RBT Competency Assessment Practice Test
Last Update: March 16, 2024
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The RBT Competency Assessment test is a crucial component required to become a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT). This assessment evaluates your understanding and ability to perform various tasks across four domains: measurement, assessment, skill acquisition, behavior reduction, and professionalism.
The assessment covers 20 task items, including continuous and discontinuous measurement, preference assessments, skill acquisition techniques like discrete trial teaching and chaining, behavior reduction strategies like antecedent interventions and extinction, and professionalism tasks like session notes and client dignity.
During the assessment, you must demonstrate these tasks either with a client, through role-play, or in an interview format. The assessment is typically administered by a BACB-certified individual and must be completed within 90 days of submitting your RBT certification application.
The test duration can vary but is usually completed in 1 to 3 hours. If you do not pass all tasks on your first attempt, additional observations or meetings will be required for reassessment.
Once you have successfully completed the RBT Competency Assessment, the next step is to prepare for the RBT certification exam, which is the final requirement for becoming an RBT.
To increase your chances of success, thoroughly prepare for the assessment by studying the RBT Task List and utilizing various study materials, such as textbooks and practice exams.
How To Prepare For The RBT Competency Assessment?
To prepare for the RBT Competency Assessment, you should start by reviewing the RBT Initial Competency Assessment Packet, which outlines the tasks you will be evaluated on.
You should also know what to expect during the assessment, including the structure, administration, and documentation process.
Here are some key steps to prepare effectively:
- Review Study Materials: Study the RBT Task List, which covers topics such as measurement, assessment, skill acquisition, behavior reduction, and professionalism. Use textbooks, online courses, and practice exams from reputable sources to enhance your understanding.
- Complete 40-Hour Training: Ensure you have completed the required 40-hour RBT training before attempting the competency assessment.
- Practice Tasks: Use RBT competency assessment study guides and practice questions to familiarize yourself with the tasks you will be evaluated on. Consider watching videos that simulate the assessment process to understand better what is expected.
- Understand Assessment Structure: A BCBA will most likely administer the assessment, evaluating your competencies through tasks performed with a client, role-play scenarios, or live interviews. To pass, you must demonstrate competence in all tasks.
- Time Management: The assessment typically takes 1 to 3 hours to complete. Ensure you are well-prepared for each task within this timeframe.
- Seek Feedback: If you make errors during the assessment, your assessor will provide corrective feedback. Use this feedback constructively to improve and demonstrate full competence in all tasks.
- Next Steps: After completing the competency assessment, focus on preparing for the RBT certification exam, which is the final step towards becoming a certified Registered Behavior Technician.
Table Of Terms
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Indirect Measurement | interviews, rating scales, questions, surveys |
| Direct Measurement | observation of the behavior and recording it as it occurs |
| Behavioral Definitions | operational, includes verbs describing behavior, objective + unambiguous, does not rely on internal states (happy, sad), does not use labels (bad or good) |
| Operational Behavior | describes what the behavior looks like so two independent observers can recognize + record the same behavior |
| Indirect Outcome Recording | measures results that produces an observable product in the environment. main advantage is that it’s easy to use |
| Direct Outcome Recording | instead of relying on memory data is gathered immediately as the behavior occurs or as it produces results |
| Event Recording | behavior is observed continuously throughout the observation period, and each instance of the behavior is recorded immediately as it occurs. Must meet two criteria: Does the behavior look the same every time? Does the behavior have a clear beginning and end? |
| Frequency Recording | used for behaviors that have a clear beginning and end, tally the number of times the behavior occurs |
| Intensity | magnitude or force of response (only record if this is the aspect of the behavior you are trying to change) |
| Duration | how long a behavior persists, should be used if you are trying to decrease how long a behavior lasts |
| Latency | time that occurs between the SD and the response (ex. how long to respond to a peer’s question). You record this when the goal is to decrease the time between SD and response |
| Partial Interval Recording | involves checking off an interval if the behavior occurs at ANY point within the interval – even if it only occured for 1 second. You can use this for self-stimulatory behaviors or behaviors that don’t look the same every time. An over-exaggeration of the behavior: you use this method to decrease behavior. |
| Whole Interval Recording | involves checking off the interval if the behavior occurs throughout the WHOLE interval. Use when it is difficult to tell when the behavior begins or ends, when it occurs at such a high rate it is difficult to keep count. An under-exaggeration of behavior: you use this method to increase behavior. |
| Momentary Time Sampling Recording | data is less representative than intervals, looking for a behavior’s occurrence during a specific part of the interval and recording if it occurs at that precise moment. Ex: setting a timer to go off every minute for a 30 minute interval, only checking for behavior and marking it down as the timer goes off. |
