ABA Rocks Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) Practice Exam

DRL stands for Differential Reinforcement of Low Rates. It’s used to reduce how often a behavior occurs by reinforcing the behavior only when it happens at a lower rate than a defined threshold. In practice, you set a criterion—such as requiring a longer pause between occurrences or a lower overall rate within a time period. When the behavior slows to meet that criterion, reinforcement is delivered; if the rate stays high, reinforcement is not given and the interval or criterion is reset. Over time, this encourages slower, less frequent responding rather than complete elimination. This matches the idea that reinforcement is provided when the behavior occurs at a lower rate than before. The other descriptions describe different concepts (for example, reinforcement tied to a fixed response pattern, or to a delay that isn’t tied to a lower rate, or to a schedule that ignores rate altogether), so they don’t capture what DRL is about.