The client then sees a bowl of cereal sitting on the ledge and runs to get a spoon then
starts eating the cereal with a spoon. What concept can explain this behaviour:

A) Stimulus generalization
B) Response generalization
C) Response discrimination
D) Stimulus discrimination

28. A BCBA is doing an analysis of verbal operants and states that a verbal operant is codic if it
has:

A) Non-verbal SD, point-to-point correspondence, formal similarity

B) Verbal SD, point-to-point correspondence, no formal similarity
C) Non-verbal SD, point-to-point correspondence, no formal similarity
D) Verbal SD, point-to-point correspondence, formal similarity

29. Louise and Patricia go out for lunch break and Louise asks, “how are your kids doing
Patricia?”, Patricia responds with, “they’re doing great”. Louise’s behaviour is an example of:

A) Mand
B) Tact
C) Intraverbal
D) Transcription

30. Jeremy is trying to determine what some primary reinforcers would be for an adult client
diagnosed with autism. The client works a 9-5 job and lives independently. What would be some
potential primary reinforcers:

A) A cheque for $200 from a caregiver if the client meets their goal each week
B) A pizza delivered to their house if they meet their goal each week
C) Choice between gift cards or physical cash ($200 value) if the client meets their goal
each week
D) These are all primary reinforcers

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 34
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

31. An RBT recently started at a new clinic and the BCBA is providing them with some
modelling and coaching around stimulus prompts. What type of prompts would you expect to
see for stimulus prompts:

A) Model prompt
B) Redundancy prompt
C) Physical guidance
D) All of the above

32. A student learns to say “car” when presented with the letters C-A-R and receives social
praise, however, if the student gives the same response with the letters B-U-S they do not
receive social praise, so they do not say “car”. What is this an example of:

A) Textual prompting
B) Chaining
C) Punishment
D) Stimulus control

Task List H Questions

1. A BCBA is helping a new BCBA write a behaviour intervention plan to help reduce property
destruction for a teen client living in a community setting. Part of the plan includes replacing the
property destruction with a replacement behaviour. The replacement behaviour must:

A) Match the function of the target behaviour

B) Have point-to-point correspondence with the target behaviour
C) Match the topography of the target behaviour
D) Match the form of the target behaviour

2. A new BCBA is getting familiar with programming and has been using a variety of functional
life skill assessments for adults diagnosed with ASD. Which goal would likely have the most
social validity?

A) Teaching an adult how to play with a kids train set for leisure skills
B) Teaching a toddler how to complete multiplication questions on a math sheet
C) Teaching a four year old how to request for help
D) Teaching a child how to shift a car from park into drive

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 35
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

3. A BCBA working with a 45 year old male taught him to do his laundry independently. Part of
the plan included a long task analysis and it took about 3 months for the client to master this
skill using a forwards chain to teach it. The BCBA comes back one week later after the skill is
mastered to take some data on performance. Four weeks later the BCBA did the same thing.
Why might the BCBA still be taking data if the skill is mastered?

A) The caregiver is likely calling the BCBA in and the BCBA now has an obligation to follow
through with the request
B) The BCBA should have immediately ended services once the client demonstrated
mastery of the skill based on the age of the client
C) The BCBA shouldn’t be taking any more data, the skill is mastered
D) Maintenance check

4. An adult client living in an assisted living arrangement has a goal to learn how to brush their
teeth independently. This is a huge priority goal due to the recommendations from the client’s
dentist. Due to a complex physical condition, the client will not be able to open the cap of the
toothpaste independently. They have full one-to-one support throughout their day. What is an
appropriate solution based on supportive environments:

A) Remove the goal because they won’t ever be able to do it independently

B) Remove toothpaste from the sequence as this won't be a part of the chain
C) Have staff just brush the clients teeth for him
D) Move forward with the goal and include a step where they ask for help to open the
toothpaste cap

