Lecture 2 - Measuring Behaviour Flashcards
What are the 3 steps in behavioural assessment?
- Define the target behaviour
- Identify functional relations between the target behaviour & it’s antecedents & consequences
- Pinpoint an effective intervention for changing the rate of the target behaviour
What is an antecedent?
An event or stimulus that precedes some other event or stimulus and often elicits, signals, or sets the occasion for a particular behavior or response
What is continuous recording?
Recording each and every occurrence of a target behaviour within a given period
What is interval recording?
Recording whether a behaviour occurs during each of a series of short intervals within the an observation period - signal IF it happens
How can we measure reliability of rate data?
Inter observer reliability: A measure of the degree of agreement in data tallies made by two or more observers
How to calculate inter rate observer rate of continuous data?
Divide observer number 1 by observer number 2 and multiply by 100
How to calculate inter observer reliability using interval data?
Count number of intervals observers agreed behaviour happened and divide by total number of intervals and multiply by 100
What score for inter rater reliability is seen as reliable?
Most BCBAs would be happy with a score of 0.90, anything below 0.80 would be unreliable
What is a simple frequency graph?
A graph in which each data point indicates the number of times a behaviour occurred in a period of time
What is a cumulative frequency graph?
A graph in which each data point indicates the total number of times the behaviour has occurred up to that point in time
What is a single case experimental design?
Research design in which the behaviour of an individual is compared under experimental & control conditions
There are observational SCED studies where no intervention phase happens
What is the baseline period?
A period during which the behaviour under study is recorded but no attempt is made to modify it
What is the ABAB reversal design?
A single case design in which baseline & intervention conditions are repeated with the same person
What is a multiple baseline design?
A single case design in which the effects of an intervention are recorded across situations, behaviors, or individuals
Allows you to measure multiple individuals at once
What is an alternating treatment design?
A single case design in which two or more interventions alternative systematically
What is an A-B design?
a two-part or phase design composed of a baseline (“A” phase) with no changes and a treatment or intervention (“B”) phase
Issue with AB design
Doesn’t account for other (confounding) variables e.g., Other variables which may contribute to change of the person’s behaviour
Study example of A-B design (Dadarrio et al., 2007)
▪ Every time disruptive behaviour occurred teacher removed M&M’s from the bowl to see it’s effect on disruptive behaviour
▪ Disruptions decreased
Study example of A-B-A-B Reversal design (Krentz et al., 2016)
Does token reinforcement could increase the distance walked with adults with intellectual disability?
▪ Ppts earnt tokens for walking laps
▪ Were able to cash in tokens for certain prizes
▪ At baseline they would of figured out what ppts would want with their tokens
▪ This was repeated twice
▪ Semi suggests that token reinforcement encourages increased walking
Why does ABAB reversal design not always work?
It doesn’t work with serious behaviour e.g., If someone is engaging in violent behaviour you don’t want them to return to baseline
Study example of multiple baseline design (Groden & Cauetela., 1988)
-Does covert reinforcement improve verbal initiations?
-Pupil with ASD who struggles with social interaction & verbal initiation
Asked ppt “what is might be like to initiate contact with another individual?”
-Multiple baseline analysis was used to assess the effects of individual training sessions on peer verbal initiations
Results demonstrate that verbal initiations can be changed in socially deficient adolescents labeled “autistic”.
What is an alternating treatment design?
A single case design in which the experimental condition or treatment assigned to the participant changes from session or w/in sessions
Treatments must be balanced (systematically varied) across those periods or conditions
Example of alternating treatment design? (Hua et al., 2020)
▪ Investigate effects of 2 reading intervention
▪ Does paraphrasing & vocab before reading a story impact reading
▪ Does paraphrasing before reading a story impact reading
Results showed vocab intervention to be most effective
Can different designs be combined?
Different designs can be combined e.g., ABAB with multiple baseline design
What is an issue with ABAB design?
Washout effect: A period in a clinical study during which subjects receive no treatment for the indication under study and the effects of a previous treatment are eliminated
What is an ecological momentary assessment?
Study people’s thoughts and behaviour in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual’s normal environment, at or close to the time they carry out that behaviour
This is a diary method - structured diary techniques to appraise subjective experience in daily life
By taking multiple measurements you’re able to see the eb and flow over a time period
What is experience data? (Active data)
Phenomenology such as mood, pain, fatigue, cognitions, perceptions and appraisal
Measured via sampling, daily diaries, event sampling
What is behaviour data? (Active data)
Actions that are observable to others such as drinking, smoking, exercise, talking, eating, interactions & location
Measured via sampling, daily diaries, event sampling
What is physiological data? (Active data)
Internal workings of the body & brain such as temperature, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, hormone levels
Measured via neuroendocrine or physiology sampling
What is passive experience data?
Experience is inferred through observation e.g., unobtrusive auditory sampling w/ electronically activated recorder (EAR)
What is passive behaviour data?
Behaviors are measured no intervention or reporting necessary
Measured via sampling, acoustic sampling, passive telemetric, context sampling
What is passive physiological sampling?
Data collected with no direct involvement
Intervention by ppt e.g., passive sampling of BP, HR, glucose
Measured via neuroendocrine, physiological sampling
Lecture conclusion
SCED is the main way that behavioural scientists conduct research