| Reinforcement | follows a behavior that increases that behavior |
| Punishment | follows a behavior that decreases that behavior |
| Positive Reinforcement | addition of a pleasant stimulus |
| Negative Reinforcement | removal of an aversive stimulus |
| Positive Punishment | addition of an aversive stimulus |
| Negative Punishment | removal of a pleasant stimulus |
| Motivating Operations | Variables in the environment that alter the relative value of a particular reinforcer at a particular time. |
| Deprivation | when a person hasn’t had access to a particular reinforcer for a significant period of time, makes it more potent |
| Immediacy | the time between the behavior’s occurrence and the reinforcer’s delivery. The more immediate, the more effective |
| Size | the magnitude of the reinforcer changes the effectiveness. You want to not give too much or the reinforcer will lose its value, but too little will not be motivating enough. |
| Contingency | when the reinforcer is delivered only for the target behavior it is more effective |
| Schedules of Reinforcement | specifies how often particular behaviors receive reinforcement |
| Continuous schedule | used for learning new behaviors, the behavior is reinforced every time |
| Intermittent Schedule | used to maintain behavior once a skill is acquired. Behavior is only reinforced some of the time. They generate high response rates and prevent behavior from stopping. |
| Fixed Ratio Schedule | a schedule of reinforcement after a fixed level of responses. Ex: reinforce after every 5th correct response. |
| Variable Ratio Schedule | An average number of responses must be made before delivery of reinforcement. Ex: slot machine |
| Fixed Interval Schedule | it doesn’t matter how many times the behavior occurred, the person only gets the reinforcer once the response is given after a fixed amount of time. Ex: receiving a paycheck. |
| Variable Interval Schedule | the reinforcer is delivered for the first response that occurs after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. Ex: checking your email – you probably do this periodically throughout the day without a set schedule |
| Extinction | when the response no longer produces reinforcement. |
| Extinction burst | when the behavior is no longer reinforced, it will briefly increase in frequency, intensity and duration. This is because the learner wants to see if performing the behavior more intensely will produce reinforcement. |
| Response Cost | taking away a reinforcer as a result of behavior (ex: taking car keys away after missing curfew) |
| Behavior Intervention Plan | plans developed to guide parents, teachers and other paraprofessionals on how to decrease inappropriate behvaiors and teach or increase replacement behaviors in all settings. Everyone who interacts with the individual should follow the plan |
| Functional Behavior Assessment | a collection of different procedures of gathering information on antecedants, behaviors, and consequences in order to determine the factors that lead to maintaining problem behavior. |
| Antecedent | an environmental condition existing or occurring immediately before the behavior of interest (ex: the setting, people they are around, the actions of people around them) |
| Visual Schedules | a set of pictures that communicate a series of activities or steps of a specific schedule. Gives a sense of control, predictability and choice over their schedule |
| Means to an end visual | shows the individual when they are finished or when something new is going to happen, like a transition. Ex: timer, token board, first/then board. More likely to stay on task if they can see when they get a break |
| Functional Communication training | the use of appropriate communicative behavior to replace the inappropriate behavior. If we make it easier to communicate through words, sign, or pictures than the problem behavior, it is more likely they will use they functional behavior instead. |
| Social Stories | a tool to teach children with autism how to act in social situations |
| Systematic Desensitization | treatment that practices engaging in successive approximations toward the target behavior. This treatment is often paired with anxiety reduction exercises and positive reinforcement. |
| Demand Fading | incrementally increase demands you place on the student across several sessions |
| Non-Contingent Reinforcement | reinforcing the child without any specific demands in place. This causes you to be associated with reinforcement and become a reinforcer. |
| Pairing | when the child has associated you with reinforcement or good things. |
| Pacing | increasing pace of instruction decreases escape behaviors |
| Interspersing | mixing up easy and more difficult tasks |
| Wait program | teaches a student to accept the denied request and wait for access to the item. It does this by using visuals and timers. The student is taught to wait for items or an activity for incremental periods of time. |
| Transition program | teaches student to easily transition by reinforcing systematic steps. First, you contrive transition by situations such as moving from one chair to another. |
| Sensory diet | the use of sensory activities or exercises to calm certain sensory needs. Ex: activity schedule, replacement behavior that serves the same purpose |
| Differential Reinforcement of Alternate Behaviors (DRA) | reinforcing an appropriate alternative to the problem behavior and extinguishing the problem behavior through extinction. Do not acknowledge attempts to gain (x) through undesirable behavior. Prompt, than immediately reinforce. |
| Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Reinforcers (DRI) | reinforces a behavior that is incompatible to the problem behavior and put the target problem behavior on extinction. The incompatible behavior is response blocked while correct behavior is reinforced |
| Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviors (DRO) | reinforcing the absence of the problem behavior for a specific amount of time. Always uses interval schedules, usually fixed. First take baseline data of the target behavior. Start with an interval that will ensure success. Every interval without the behavior is reinforced. |