5. A BCBA at a case conference for a teenager transitioning to a semi-independent living

arrangement states that behaviours which will produce reinforcement in an individual's life
should be targeted first for teaching. The BCBA is likely using:

A) Enriched environments
B) Relevance of behaviour rule
C) Social validity
D) Social significance

6. A school team has reached out for support from a BCBA to help them write goals for a
student named Carlos. One of the goals is that Carlos will feel more content 80% of the time on
at least 4 out of 5 school days per week. This goal written as is would be considered:

A) Not an observable and measurable goal

B) A true measure of the behaviour
C) Only observable and not measurable
D) Written in both observable and measurable terms

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 36
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

7. A BCBA is working in a residential treatment centre with adults with dual diagnosis. The
BCBA is trying to determine if their intervention to teach an adult to independently cook a meal
would be considered socially valid. They must consider:

A) Will the intervention produce socially important outcomes

B) Will those involved in the intervention feel that it is socially acceptable
C) Will the intervention address socially significant goals
D) All of the above

8. A BCBA is trying to determine leisure skills for a nine year old client. The client has
mentioned multiple times that they want to learn how to ride a bike. The BCBA presents the idea
of teaching the client how to ride a bike at the service meeting. The Mother says that this
sounds like an exciting idea while the Dad says that realistically they can’t afford to buy a bike
right now and even if they did, they won’t have time to practice or use it at home. The BCBA
states that they have a bike at the clinic that the client could practice on. The BCBA’s supervisor
pauses there and states that they shouldn’t target this goal. What best supports the supervisor's
decision?

A) Children can’t make clinical decisions about goals

B) This goal wasn’t baselined appropriately
C) Goal is not age appropriate
D) Unsupportive environment

9. A BCBA working in an adult assisted living home is teaching one of the adult clients how to
follow a shopping list. As part of the task analysis of the skill, the BCBA contacted the grocery
store and they were kind enough to allow the client to practice this skill before opening hours
meaning that no other shoppers were present in the grocery store. The client mastered this skill
while no one else was in the grocery store but now they are having much difficulty following the
shopping list when other shoppers are present. This is likely due to:

A) Masking
B) Stimulus control
C) Overshadowing
D) Rule governed behaviour

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 37
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

10. Youri, a new RBT, says that there can’t be any unwanted effects of reinforcement. Melissa, a
BCBA, says that all of the following are examples of the unwanted effects of reinforcement
except:

A) A decrease in desirable behaviours in the same functional response class as the target
behaviour
B) An increase in desirable behaviours of the same response class as the target behaviour
being reinforced
C) An increase in undesirable behaviours that are members of the same response class as
the target behaviour being reinforced
D) Reinforcement of the target behaviour in one setting could lead to a decrease in the
target behaviour in another setting

11. An OBM consultant has provided a business with a variety of potential interventions to help
increase productivity which is measured by a permanent product. One incentive that appears to
be increasing productivity involves allowing staff to leave exactly 1 hour before the end of their
scheduled workday based on them achieving the defined criteria. The OBM consultant states
that staff not having to work the full 8 hours per day is resulting in the increase in productivity.
This is likely because staff are experiencing:

A) Response effort decay

B) Negative punishment
C) Positive reinforcement
D) Negative reinforcement

12. A BCBA is providing supervision to a student completing their Master’s program in ABA.
Part of the final project for graduation includes conducting an A-B-A experiment and recording
the results. The BCBA supervisor assigns them a client that engages in self-injurious eye poking
behaviour at a high frequency. The student tells the BCBA about the project and that they need
to do a baseline for a minimum of 3 days, however, the BCBA says that they need to go right
into treatment. What is the best option below regarding the students next actions:

A) The student should shorten the baseline to just one day to get data for the project
B) The student should select a different client where an A-B-A design is appropriate
C) The BCBA is wrong and should be collecting baseline data before intervening
D) The student should conduct the baseline as stated for the project and allow the BCBA to
determine the appropriate intervention

