Planning Projects and Measurement

Question 1

What are characteristics of a good research setting?

Answer 1

• Face validity-the place where you are researching needs to be able to be generalized to other similar places
• Flexibility-allow for changes in participant’s exposure to experimental design easily
• Stability
  
  • Administrative-key admin is on board
  • Staff-cooperation
  • Program-has been around for 6+ months
  • Financial-appropriate funds can be dedicated to research

Question 2

Characteristics of good research participants

Answer 2

• Representativeness
• Availability
• Stability (Health, cooperation, attendance)

Question 3

What are the important steps to cultivate a research setting?

Answer 3

• Gain community contacts
• Evaluate potential settings
• Brush up on public relation skills
• First meeting
• Mutually beneficial research
• Doing your own research

Question 4

What are the important resources needed to conduct research?

Answer 4

• Setting
• Equipment
  - Experimental
  - Recording
  - Personnel
  - Time

Question 5

Major Changes to 7th Ed APA format?

Answer 5

• Publisher location no longer included in the reference
• In-text citations for works with 3+ authors are shortened to et al.
• Surnames and initials for up to 20 authors in reference list (from 7)
• DOIs are formatted the same as URLs
• URLs no longer preceded by “retrieved from”
• Ebooks: the format, platform, or device is no longer included. The publisher is included

Question 6

Direct dependent variables

Answer 6

the actual problem behavior under study. Also the variable being measured

Question 7

Indirect dependent variables

Answer 7

DV that is either a component of or an alternative to the PB under study

Question 8

Process dependent variables

Answer 8

DV that shows Bx as it occurs

Question 9

Product DV

Answer 9

DV that shows a visible outcome of Bx (permanent product_

Question 10

Acquisition DV

Answer 10

DV is a Bx that is not in repertoire

Question 11

Maintenance

Answer 11

DV is a change in level of Bx in repertoire

Question 12

What are the characteristics of a good measurement system?

Answer 12

• Objective-based on observable, quantifiable, clearly defined bx
• Reliable-Consistent across time and users
• Accurate-provides true representation of Bx and events
• Sensitive-Captures changes in bx

Question 13

Define and describe the characteristics of a good definition and be able to apply the characterisitcs

Answer 13

• Objective refers to observable events
• Clear-unambiguous
• Complete-sets boundaries of instances/noninstances

Question 14

What are the possible dimensions of Bx? Describe and apply

Answer 14

• Topography
• Frequency/rate
• Strength/intensity-force of Bx
• Duration/speed-amount of time consumed by Bx
• Latency-time elapsed to onset of behavior from some starting point
• Interresponse time (IRT)-amount of time between episodes of Bx
• Errors-correctness of Bx

Question 15

What are the most common measurement procedures?

Answer 15

Frequency, duration, rate, IRT, time sampling, real-time frequency and duration measured simultaneously

Question 16

What is the importance of observation length?

Answer 16

Research has shown that a significant amount of observation time is needed per observation to collect a representative amount of data

Question 17

What is the importance of observation length?

Answer 17

Research has shown it is important to score every trial

Question 18

Purpose of “On the representativeness of behavioral observation… samples…” by Tiger, et al

Answer 18

Evaluate further duration of observations necessary to capture an adequate and representative sample of problem behavior in natural classroom settings

Question 19

Procedures of “On the representativeness of behavioral observation… samples…” by Tiger, et al

Answer 19

Researchers observed clients and collected data on PB. Then, they calculated the mean absolute deviation from each day’s observation, daily range, and the number of daily sessions that fell within 5% and 10% of the true daily mean.

Question 20

Results of “On the representativeness of behavioral observation… samples…” by Tiger, et al

Answer 20

On days with low variability, 10 minute sessions provided an accurate estimate. On high variability days, observations did not provide an accurate estimate of Bx. 60 minute sessions improved accuracy, but less than 1/2 of sessions were representative

Question 21

Implications of “On the representativeness of behavioral observation… samples…” by Tiger, et al

Answer 21

Variability affects the accuracy of data and requires extended baselines to obtain stability. It also hinders the ability to make accurate data-based decisions on visual analysis

Question 22

Purpose of “Effects of Data Sampling…” by Carey and Bourret

Answer 22

Conduct a parametric analysis of both trial and session sampling to determine if there is a systematic deviation away from continuous recording in terms of mastery, days to mastery, sessions to first correct independent responding, and days to first correct independent response

Question 23

Procedures of “Effects of Data Sampling…” by Carey and Bourret

Answer 23

24 data sets were analyzed to determine how much time was saved by using various trial and session-sampling methods

Question 24

Results of “Effects of Data Sampling…” by Carey and Bourret

Answer 24

session-sampling methods overestimated both sessions and days to mastery. Trial-sampling methods underestimated both sessions and days to mastery.

Question 25

Implications of "Effects of Data Sampling..." by Carey and Bourret

Answer 25

Almost no time saved. Session sampling is preferred to trial sampling because it is better to overestimate needed trials than to underestimate them and skills not learned

Question 26

Purpose of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 1

Answer 26

Examine Catalyst database and identify the most commonly used intervals for PIR and MTS in ABA service settings

Question 27

Procedures of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 1

Answer 27

Included participants with either a MTS or PIR measure for PB and sorted total number of clients for each value to calculate the % of clients who used each time interval recording

Question 28

Results of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 1

Answer 28

Most common interval used was the default 5-min interval for PIR. For MTS, the most common was also the default which was 2-min

Question 29

Implications of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 1

Answer 29

Users selected the default value potentially because of response cost instead of empirically selecting based on research. When Catalyst changed the default, users used the new default selected.

Question 30

Purpose of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 2

Answer 30

Examine correlations of discontinuous measurement with longer data intervals with continuous measurement using electronic data from actual sessions to determine the level of estimation error evident from commonly used intervals

Question 31

Procedures of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 2

Answer 31

Researchers searched the database for sessions that had a time-stamped beginning and end. Additional criteria included that the data had to be a common typography of problem bx, at least one hour in duration, and had to contain PB

Question 32

Results of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 2

Answer 32

Intervals greater than 2 minutes show poor correspondence

Question 33

Implications of "Procedures and accuracy of discontinuous measurement ..." by Leblanc et al Study 2

Answer 33

the smaller the interval, the higher the correspondence