Question

Aslam, a 12-year-old, gets too tired by evening to complete his homework. This is because he goes off for football training soon after school. The school counsellor advised Aslam to reduce his football training time and increase his weekend practice time. This way, Aslam will not be too tired and will be able to complete his homework. Identify the antecedent operation:

• A. Not completing his homework
• B. Playing football after school
• C. Reduce his football training time on weekdays
• D. Completing his homework happily

Hint:

In ABA questions, an "antecedent operation" is the specific \textit{change} you make to the environment \textit{before} the behavior happens to make the desired behavior more likely. It's a proactive strategy.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question uses terminology from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). We need to understand the ABC model of behavior:

A - Antecedent: The event, action, or circumstance that occurs immediately before a behavior. It's the "trigger."
B - Behavior: The behavior itself.
C - Consequence: The action or response that follows the behavior.
An antecedent operation or intervention is a strategy that involves modifying the environment or context (the antecedent) to change a behavior.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Let's analyze the scenario in ABC terms. The problem behavior (B) is "not completing his homework." The target behavior we want to see is "completing his homework."

The original antecedent that leads to him being too tired is "Playing football after school" (Option B).
The problem consequence is "Not completing his homework" (Option A).
The desired outcome is "Completing his homework happily" (Option D).
The counsellor's advice is to modify the antecedent. Instead of having the antecedent be "long football practice," the counsellor introduces an intervention to change it. This intervention, this antecedent operation, is to "Reduce his football training time on weekdays" (Option C). By changing this trigger event, the counsellor aims to change the subsequent behavior (being able to do homework).
Step 3: Final Answer:
The antecedent operation (the intervention to change the antecedent conditions) is to Reduce his football training time on weekdays.