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 38
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

13. A client who engaged in aggression was put on extinction and given functional
communication as a replacement behaviour. Aggression went to zero and functional
communication significantly increased. Staff began putting functional communication on
extinction and aggression began to increase. What might explain this:

A) Extinction burst
B) Negative punishment
C) Resurgence
D) Spontaneous recovery

14. A client engages in self-injurious behaviour maintained by automatic reinforcement which

looks like them biting their wrist area. The behaviour has resulted in permanent skin damage
and the team is looking for a replacement behaviour. Which option below would be an
appropriate alternative behaviour for self-injurious behaviour:

A) Requesting for a break

B) Directing them to bite their knee area as they won’t be able to cause damage
C) Requesting for more time
D) None of the above

15. A BCBA is writing a behaviour plan for a child who engages in the target behaviour property
destruction maintained by attention. Part of the plan includes an extinction component in the
form of planned ignoring. What would be a risk of using extinction as part of the intervention:

A) Extinction is never used as part of an intervention

B) A decrease in the target behaviour
C) An increase in the target behaviour
D) An increase in a functional replacement

Task List I Questions

1. A professor teaching a class in ABA states that they love using permanent products as their
method of evaluation. This may include written reports and written projects. What might be the
professors advantage to using permanent products:

A) There is less direct reactivity when evaluating the student’s work

B) The professor doesn’t have to directly observe the students while they are completing
the work
C) The professor can evaluate the writing at any time
D) These are all advantages of permanent products

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 39
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

2. Mary is a BCBA who is at their capacity for taking on clients. She is beginning to fall behind
on her client supervisions, she’s having a hard time making it to staff meetings and may need to
work outside of working hours which is unpaid if she becomes busier. The Clinical Director of
the clinic sends her another family and says “come on, it’s just one more family and they really
need help”. What should Mary do:

A) Pick-up the family since they really need help and it would make their clinical director
happy
B) With consent, refer the family to a BCBA who has the capacity and skills to take on the
family
C) Report herself to the BACB for working at her capacity
D) Work outside of working hours unpaid since it won’t be that much extra work and the
family needs support

3. A professor teaching an ABA class explains that treatment integrity is also known as:

A) Procedural fidelity
B) Procedural integrity
C) Treatment fidelity
D) All of the above

4. McDonald’s measures each staff member on five areas of making the perfect Big Mac using a
pass or fail for each step. Each staff member must receive a pass in all five categories to be
deemed competent at making a Big Mac. The assessor has operationally defined each area
with observable and measurable behaviour which would determine a pass or fail. Staff are
aware of this. What type of assessment might this be:

A) Scored trial assessment

B) Permanent product assessment
C) Competency based assessment
D) Total task assessment

5. A BCBA is providing supervision to one of the trainees about their most recent session. The
trainee has been doing an exceptional job but tends to ask a lot of questions. The BCBA gets a
bit frustrated with them and ends supervision by telling them, “I can’t spoon feed you answers,
you need to figure these questions out”. Instead, the BCBA should end supervision with:

A) A positive and supportive statement

B) A worksheet of skills to work on to address the staff’s performance (i.e., flyers, handouts
etc.)
C) A task analysis of therapist skills required with an operational definition of what it means
to problem solve
D) Giving them a specific ABA chapter to read on problem solving

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 40
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

6. A BCBA has recently completed all 2000 hours for their trainees supervised hours and is
wondering what to do with the paperwork. According to the BACB, the BCBA must retain
records and data for at least:

A) Five years unless specified otherwise by law

B) Three years unless specified otherwise by law
C) Seven years unless specified otherwise by law
D) Ten years unless specified otherwise by law

7. A BCBA has recently attended a conference and found out that overt observations of staff are
superior to covert observations. As a result, the BCBA decided to conduct their observations of
staff performance overtly now instead of covertly, because covert observations may lead to:

