04 Behavioral Assessment / 04.08 Analyze Functional Analysis Data

Question 1

Which function do the data support?
automatic reinforcement or undeterminable
automatic reinforcement, attention, demand
demand, automatic reinforcement, attention, play
attention and demand

Answer 1

automatic reinforcement or undeterminable

Note that the rate of self-injury is similar across all conditions. This suggests either an automatic reinforcement function or the function cannot be determined. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 258-261; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 2

Which function do the data support?
attention and demand
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement
attention

Answer 2

attention

The rate of self-injury is consistently highest in the attention condition. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 258-261; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 3

Which function(s) do the data support?
food
attention
toy
attention and access to toy

Answer 3

attention and access to toy

Note that the rate of self-injury is consistently highest in the attention and toy conditions. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 4

Which function do the data support?
automatic reinforcement and attention
attention
(undeterminable)
escape

Answer 4

escape

The rate of self-injury is consistently highest in the demand condition. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 258-261; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 5

Which function(s) do the data support?
attention and escape
escape and automatic reinforcement
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement

Answer 5

attention and escape

Question 6

Which function(s) can you be most confident that the data support (given that a person delivers the food and toy)?
attention, toy, and food
attention
attention and access to toy
food and toy

Answer 6

attention

There is a confound if a person is providing the food and toy, and if you have a high rate in the attention, food, and toy conditions. That is, you don’t know whether the high rate in the food and toy conditions is a function of receiving those items or receiving attention. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 7

Which function(s) do the data support?
tangible
attention
automatic reinforcement
demand

Answer 7

automatic reinforcement

Question 8

In addition to a possible attention function, which functions do the data support?
escape and automatic reinforcement
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement only
(none of the others)

Answer 8

escape and automatic

Note that the rate of self-injury is consistently highest in the demand and alone conditions. The moderate rate in the attention condition may indicate an attention function, as well. An alternative explanation for the attention function is that it is high relative to the play condition because competing (play) behavior is occasioned in the play condition. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 9

Which function(s) do the data support?
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement and attention
escape
attention

Answer 9

escape

Question 10

Which function(s) do the data support?
automatic reinforcement or undeterminable
attention
demand
attention and demand

Answer 10

automatic reinforcement or undeterminable

Question 11

The relatively low rate in the demand condition, supports an automatic reinforcement function. Why?

Automatic reinforcement is equally available in all conditions.
The only alternative hypothesis is that there is no function, which is unacceptable.

Behavior requested in the demand condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.

Behavior requested in the alone condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.

Answer 11

Behavior requested in the demand condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.

In the demand condition-the lowest data series-the individual is prompted to engage in behavior that is often incompatible with the behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. For example, you can’t usually hand mouth and work on an academic assignment at the same time. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 12

Which function(s) do the data support?
 escape and automatic reinforcement exclusively
 attention
 automatic reinforcement only
 escape, automatic reinforcement, and attention

Answer 12

escape, automatic reinforcement, and attention

Note that the rate of self-injury is consistently highest in the demand and alone conditions. However, the moderate rate in the attention condition may indicate an attention function, as well. An alternative explanation for the attention function is that the play condition is lower than demand and attention because play behavior competes with the behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 13

Which function do the data support?
(undeterminable)
tangible
attention
demand

Answer 13

(undeterminable)

Question 14

Which function(s) do the data support?
(undeterminable)
tangible
demand
attention

Answer 14

(undeterminable)

Note that the rate of self-injury is undifferentiated among conditions, which indicates an automatic reinforcement function or that a function could not be determined. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 15

Aside from the data being largely undifferentiated, why is an automatic reinforcement function the best hypothesis?
Behavior in the alone condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement.

Automatic reinforcement is equally available in all conditions.

The only alternative hypothesis is that there is no function, which is unacceptable.

Behavior prompted in demand condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, resulting in a reduced rate.

Answer 15

Behavior prompted in demand condition competes with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, resulting in a reduced rate.

The behavior that is prompted in the demand condition is probably incompatible with the behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, thus rendering the target behavior less available.

Question 16

Which function(s) do the data support?
attention and escape
automatic reinforcement
attention
(undeterminable)

Answer 16

attention

Question 17

Which function do the data support?
escape and automatic reinforcement
automatic reinforcement or undeterminable
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement

Answer 17

escape and automatic reinforcement

Question 18

Which function(s) do the data support?
food
attention
toy
attention and access to toy

Answer 18

attention and access to toy

Question 19

Which functions do the data support?
automatic reinforcement and demand
(undeterminable)
automatic reinforcement and attention
attention, demand, automatic reinforcement

Answer 19

automatic reinforcement and attention

Evidence is provided for an attention function by the high rate of self-injury in the attention condition relative to the demand and play conditions. Evidence for an automatic reinforcement function is provided by the high rate in the alone condition. The low to moderate rate in the demand and play conditions lends support to the automatic reinforcement function because automatic reinforcement is available in all conditions, to some extent. The fact that the rate in the demand condition is the same as the play condition suggests that there is not a demand function. (Alberto & Troutman, 2003, pp. 261-262; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007, pp. 505-506; Iwata et al, 2000, pp. 68-69)

Question 20

Which function do the data support?
attention
tangible
escape
automatic reinforcement

Answer 20

automatic reinforcement

Question 21

To make sure the following graph is not due to an inability to distinguish between conditions, you could

redo the assessment using a multiple-baseline design.

decrease the time between sessions.

conduct an extended alone condition.

increase the time between sessions.

Answer 21

conduct an extended alone condition.

Conduct an extended alone condition (a series of alone sessions without any other intervening condition sessions). If the behavior remains high, you can be more reasonably assured that it is maintained by automatic reinforcement. If it decreases during the extended alone period, it suggests an extinction process, in which it seems likely that the behavior was maintained by social variables and that a discrimination was not made between conditions. (Vollmer et al, 1994)