ABA Chapter 24 Functional Behavior Assessment Flashcards
What is FBA used for?
ID the type and source of reinforcement for challenging behaviors as the basis for intervention efforts designed to decrease the occurrence of those behaviors.
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)
Enables hypotheses about the relations among specific types of environmental events and behaviors.
- specifically obtains information about the purposes (functions) a behavior serves a person.
- thought as reinforcer assessment of sorts
Social Positive Reinforcement
(Attention)
AKA Positive Reinforcement
- problem behavior results in immediate attention from others, such as head turns; surprised facial expression; reprimands; attempts to sooth, counsel or distract; and so on.
Positive Reinforcement : Name three types
Social Positive Reinforcement (Attention)
Tangible Reinforcement
Automatic Positive Reinforcement
Tangible Reinforcement
Behaviors result in access to reinforcing materials or other stimuli.
Automatic Positive Reinforcement
behavior that produce it’s own reinforcement.
Negative Reinforcement: Name two types
Social Negative Reinforcement (Escape)
Automatic Negative Reinforcement
Social Negative Reinforcement
(Escape)
Behavior that effectively terminates or postpones aversive stimulus (e.g unpleasant tasks, activities or interactions. )
e.g hanging up phone with telemarketer, doing a chore request from others to complete it.
Automatic Negative Reinforcement
physically painful or uncomfortable condition, is a MO that makes its termination reinforcing.
e.g hitting head to soothe a headache.
What kinds of information does a topography of a behavior reveal?
Very little useful information.
What does the function of behaviors reveal?
IDs the conditions that account for a behavior and what condition needs to be altered to change that behavior.
Role of functional behavior assessment in the intervention and prevention. Name three strategic approaches.
Altering antecedent variables
altering consequent variables
teaching alternative behavior
Altering the antecedents for problem behavior can change and/or eliminate either ____ or _______
a. the MO for problem behavior or
b. SD that trigger problem behavior
FBA can also identify a ____ _ ____ to be eliminated for the problem behavior.
- Source of reinforcement
Alternating Consequence Variables
FBA can also identify that source of reinforcement to be provided for _______ _______ _______.
Appropriate replacement behaviors.
Premature efforts to treat problem behavior before seeking an understanding of the purposes it serves for a person can be _____, ______, and _______
inefficient
ineffective
even harmful
Default technologies
intrusive, coercive or punishment based intervention.
FBA can decrease reliance of ____.
default technology
3 types of FBA methods. What are they?
Upside down Funnnel
- Functional (experimental) analysis
- Descriptive Assessment
- indirect assessment
Functional Analysis (Experimental) (AKA?)
AKA Analog
Antecedents and consequences representing those in the person’s natural environment are arranged so their separate effects on problem behavior can be observed.
Why is an FA sometimes called an analog?
B/C antecedents and consequences similar to those occurring in natural routines are presented in a systematic manner, but the analysis is not conduct in the context of naturally occurring routines.
Why are analog conditions used in an FA?
Because they allow the behavior analyst to better control the environmental variables that may be related to the problem
Research as found that FA conducted in natural environments often yield the same (in some cases, clearer) results compared to those conducted in simulated settings. T/F
True
FA are compromised for four test conditions, what are they?
Contingent attention, contingent escape, alone and control condition (play)
In an FA; what does elevated problem behavior in contingent attention condition suggest?
Maintained by social positive reinforcement
In an FA; what does elevated problem behavior in contingent escape condition suggest?
Maintained by negative reinforcement.
In an FA; what does elevated problem behavior in the alone condition suggest?
Behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement
If FA behavior is automatically is reinforced what should one do?
Further analysis is needed to determine if the source of the automatic reinforcement is maintained by multiple sources (positive vs negative reinforcement)
In a FA if problem behavior occur in all condition what is this considered?
Undifferentiated (inconclusive) or automatic
Advantages of an FA
- Yield a clear demonstration of the variable (s) that relate to the occurrence of behavior.
Limitation of an FA
- may temporarily strengthen or increase the undesirable behavior.
- behavior acquire new functions
- acceptability is low
- difficult to use for serious, low frequency behavior
- If conducted in a contrived setting, may not ID idiosyncratic variables related to problem behavior.
Descriptive Functional Behavior Assessment
encompasses direct observation of behavior; unlike functional analysis , observations are made in naturally occurring conditions.
What are three types of descriptive analysis?
ABC continuous recording, ABC narrative recording, and scatter plots.
ABC Continuous Recording
observer records occurrences of the targeted behavior and selected environmental events in the natural routine during a period of time.
- partial interval, momentary time sampling, or frequency recording is used.
Advantages to ABC Continuous Recording
- uses precise measures (similar to an FA)
- provides useful contextual information and correlations regarding environmental events and the problem behavior, which can provide useful information for later functional analyses.
- provide useful info for designing a subsequent FA is necessary
Disadvantaged to ABC Continuous Recording
- Often, antecedents and consequences do not reliably precede and follow problem behavior, making correlation difficult to detect. Hence why a conditional probabilities is used.
Conditional Probabilities
Likely hood that a target problem behavior will occur in a given circumstance.
Calculate:
- Proportion of occurrences of problem behavior preceded by a specific antecedent
- Proportion of the occurrence of problem behavior followed by a specific consequence.
ABC Narrative Recording (AKA?)
AKA Sequence Analysis
Data collected only when behavior of interest are observed.
- recording is open-ended
Advantages to ABC Narrative Recording
Less time- consuming than continuous recording
Disadvantages to ABC Narrative Recording
- Utility of identifying behavioral function NOT established.
- May yield false positives behavior data are collected only when the occur.
- Same antecedent and consequence event may be present when problem behavior is absent.
- Reliability may be low.
- Observers may report “inferred states”
- Difficult to discriminate which environmental events actually occasion the problem behavior.
Scatter Plot (AKA?)
- Pattern Analysis
Procedure for recording the extent to which a target behavior occurs more often at particular time that other.
How does one record on a scatter plot?
For each period, enter a symbol to indicate whether problem behavior occurred a lot, some or none.
How is a scatter plot set up?
Divide day into blocks of time (e.g a series of 30 min segments)
Advantages to Scatter Plot
- IDs time periods when the problem behavior occurs.
- Can be useful for pinpointing periods of the day when more focused ABA assessments can be conducted
Disadvantages to Scatter Plot
Utility of scatter plot is unknown
Obtaining accurate data maybe difficult
Subjective in nature .
Indirect Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)
Methods use structured interviews, checklist, rating scales, or questionnaires to obtain information from persons who are familiar with the person exhibiting the problem behavior (e.g teacher, parents, and/or individual him- or herself) to ID possible conditions or event in the natural environment that correlates to problem behavior.
When are behavioral interview used?
Routinely during assessment
Goal of a behavioral interview?
To obtain clear and objective information about the problem behaviors, antecedents, and consequences.
Advantages of Indirect FBA
- contributes to hypothesis development regarding the variable that may occasions or maintain problem behavior.
Disadvantages of Indirect FBA
- Informant may not be accurate
- Little research exists to support the reliability of information obtained.
- Best used for hypothesis development.
FBA 4 Step Process
- Gather information via indirect and descriptive assessment.
- Interpret information form indirect and descriptive assessment and formulate a hypotheses about the purpose of problem behavior.
- Test hypotheses using functional analysis
- Develop intervention options based on the function of problem behavior
Functionally Equivalent (AKA?)
Functionally Equivalent Behaviors
- Intervention must match the function of the behavior.
When developing intervention make sure it is ______.
functionally equivalent
Does each condition contain an MO and a potential source of reinforcement?
Yes
