ABA Glossary

By Dana Meller, M.A., BCBA
Edited by Tyra Sellers, J.D., Ph.D., BCBA-D
ABA Glossary by Dana Meller, M.A., BCBA, edited by Tyra Sellers, J.D., Ph.D., BCBA-D

Functional analysis (FA)

A functional assessment activity during which the antecedents and consequences in the client’s natural environment are arranged and systematically manipulated so that their individual effects on challenging behavior can be observed and measured.

F-8  Conduct a functional analysis of problem behavior.

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    A variation of the functional analysis that measures the time between the presence of an EO to the onset of the challenging behavior. Each trial is terminated as soon as …

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  • Precursor FA
    A variation of the functional analysis that analyzes the precursors to challenging behavior (i.e., responses that reliably occur close in time before the challenging behavior). Each trial is terminated as …

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  • Brief FA
    A variation of the functional analysis conducted over a shorter period of time by decreasing the duration of each analyzed condition.
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    A variation of the functional analysis conducted in natural settings to explore the relevant stimuli present in natural settings that can impact challenging behavior.
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    A variation of the functional analysis that uses a trial-based format to evaluate the occurrence and nonoccurrence of challenging behaviors given the presentation of an opportunity (trial) to emit the …

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  • Synthesized FA
    A variation of the functional analysis that uses an Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) to hypothesize the contingencies that may maintain challenging behavior and then testing those hypothesized contingencies.
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