Section 6: Measurement Flashcards
3 Dimensional Qualities
RTT- Rat-a-Tat-Tat
-
Repeatability
- Count
- Rate (Frequency)
- Celeration
- Temporal Extent - Duration
-
Temporal Locus
- Response Latency (Latency)
- Interresponse Time (IRT)
Repeatability (3 Types)
(Countability)
CRC
- when behavior can be COUNTED
- instances of a response class occur repeatedly through time
- 3 types
- Count
- Rate (Frequency)
- Celeration
Count
(one of the 3 types of repeatability)
- FORMULA: add up the behaviors or items
- by itself, count does not give enough information to make decisions regarding a client’s behavior itnervention program
- it is most useful when observation time is constant across observations
- ex. 12 jelly beans in a jar
- ex. 5 instances of punching the therapist
Rate/Frequency
(one of the 3 types of repeatability)
- FORMULA: add up the behaviors and divide by time
- Ex. Sam ate 30 pickles in two minutes = 15 pickles per minute
- most popular method in ABA
- Rate/frequency is reported as “per second/minute/day/week/month/year”
- the unit of time must be STANDARD within the study
- use rate when you are recording FREE OPERANTS- behaviors that have discrete beginning and ending points
Celeration
(one of the 3 types of repeatability)
- FORMULA: count per unit of time/time (frequency/time)
- measures of how rates of response change over time
- celeration can mean accelerate or decelerate
- a minimum of 7 measures of rate is recommended to calculate celeration
- Response rate is displayed on the vertical y axis
- Time in days (calendar) is displayed on the x axis
- Celeration Trend Line- a straight line drawn through the graphed data representing the direction and degree of the trend

Temporal Extent
- when the duration of behavior can be measured
- every instance of behavior occurs during some amount of time
- use duration when
- you wan to measure the amount of time a behavior occurs
- for behaviors that occur for too long a period of time or too short a period of time
- high rate behaviors
- ex. rocking, on task and off task behaviors, humming
- 2 Methods for Calcualting Duration:
- TOTAL DURATION PER SESSION- cumulative amount of time a person engages in the target behavior in the total session (add up all durations)
- DURATION PER OCCURENCE- duration of time that each instance of the behavior occurs
Temporal Locus
- measuring the time at which behavior occurs
- LOCUS = POINT IN TIME
- examines when an instance of behavior occurs with respect to other events
- 2 types
- Response Latency (Latency)
- Interresponse Time (IRT)
Response Latency
(Latency)
(one of two types of temporal locus)
- time between onset of a stimulus and initation of a response
- should be used to measure how much time occurs BETWEEN an opportunity to emit a behavior and when the behavior is initiated
Interresponse Time
(one of two types of temporal locus)
- amount of time that elapses between two consecutive instances of a response class
- IRT should be used when time between responses is important
- often reported by mean or median and range of IRTs per session
- functionally related to rate of response -
- long IRT = slow rate
- short IRT = fast rate
- ex. you can measure IRT between taking bites of food. short IRT for eating fast. long IRT for eating slow.
