RBT & ABA Terms and Definitions, Explained Simply

Q: What are the core data-collection terms?

Frequency (event) recording: counting how many times a behavior happens in a set period. Duration recording: timing how long a behavior lasts each time it occurs. Interval recording: checking whether a behavior happens during fixed time intervals rather than counting every instance. Together these make up most of what falls under data collection and graphing, which accounts for 17% of the scored RBT exam.

Q: What are the core assessment terms?

Preference assessment: a structured way of identifying what a person finds reinforcing, covered in depth on the preference assessments page. Functional behavior assessment (FBA): the process of identifying why a behavior happens, meaning what function it serves, detailed on the FBA page. ABC data: antecedent-behavior-consequence recording, the raw material an FBA is often built from, covered on the ABC data page. Assessment makes up 11% of the scored exam, the smallest of the six domains.

Q: What are the core behavior-reduction terms?

Extinction: withholding the reinforcement that used to follow a problem behavior, so the behavior stops working. Extinction burst: a temporary increase in the behavior right after extinction starts, before it decreases. Differential reinforcement: reinforcing a more appropriate behavior instead of, or alongside, reducing the problem behavior. Behavior intervention plan (BIP): the written plan an RBT implements, built by a supervisor, describing exactly how to respond to a specific behavior. Deeper explainers exist for extinction, differential reinforcement, and the behavior intervention plan itself. Behavior Reduction is 19% of the scored exam.

Q: What are the core documentation and ethics terms?

Session note: the written record of what happened during a session, covered with real formatting examples on the session note examples page. Treatment integrity: how closely a plan is followed exactly as written, explained on its own page. RBT Ethics Code (2.0): the 29-standard conduct document covered on the code of ethics page. Documentation and Reporting is 13% of the scored exam; Ethics is 15%.

RBT and ABA terms and definitions cluster around six areas: data collection, assessment, teaching procedures, behavior-reduction procedures, documentation, and ethics, matching the RBT Task List’s own domain structure. This page defines the terms candidates hit most often in training and on the exam, in plain language, with links to a deeper explainer for the handful of concepts that need more than one paragraph.

Training providers throw a lot of vocabulary at new candidates in a short window, and a term learned once in a 40-hour course doesn’t always stick. This glossary is meant as a fast lookup, not a replacement for the training itself, so definitions here are short by design.

(RBT HQ is not affiliated with the BACB. Definitions below reflect general, field-standard applied behavior analysis terminology; none reproduce BACB exam questions.)

What are the core data-collection terms?

Frequency (event) recording: counting how many times a behavior happens in a set period. Duration recording: timing how long a behavior lasts each time it occurs. Interval recording: checking whether a behavior happens during fixed time intervals rather than counting every instance. Together these make up most of what falls under data collection and graphing, which accounts for 17% of the scored RBT exam.

What are the core assessment terms?

Preference assessment: a structured way of identifying what a person finds reinforcing, covered in depth on the preference assessments page. Functional behavior assessment (FBA): the process of identifying why a behavior happens, meaning what function it serves, detailed on the FBA page. ABC data: antecedent-behavior-consequence recording, the raw material an FBA is often built from, covered on the ABC data page. Assessment makes up 11% of the scored exam, the smallest of the six domains.

What are the core teaching-procedure terms?

Term	Plain definition
Discrete trial training (DTT)	Structured, repeated teaching trials with a clear start and end, each followed by feedback
Natural environment teaching (NET)	Teaching embedded in normal activities and routines rather than structured trials
Prompting	Extra help added to increase the chance of a correct response
Fading	Gradually removing a prompt as independence increases
Chaining	Teaching a multi-step sequence by linking individual steps together
Shaping	Reinforcing successive approximations toward a target behavior
Generalization	A learned skill showing up in new settings, with new people, or with new materials
Token economy	A system where tokens are earned for target behavior and later exchanged for a reinforcer

Full comparisons live on the DTT vs. NET, prompting hierarchy, chaining and shaping, and token economy pages. Teaching procedures fall under Behavior Acquisition, 25% of the scored exam, the single largest domain.

What are the core behavior-reduction terms?

Extinction: withholding the reinforcement that used to follow a problem behavior, so the behavior stops working. Extinction burst: a temporary increase in the behavior right after extinction starts, before it decreases. Differential reinforcement: reinforcing a more appropriate behavior instead of, or alongside, reducing the problem behavior. Behavior intervention plan (BIP): the written plan an RBT implements, built by a supervisor, describing exactly how to respond to a specific behavior. Deeper explainers exist for extinction, differential reinforcement, and the behavior intervention plan itself. Behavior Reduction is 19% of the scored exam.

What are the core documentation and ethics terms?

Session note: the written record of what happened during a session, covered with real formatting examples on the session note examples page. Treatment integrity: how closely a plan is followed exactly as written, explained on its own page. RBT Ethics Code (2.0): the 29-standard conduct document covered on the code of ethics page. Documentation and Reporting is 13% of the scored exam; Ethics is 15%.

Why do some terms sound almost identical but mean different things?

Because ABA vocabulary is precise on purpose, and small wording differences carry real meaning. Reinforcement and reward aren’t interchangeable in the field’s usage: reinforcement is defined by its effect (the behavior increases), not by whether it feels rewarding to an outside observer. Extinction and punishment are also frequently confused, but extinction removes reinforcement that was maintaining a behavior, while punishment adds or removes something to decrease a behavior going forward. Mixing these up is one of the more common exam-prep mistakes, since the words sound close but describe different mechanisms.

Run the free RBT HQ practice exam once you’ve reviewed this glossary, since recognizing a term in isolation is different from applying it correctly inside a scenario question. The free RBT HQ Exam Prep Cheat Sheet lists these same terms grouped by domain, useful as a quick-reference sheet while you work through the deeper concept pages linked above.

FAQ

What’s the difference between ABA and RBT? ABA is the scientific field and treatment approach; RBT is a specific paraprofessional credential within that field. See the full ABA vs. RBT breakdown for how the terms relate.

Do I need to memorize every term for the RBT exam? You need working familiarity with the terms tied to your training domains, not textbook-perfect recall of every ABA term that exists in the wider field. The RBT Task List defines the actual scope.

Is “reward” the same thing as “reinforcement”? Not precisely. Reinforcement is defined by whether the behavior increases afterward; something intended as a reward that doesn’t increase the behavior technically isn’t functioning as reinforcement in that instance.

What’s the easiest way to keep these terms straight while studying? Group them by domain, the way this page does, rather than memorizing an alphabetical list. Seeing which terms cluster under teaching procedures versus behavior reduction mirrors how the exam itself is organized.

Where can I see the full official term list? The BACB publishes the RBT Task List and Test Content Outline directly on bacb.com; this glossary summarizes commonly used field terminology in plain language rather than reproducing that document.

Bottom line: ABA vocabulary sounds dense until it’s grouped by what each term actually does, teaching, reducing, measuring, or documenting. Learn the six domain groupings first and the individual terms fall into place faster.