All Posts

What You Need to Know About Shaping to Pass Your BCBA Exam

Shaping is used when a behavior is NOT in a learner’s repertoire but we want to provide them reinforcement for their best attempt to engage in the behavior. For example, if we are working with a two year old child with severe language delay to request “bubbles,” it could take months or even years for them to be able to…

What are Confounding and Extraneous Variables?

Extraneous variables  Extraneous Variables: Aspects of the environment you CAN control that could affect the outcome of an experiment. (e.g. the time of the session, the lighting in the room (assuming lights work), the temperature in the room (assuming the thermostat works) ect. Confounding variables  Confounding variables: Factors that you CANNOT control that could potentially influence the outcome of an…

Discriminative Stimulus For Punishment (SDp)

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will discuss a discriminative…

Relational Frame Theory (RFT)

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will discuss According to…

Matching Law (BCBA Exam Prep) (ABA Terms Defined)

Everyday, I break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! If you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents, or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. “Behavioral language” can be very confusing, however these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will discuss the matching…

Rule-Governed Behavior v. Contingency-Shaped Behavior 

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. In this blog article, we will…

Planned Activity Check (PLACHECK)

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. According to Cooper, Heron and Heward,…

Free Operant and Discriminated Avoidance

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will discuss avoidance.  Avoidance…

Group Contingencies

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will break down group…

Escape Extinction (BCBA Exam Prep) (ABA Terms Defined)

Everyday, I help break down a confusing ABA term and put it in plain English! Whether you are studying for your BCBA exam, explaining ABA to parents or are a student, there is no reason to be so confused over ABA terms. While “behavioral language” is very confusing, these concepts don’t have to be. Today we will break down escape…

Restitutional Overcorrection

Guest Blog Post by Dr. Katherine May, Ed.D.,BCBA Restitutional Overcorrection: A Positive Punishment Procedure As avid learners of ABA, we are quick to find out that there are a lot of terms to remember, but on top of that it’s important to be able to associate terms with a bigger category. Well, here’s one of them….restitutional overcorrection falls under the…