2 Derivative Measures
- Percentage
- Trials to Criterion
Percentage
(one of 2 derivative measures)
- RATIO formed by combining the same dimensional quantities such as count
- expresses the proportional quantitiy of some event in terms of the number of times the event occured per 100 opprotunites that the event could have occurred
- recommended minimum observation intervals or response opportunites = 30
- Advantages
- used when you want to document the percentage of correct responses
- Disadvantages
- does NOT have a dimensional value
- imposes lower and upper limits on the data
- you cannot use it to record proficiency or fluency
- you cannot claim improvement over 100% occured
- ex. a reader reading 100% of the words presented correctly cannot improve in terms of this measure and this number does not illustrate how many words were presented. it could have been 1 or 50 words
Trials to Criterion
(one of 2 derivative measures)
- a measure of the number of response opprotunites needed to acheive a predetermined level of performance criteria
- depends on the nature of the target behavior and the desired performance level
- can use: count, rate, duration, and latecy measures to determine trials to criterion data
- often used to compare the relative efficiency of two or mroe treatments
- useful for assessing a learner’s competence in acquiring a related class of concepts
- Ex. use for skills such as shoe tying, as each opporutinity can be considered a trial– 11 trials were required to master shoe tying
- Ex. use for discrete trial- it took 20 trials for the learner to learn red vs. not red
2 Definitional Measures
- Topography
- Magnitude
Topography
(one of 2 Definitional Measures)
- form or shape of the response
- malleable dimension of behavior - responses of varying form are SHAPED and selected by their consequences
- Topography DOES NOT EQUAL function
Magnitude
(one of 2 Definitional Measures)
(Force; Intensity; Severity)
- certain responses need to be emitted at specific levels of intensity
- Ex. volume of voice needs to be at a certain magnitude to be defined as yelling
Continuous Measurement Procedures
- event recording (count, rate/frequency, celeration) and timing (duration, latency, IRT)
- measurement conducted in a manner such that ALL instances of the reponse class of interest are detected during the observation period
- Advantages: useful for behaviors that:
- are free operant
- have a discrete beginning and end
- require minimal displacement of the organism in time/space
- can be emitted at any time
- do not require a lot of time for completion
- Disadvantages: not useful for behaviors that:
- occur at high rates
- are measured via discrete trials
- occur for extended periods of time
- are opportunity based
Discontinuous Measurement Procedures
- time sampling/interval recording methods
- measurement conducted in a manner such that some instances of the response lass of interest may NOT be detected
- Advantages: useful for behaviors that:
- occur at high rates
- occur for long durations of time
- are measured via discrete trials
- are measured via percentage
- Disadvantages: not useful for behaviors that:
- are free operant
- it is important to obtain every occurrence of that behavior
- require constant attending by observer
3 Procedures for Measuring Behavior
ETT = Evan Times Tantrums
- Event Recording (continuous)
- Timing (Continuous)
- Time Sampling (Discontinuous)
Event Recording
(one of the 3 Procedures for Measuring Behavior)
- methods to record the number of times a response occurs
- advantages:
- fairly accurate method
- simple to implement
- great to use with free operant behaviors- each response has a discrete beginning and end
- disadvantages:
- cannot use for responses that occur at very high rates (hand flapping), continuous behaviors (on task behavior, humming) and/or DTT data
Timing
(one of the 3 Procedures for Measuring Behavior)
- duration
- response latency
- interrresponse time
Time Sampling
(one of the 3 Procedures for Measuring Behavior)
(Interval Recording; Discontinuous Measurement Systems)
- methods for recording behavior during intervals or at specific moments in time
- gives us an approximation of the actual instances of behavior
- 4 Types: (for CONTINUOUS behavior or high rate bx)
- Whole Interval Recording- UNDERestimates
- Partial Interval Recording- OVERestimates
- Momentary Time Sampling- both or neither
- Planned Activity Check (PLACHECK)
- Advantages:
- good for continuous and or high rate behaviors
- Disadvantages:
- do not use for recroding important but fairly infrequent behaviors
- Ex. baby crawling out of crib at night once a week

Continuous Behaviors vs. Continuous Measurement Procedures
- continuous behaviors do NOT have a clear beginning and ending
- ex. shouting, humming, sucking thumb, rocking,
- for continuous behaviors, use a DIScontinuous measurement procedure
- continuous measurement procedures- event recording and timing methods
Whole Interval Recording
UNDERESTIMATES RATE OF BX
(one of 3 types of Time Sampling Procedures)
- record whether the target behavior occured throughout the entire interval
- data is reported as a percentage of the total of intervals in which the target behavior occured the whole time
- Advantages:
- best for measuring a behavior you want to increase (on task behavior) because it would underestimate the occurence of the behavior you want to increas
- Disadvantages:
- not good for when you want to decrease behavior
- you must observe the client for the entire interval
Partial Interval Recording
OVERESTIMATES RATE OF BX
(one of 3 types of Time Sampling Procedures)
- record whether the target behavior occured at any time during the interval
- used to represent the proprotion (in percent form) of the entire observation period that the behavior occured
- advantages
- easy to meausure multiple behaviors concurrently
- best for measuring a behavior you want to decrease because it would overestimate the rate of problem behavior
- disadvantages
- not good for increasing target bxs
- must observe the target behavior throughout the entire interval
