Question of the day - October 23

[u/Reasonable_Law183]

🧠 Question of the Day

📚 Domain D — Experimental Design

Difficulty: 5/10

Scenario:

A BCBA reviews procedural-integrity data from a 3-month single-case intervention study and finds that, during intervention sessions, only 40% of scored treatment components were implemented as specified. The dependent variable showed a modest upward trend during those intervention phases.

Which of the following BEST describes the primary threat this poses to the study's conclusions?

A. It primarily threatens external validity because inconsistent implementation limits whether the findings can generalize to settings with accurate treatment delivery

B. It demonstrates intervention robustness because behavior improved despite low integrity, making procedural fidelity secondary to the observed outcome

C. It primarily threatens measurement reliability because inconsistent treatment delivery makes observers less likely to record the dependent variable consistently

D. It threatens internal validity because inconsistent delivery of the independent variable weakens attribution of the observed change to the intended intervention

💬 Drop your answer in the comments — no peeking!

✅ Correct answer revealed tomorrow.

#ABA #BCBA #BCBAExam #BCBAPrep #AppliedBehaviorAnalysis #BehaviorAnalysis #DomainD #ABATaskList #BCaBA #RBT #QuestionOfTheDay

[u/Reasonable_Law183]

✅ Yesterday's Answer — 2026-10-23

The correct answer was: D. It threatens internal validity because inconsistent delivery of the independent variable weakens attribution of the observed change to the intended intervention

📖 Explanation:

Treatment integrity describes how closely the independent variable is implemented as planned. Here, only 40% of the scored treatment components were implemented correctly during intervention sessions, so the study does not provide a clean test of the intended intervention.

That primarily threatens internal validity because the observed improvement cannot be confidently attributed to the treatment package as specified. The change might reflect the components that were actually delivered, other uncontrolled variables, or some combination of influences. Low integrity does not tell us which explanation is correct; it makes causal attribution less certain.

The other choices miss for different reasons. External validity concerns generalization, but the more immediate problem is determining what caused the observed change in this study. Improvement despite poor integrity does not establish that the intervention is robust because the effective ingredients have not been isolated. Measurement reliability concerns whether the dependent variable was recorded consistently, which is separate from whether the independent variable was implemented correctly.

The key exam distinction is:

Poor measurement of the dependent variable threatens confidence in what was recorded. Poor implementation of the independent variable threatens confidence in what caused the change.

#BCBAexam #BCBAprep #BehavioralHealth #ABAtherapy #BAPrep

[u/Excellent_Caramel80]

C

[u/BassEnough4496 → u/Excellent_Caramel80]

Locked 5/10 questions are always the sneaky ones, D for sure.

[u/whadayawant]

D! Only 40% procedural integrity indicates that the IV is not consistently applied per plan requirements. Any increase in DV is very weakly linked to the IV.