Measuring behaviour Flashcards
What are the two ways/categories of recording behaviour rates?
Informal and formal
what does informal recording involve?
asking the subject to report on their behaviour
what is the problem with informal recording and how can it be partially overcome?
Not esp. reliable; estimates are likely to be biased (esp. if behaviour is undesirable.
Could ask someone else close to them but this is still reliant on memory and open to bias.
What are the 2 formal ways to record behaviour?
continuous and interval
what does continuous recording involve?
Recording each and every occurrence of a target behaviour within a given period.
May have a given period over multiple times.
how do you record continuous recording?
usually with a tally sheet/mechanical counter
why don’t you follow the individual all day in continuous recording?
Resources.
Person may not behave naturally.
Often only interested in behaviour within a particular context
what does interval recording involve and when is it used?
Recording whether a behaviour occurs during each of a short interval within an observation period.
30s-1min recording.
Record if it happens in the period, not every time it occurs.
Often used when a behaviour occurs too frequently to count it in a given period.
what is inter-rater reliability?
a measure of the degree of agreement in data tallies made by 2 or more researchers.
what reliability score would most BCBAs be happy with and what would be unreliable?
Happy with .90, <.80 would be unreliable.
how can we increase the chances of high inter-rater reliability?
well-defined behaviour
how do you calculate IR reliability for continuous data?
Count the number of times the behaviour is observed by each observer
(observer1 / observer2) x 100
Always divide the smaller number by the larger one.
how is IR reliability calculated for interval data?
Count the number of intervals the observers agree the behaviour happens.
(number of intervals agreed / total number of intervals) x 100
how do we graph behaviour rates?
simple and cumulative frequency graphs
what are simple frequency graphs?
each data point indicates the number of times a behaviour occurred over a period of time
what is a cumulative frequency graph?
each data point indicates the total number of times the behaviour has occurred up to that point in time.
define SCED
single case experimental design = research design in which the behaviour of an individual is compared under experimental and control conditions.
what type of significance are we interested in in BA?
practical (as opposed to statistical)
what is the baseline?
A period during which the behaviour under study is recorded by no attempt is made to modify it.
Usually want about 3 stable points.
what is an A-B design?
A = baseline; B = intervention.
why are A-B designs criticised?
There may be other things accounting for the behaviour (confounders)
what is an ABAB reversal design?
Baseline and intervention conditions repeated within the same person.
what is the advantage of ABAB over A-B?
Overcomes the issue of not accounting for confounders.
when would ABAB not be appropriate?
for serious behaviour problems - would not want to return to baseline/dysfunctional behaviour
what design did Krentz et al. (2016) use to show the effectiveness of token reinforcements in increasing distance walked in adults with mild-moderate learning difficulties?
ABAB reversal design
what is a multiple baseline design?
Effects of an intervention are recorded across situations, behaviours, or individuals.
Replicate the effect without returning to baseline.
Staggered introduction of the intervention across different points in time.
Compare whether there was a significant impact of the intervention across the baseline and intervention periods.
how did Groden & Cautela (1988) use a multiple baseline design?
Assessed whether covert reinforcement could improve verbal initiation in 3 adolescents presenting mild autism.
Asked them what it would be like initiating contact with another learner.
Movement from baseline seen in two Ps but one had unstable baseline which limits conclusions.
what is an alternating treatment design?
two or more interventions alternate systematically within the same individual
what must the treatments be in alternating treatment designs and what tools facilitate this?
Treatments must be balanced (systematically varied) across periods or conditions.
Randomisation tools help with this.
What are possible issues with alternating treatment designs?
Washout effect: some effects of first intervention might leak into the second.
What is a washout effect and which designs are most susceptible?
Effects of one intervention leaks into the next intervention or into the baseline period that comes after.
Idea is that the impact of the intervention will gradually decrease across time (wash out).
Problem in ABAB and alternating treatment designs.
what do observational SCED studies involve?
No intervention phase.
Used to determine if correlation happens.
what is a changing criterion design?
Baseline period followed by an intervention phase in which a criterion is set for performance.
Once someone reaches the criterion, the criterion changes/improves (i.e., altered to require high levels of performance to retain the reinforcer).
Helps to reach a place gradually.
where do we see SCED with modern technology and what’s good about the modern technology? Examples?
SCED studies published where more sophisticated ways of collecting data have happened that don’t rely on you watching something.
More objective and occur in real time.
E.g., steps, sleep, HR, distance covered, time spent on social media, minutes of lectures attended.
what is ecological momentary assessment?
Repeated sampling of subjects’ current behaviours and experiences in real time in the subjects’ natural environment.
Takes measurements of behaviour on multiple occasions in an attempt to try to model the causes of changes in an individual.
what are multiple measurements preferable over?
memory-reliant retrospective self-report measures
what are two other names of ecological momentary assessment?
Experience sampling method.
Intensive longitudinal method.
what are two decisions to make for designing SCEDs?
What do you want to measure and active/passive experiments.
what are the three things you can measure?
Experience, behaviour, physiology.
what are active experiments?
Participant must do something to collect the data
what are passive experiments?
participant doesn’t need to do anything for data to be collected
what is an example of active collection for experience, behaviour, and physiology, respectively?
Experience: experiences self-reported by participants – experience sampling, daily diaries, event sampling.
Behaviour: self-reported by participants – experience sampling, daily diaries, event sampling.
Physiology: measured by participants – neuroendocrine sampling, physiological sampling
what are examples of passive experiments/collection for experience, behaviour, and physiology?
Experience: inferred through observation – acoustic sampling.
Behaviour: behaviours measured with no intervention or reporting necessary – activity sampling, acoustic sampling, passive telemetrics, context sampling.
Physiology: physiology measured with no intervention by participant – neuroendocrine sampling, physiological sampling.