A) Performance bias
B) Reactivity
C) Negative feelings/side effects
D) All of the above

8. A BCBA has recently put in a procedural integrity component to a DRA intervention. In order
to ensure the procedural integrity of the DRA, the BCBA must do everything except:

A) Peer role play for procedures

B) Specify what staff must do
C) Monitor staff
D) Train staff on procedures

9. A BCBA is trying to streamline training for a clinic they recently opened. As a result, they
have put together a competency based training model. The competency based training model
may include:

A) Video models
B) Written description
C) Role play
D) All of the above

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 41
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

10. Jeremy, a BCBA, who has completed his supervisor course and is planning to provide
supervised hours to Melanie, an ABA Master’s student. Jeremy has had a professional working
relationship with Melanie for almost 10 years and they both trust each other and work well
together. Jeremy begins providing supervised hours to Melanie. What should Jeremy do first:

A) Nothing, he is a BCBA and can provide supervised hours to anyone in a BCBA course
sequence
B) Write up a supervision contract and have it signed by Melanie
C) This is a conflict of interest because Jeremy and Melanie have to close of a relationship
to be supervisor and supervisee
D) He must wait 2 years after finishing his supervisor course before he can begin providing
supervised hours to anyone

11. Tommy owns an ABA clinic and provides the same training module to new supervisees
regardless of their experience, education and current ability to do the job. This module includes
the basics of ABA, very general ABA strategies and an overview of discrete trial training. Tommy
then sets specific supervision goals for the new supervisees regarding this general ABA
information. What should Tommy do:

A) Set supervision goals based on assessment of the supervisees skills

B) Have the supervisees set their own goals and Tommy approves them
C) Have the supervisees use each other to determine supervision goals
D) Continue with this model of supervision as everyone requires basic ABA training

12. An OBM consultant is called into a company to help improve staff performance. The
manager of the company states that they tell their employees to increase productivity, have a
more positive attitude and to work on doing a better job day to day. The manager says that the
employees seem to be doing okay but it varies week to week. What should the OBM consultant
suggest to support the company:

A) Define goals in observable and measurable terms

B) Use performance monitoring, feedback and reinforcement systems
C) Select goals based on employees performance
D) All of the above

13. Janelle is trying to determine a goal for her supervisee, which option below would be an
example of a well written supervision goal:

A) Increase their happiness to be with a client 80% of the time

B) Increase their excitement during 4 out of 5 team meetings
C) Both A and B are examples of well written supervision goals
D) None of the above

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 42
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

14. Isaiah is delivering a presentation about the potential risks to providing ineffective
supervision, he should include:

A) Improved staff/client satisfaction

B) Poor client outcomes
C) Increased effectiveness in treatment delivery
D) Both A and C are correct

Bonus Questions

1. A client is participating in a matching program and having some difficulty. The RBT makes a
highlighter box around the correct answer and the client is able to successfully answer the
question. This is an example of:

A) Transparency
B) Correspondence prompt
C) Redundancy
D) A Response prompt

2. An RBT is wanting to make a case note and decides to use the speech-to-text option on her
device which writes down everything into her note as she verbally states it. The speech-to-text
is an example of what verbal operant:

A) Transcription
B) Translation
C) Metonymical tact extension
D) Intraverbal

3. Marcus, a BCBA is called in to conduct an observation at a school and notices that the school
team has created a makeshift response cost system removing stickers from a chart for the
student. Every time the student rips their worksheet, a sticker is removed from their chart. A staff
member is taking data and it appears from the data that the student’s ripping behaviour is
increasing when they remove a sticker. What is removing the sticker serving as:

A) Positive punishment
B) Positive reinforcement
C) Negative reinforcement
D) Negative punishment

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 43
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

4. Patrick, a BCBA, provides other BCBA’s with a 5% commission, paid in cash, based on every
referral they bring them, but only if the client follows through on purchasing a service. What
should Patrick be doing?