| Overcorrection | contingent on the target behavior, the individual must engage in a tedius task directly related to the problem. |
| Restitutional overcorrection | the learner is required to repair the situation to its original state |
| Positive practice overcorrection | the learner is required to practice the correct form of the behavior or a behavior that is incompatible as a result of the problem behavior |
| Time out from reinforcement | the withdrawal of the opportunity to receive positive reinforcement for a specific amount of time |
| Prompting | a cue or an action to assist or encourage the desired response from an individual |
| Physical Prompt | physically manipulating the individual to practice the desired response, eventually the degree of touch can be lessened until the student performs it independantly |
| Verbal prompt | using vocalizations to indicate the desired response, can be an utterance such as a sound or part of a word, many words, or even as long as a paragraph. |
| Phoneme | the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language, help shape articulation |
| Intraverbal prompt | a question that leads the child to the correct response |
| Visual prompt | a visual clue or picture, can be any object or printed material that can be used to teach a new behavior |
| Gestural prompt | using a physical gesture to indicated the desired resposne |
| Positional prompt | when the target is placed closer to the individual. As the response becomes more independant the target is moved farther away from them |
| Modeling | physical display of the desired response |
| Video modeling | children who already readily imitate videos may benefit from specially made videos that demonstrate target behaviors. Used to teach social skills, daily living skills, language aquisition or play skills |
| Video self modeling | when the student views videos of themselves as examples of behavior |
| Time delay prompt | transfers stimulus control to the natural stimulus by delaying the presentation of the prompt after that natural stimulus has been presented |
| Prompt fading | to reduce assistance to a least intrusive prompt |
| Stimulus fading | highlighting a physical dimension of a stimulus to increase the likelihood of a correct response then the highlighted or exaggerated dimension is eventually faded out (ex: using traffic safety cones to mark a boundary to stay within and removing them slowly after the learner knows the boundaries) |
| Most to least prompting | usually used with teaching new behaviors because it provides little opportunity for errors |
| Least to most prompting | children who readily imitate videos may benefit from specially made videos demonstrating target behaviors. Used to teach social skills, daily living skills, language aquisition or play skills |
| Shaping | reinforcing successive approximations of a target behavior. can be used to improve articlation |
| Task analysis | involves breaking down a complex skill into smaller, teachable units, the products of which is a series of sequentially ordered steps or tasks |
| Chaining | a specific sequence of responses with each sequence associated with a particular stimulus condition |
| Forward chaining | the behaviors identified in the task are taught in their naturally occurring order. Only targets one step at a time from the beginning. |
| Backward chaining | when all the behaviors that are identified in the task analysis are done by the teacher except for the final behavior (Ex: drawing a smiley face) |
| Total task presentation | a variation of forward chaining in which the student is taught each of the steps in the task analysis at once. The student helps with every step. (ex: tying your shoes) |
| Discrimination training | requires one response and two antecedent stimulus conditions. The response in the presence of one stimulus is reinforced while a response in the presence of the other is not. We are teaching them to make choices. |
| Isolation | teaches the student to pair the stimulus with reinforcement. Once it is paired you mix it up with other stimuli (distractors). |
| Mixed trials | mixing mastered SD’s with target SD’s to ensure discrimination |
| Discrete trial instruction | working one on one with a student, breaking tasks down into small steps until mastery. |
| Errorless learning | ensures success, early immediate prompts, prompts faded over time, decreases frustration/increases motivation |
| Trial-by-trial data | data is collected after each trial on whether or not the response was correct, incorrect, or mastered |
| Probe data | data is collected on the initial trial. Only checks the initial trial of each program or target item to see whether the teaching and prompting of the previous session was enough to maintain the target skill or item the following day |
| Natural Environment Training | the reinforcer is always related to the item being taught. Behavior should be taught in the environment in which it is used, the learners items and activities of interest should set the occassion for teaching, teaching sessions should be across a variety of settings, materials, types of responses and verbal operants, teaching should focus on functional language and skills |
| Stimulus control | when certain aspects of the environment impact our behaviors (ex: being quiet in a library). |
| Multiple exemplar training | teaching with many different examples of the same item or activity |
| Transfer trial | when we re-present the original SD and then use a lesser prompt than the first |
| Error correction | if a child begins to emit an incorrect response, do not allow them to finish if possible. You can prompt and show correct responses when you see them answering incorrectly. Then, use your transfer trial to fade out the prompt, do a distractor trial and come back to the SD as a test to see if they got it. |
