Measuring behaviour

Question 1

What are the two ways/categories of recording behaviour rates?

Answer 1

Informal and formal

Question 2

what does informal recording involve?

Answer 2

asking the subject to report on their behaviour

Question 3

what is the problem with informal recording and how can it be partially overcome?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

What are the 2 formal ways to record behaviour?

Answer 4

continuous and interval

Question 5

what does continuous recording involve?

Answer 5

Recording each and every occurrence of a target behaviour within a given period.
May have a given period over multiple times.

Question 6

how do you record continuous recording?

Answer 6

usually with a tally sheet/mechanical counter

Question 7

why don’t you follow the individual all day in continuous recording?

Answer 7

Resources.
Person may not behave naturally.
Often only interested in behaviour within a particular context

Question 8

what does interval recording involve and when is it used?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

what is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 9

a measure of the degree of agreement in data tallies made by 2 or more researchers.

Question 10

what reliability score would most BCBAs be happy with and what would be unreliable?

Answer 10

Happy with .90, <.80 would be unreliable.

Question 11

how can we increase the chances of high inter-rater reliability?

Answer 11

well-defined behaviour

Question 12

how do you calculate IR reliability for continuous data?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

how is IR reliability calculated for interval data?

Answer 13

Count the number of intervals the observers agree the behaviour happens.
(number of intervals agreed / total number of intervals) x 100

Question 14

how do we graph behaviour rates?

Answer 14

simple and cumulative frequency graphs

Question 15

what are simple frequency graphs?

Answer 15

each data point indicates the number of times a behaviour occurred over a period of time

Question 16

what is a cumulative frequency graph?

Answer 16

each data point indicates the total number of times the behaviour has occurred up to that point in time.

Question 17

define SCED

Answer 17

single case experimental design = research design in which the behaviour of an individual is compared under experimental and control conditions.

Question 18

what type of significance are we interested in in BA?

Answer 18

practical (as opposed to statistical)

Question 19

what is the baseline?

Answer 19

A period during which the behaviour under study is recorded by no attempt is made to modify it.
Usually want about 3 stable points.

Question 20

what is an A-B design?

Answer 20

A = baseline; B = intervention.

Question 21

why are A-B designs criticised?

Answer 21

There may be other things accounting for the behaviour (confounders)

Question 22

what is an ABAB reversal design?

Answer 22

Baseline and intervention conditions repeated within the same person.

Question 23

what is the advantage of ABAB over A-B?

Answer 23

Overcomes the issue of not accounting for confounders.

Question 24

when would ABAB not be appropriate?

Answer 24

for serious behaviour problems - would not want to return to baseline/dysfunctional behaviour

Question 25

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?

Answer 25

ABAB reversal design

Question 26

what is a multiple baseline design?

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

how did Groden & Cautela (1988) use a multiple baseline design?

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

what is an alternating treatment design?

Answer 28

two or more interventions alternate systematically within the same individual

Question 29

what must the treatments be in alternating treatment designs and what tools facilitate this?

Answer 29

Treatments must be balanced (systematically varied) across periods or conditions.
Randomisation tools help with this.

Question 30

What are possible issues with alternating treatment designs?

Answer 30

Washout effect: some effects of first intervention might leak into the second.

Question 31

What is a washout effect and which designs are most susceptible?

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

what do observational SCED studies involve?

Answer 32

No intervention phase.
Used to determine if correlation happens.

Question 33

what is a changing criterion design?

Answer 33

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.

Question 34

where do we see SCED with modern technology and what’s good about the modern technology? Examples?

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

what is ecological momentary assessment?

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

what are multiple measurements preferable over?

Answer 36

memory-reliant retrospective self-report measures

Question 37

what are two other names of ecological momentary assessment?

Answer 37

Experience sampling method.
Intensive longitudinal method.

Question 38

what are two decisions to make for designing SCEDs?

Answer 38

What do you want to measure and active/passive experiments.

Question 39

what are the three things you can measure?

Answer 39

Experience, behaviour, physiology.

Question 40

what are active experiments?

Answer 40

Participant must do something to collect the data

Question 41

what are passive experiments?

Answer 41

participant doesn’t need to do anything for data to be collected

Question 42

what is an example of active collection for experience, behaviour, and physiology, respectively?

Answer 42

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

Question 43

what are examples of passive experiments/collection for experience, behaviour, and physiology?

Answer 43

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.