A) Pay the commission regardless of whether the client actually purchases a service
B) Should not provide other BCBA’s a commission for referrals
C) Increase the commission because 5% isn’t a strong enough reinforcer to get people to
give him referrals
D) Should ensure that cash payment for referrals includes a receipt for tax laws

5. A BCBA schedules an observation for a student in a grade 11 classroom. The BCBA first
contacts parents to obtain consent. No challenging behaviour occurred during the observation
and the teacher mentioned that this never happens. The BCBA later found out that the parents
told the student that the BCBA would be observing. What may have caused the change in
behaviour:

A) Experimenter bias
B) Extinction
C) Measurement bias
D) Reactivity

6. A BCBA is always cautious of receiving data from individuals not fully trained in data
collection because the biggest threat to the reliability and accuracy of data is:

A) Environmental effects
B) Unintentional prompts
C) Human error
D) All of these are the biggest threats to reliability and accuracy

7. A BCBA is asked to describe private events using behaviour-analytic terminology. They

ensure that they:

A) Use non-mentalistic terminology

B) Explain that private events don’t exist
C) Use mentalistic terminology
D) None of the above

8. A BCBA is providing supervision and states that topography and magnitude are both:

A) Derivative measures in ABA

B) Definitional measures in ABA
C) Temporal locus measures
D) Temporal extent measure

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 44
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

9. A BCBA collects baseline data across three days on a student’s ability to remain seated at
circle time. She then introduces a DRL procedure for 3 days and takes data on this intervention.
She says that she is going to remove the intervention for 3 days and collect data in baseline
again. After those 3 days are up she re-introduces the same DRL procedure. What experimental
design is she using:

A) Reversal design
B) Multi element design
C) Withdrawal design
D) Both A and C

10. A client is asked to wash their hands and you notice that the RBT supporting the client is
only providing support on the steps that the client can’t do. It seems like they can turn on the
taps but have difficulty pressing the soap. They can then scrub their hands but need help turning
off the taps. What type of chaining is this:

A) Forward chaining
B) Total task chaining
C) Backwards chaining
D) None of the above as this is not an example of chaining

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 45
BCBA® 5th Edition Mock Exam 1

Answer Key

Task List Area

A B C D E F G H I Bonus

1. B 1. A 1. D 1. D 1. D 1. D 1. B 1. A 1. D 1. C
2. D 2. B 2. D 2. A 2. B 2. C 2. B 2. C 2. B 2. A
3. B 3. A 3. B 3. B 3. C 3. D 3. C 3. D 3. D 3. C
4. C 4. D 4. C 4. D 4. A 4. C 4. D 4. D 4. C 4. B
5. A 5. D 5. B 5. A 5. C 5. A 5. A 5. B 5. A 5. D
6. D 6. B 6. A 6. D 6. A 6. B 6. B 6. A 6. C 6. C
7. C 7. C 7. D 7. C 7. B 7. A 7. A 7. D 7. C 7. A
8. C 8. B 8. B 8. A 8. A 8. B 8. D 8. D 8. A 8. B
9. A 9. B 9. C 9. C 9. A 9. D 9. A 9. A 9. D 9. D
10. A 10. A 10. A 10. B 10. D 10. A 10. A 10. B 10. B 10. B
11. D 11. D 11. D 11. A 11. B 11. A 11. D 11. D 11. A
12. B 12. D 12. B 12. C 12. C 12. A 12. B 12. D
13. C 13. B 13. D 13. A 13. D 13. C 13. D
14. A 14. D 14. C 14. B 14. D 14. B
15. B 15. A 15. D 15. A 15. C
16. A 16. B 16. B
17. C 17. B 17. A
18. B 18. B
19. A 19. D
20. C 20. C
21. C 21. A
22. C
23. D
24. D
25. A
26. D
27. B
28. C
29. A
30. B
31. B
32. D

Property of The Behaviour Lab.

Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 46