| Cold Probe | used to record whether the student was able to independently provide the correct response upon the first presentation of the SD (3 consecutive yes probes = mastered skill) |
| Toy Imitation | responding to a conversation, or a question, the antecedant is verbal stimulus, and the consequence is nonspecific reinforcement |
| Gross motor imitation | imitation of body movements, no materials are necessary, SD= non-specific “copy me” |
| Fine motor imitation | imitation of detailed, precise movements, may use materials, SD= non-specific “do this” |
| Oral motor imitation | imitation of movement of the mouth, tongue, lips, face, head, often a prerequisite to verbal imitation and speech, helps to shape articulations, increase vocalizations, provides reinforcement for “pre-speech” behaviors, helps build momentum, SD= non specific |
| Training Echoic Behavior | repeating what was heard, auditory SD/discriminative stimulus, the consequence is non specific reinforcement–anything that increases the behavior that is not the object being said. |
| Mand Training | demand, command, asking or requesting. Asking for what one wants, then as a consequence getting it, acts as immediate reinforcement for using communication. The training directly benefits the learner. |
| Tact Training | coming in contact with the environment through one of our senses. The antecedant is a nonverbal stimulus in the environment ex: saying “popcorn” when you see popcorn. Follow with nonspecific reinforcement. |
| Training Intraverbal Behavior | responding to a conversation, or a question, the antecedant is verbal stimulus, and the consequence is nonspecific reinforcement. |
| Listener responding | responding to the mands of another. This is receptive language, it is not verbal behavior. (ex looking at an item when it is named). |
| Stimulus Stimulus pairing | repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus with a reinforcing stimulus, neutral stimulus becomes conditioned as a reinforcer, increase in responding partially attributed to automatic reinforcement. |
| 4 Functions of Behavior | to gain attention to escape or avoid a task or situation to gain an item or tangible to gain automatic reinforcement |
| Without replacement | Field of stimuli or objects that you don’t put back into the field. |
| With replacement | Field of stimuli or objects that you put back each time one is picked. |
| Shaping | is a way of adding behaviors to a person’s repertoire. … Approximation means any behavior that resembles the desired behavior or takes the person closer to the desired behavior. Successive approximations are steps toward the target behavior, the behavior you want to shape. |
| Punisher | is a stimulus change that immediately follows the occurrence of a behavior and reduces the future frequency of that type of behavior. |
| Behavior | Anything an organism does that can be measured and counted objectively. |
| Consequences | A stimulus that follows a behavior in close temporal relation. |
| Conditioned Reinforcer | anything that is paired with a primary reinforcer. |
| Unconditioned Reinforcer | things such as food and shelter that are inherently reinforcing. |
| Generalization | Can occur through different settings, SDs and stimuli. |
| Target Behavior | Any defined, observable and measurable behavior; focus of analysis and intervention |
| Escape Function | The individual behaves in order to get out of doing something he/she does not want to do. |
| Four Major Types of Behavior | Escape, attention seeking, seeking access to something, sensory stimulation |
| Attention Seeking Function | The individual behaves to get focused attention from parents, teachers, siblings, peers, or other people that are around them. |
| Access to Tangible Function | The individual behaves in order to get a preferred item or participate in an enjoyable activity. |
| Sensory Stimulation Function | The individual behaves in a specific way because it feels good to them. |
| Automatic Reinforcement | Automatic reinforcement occurs when a person’s behavior creates a favorable outcome without the involvement of another person |
| Antecedent Interventions | are a collection of practices in which environmental modifications are used to change the conditions in the setting that prompt a learner with ASD to engage in an interfering behavior. |
| Token Economy | is a contingency management system based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforces are symbols or “tokens” that can be exchanged for other reinforces. |
| Replacement Behavior | is the behavior you want to replace an unwanted target behavior. Focusing on the problem behavior may just reinforce the behavior, especially if the consequence (reinforcer) is attention. It also helps you teach the behavior that you want to see in the target behavior’s place. |
| Escape Extinction | in which reinforcement that is provided for problem behavior (often unintentionally) is discontinued in order to decrease or eliminate occurrences of these types of negative (or problem) behaviors. |
| Continuous Reinforcement | occurs when reinforcement is delivered after every single target behavior |
| Intermittent Reinforcement | means reinforcement is delivered after some behaviors or responses but never after each one. |
| Response Blocking | “a procedure in which the therapist physically intervenes as soon as the learning begins to emit a problem behavior to prevent completion of the target behavior.” |
| Redirection | reduction technique used to distract the child from a problem behavior, or lead them to engage in a more appropriate behavior than the one they are currently engaging in. |
| Spontaneous Recovery | Spontaneous recovery refers to after a behavior has decreased (via extinction) the behavior may reoccur – however if it is not reinforced will disappear again quickly. |
| Inter observer Agreement (IOA) | is the most common indicator of measurement quality in ABA. IOA is the degree which two or more observers report the same observed values after measuring the same events. A variety of techniques exist for calculating IOA depending upon the recording method being used. |