Lecture 2 - Measuring Behaviour

Question 1

What are the 3 steps in behavioural assessment?

Answer 1

1. Define the target behaviour
2. Identify functional relations between the target behaviour & it’s antecedents & consequences
3. Pinpoint an effective intervention for changing the rate of the target behaviour

Question 2

What is an antecedent?

Answer 2

An event or stimulus that precedes some other event or stimulus and often elicits, signals, or sets the occasion for a particular behavior or response

Question 3

What is continuous recording?

Answer 3

Recording each and every occurrence of a target behaviour within a given period

Question 4

What is interval recording?

Answer 4

Recording whether a behaviour occurs during each of a series of short intervals within the an observation period - signal IF it happens

Question 5

How can we measure reliability of rate data?

Answer 5

Inter observer reliability: A measure of the degree of agreement in data tallies made by two or more observers

Question 6

How to calculate inter rate observer rate of continuous data?

Answer 6

Divide observer number 1 by observer number 2 and multiply by 100

Question 7

How to calculate inter observer reliability using interval data?

Answer 7

Count number of intervals observers agreed behaviour happened and divide by total number of intervals and multiply by 100

Question 8

What score for inter rater reliability is seen as reliable?

Answer 8

Most BCBAs would be happy with a score of 0.90, anything below 0.80 would be unreliable

Question 9

What is a simple frequency graph?

Answer 9

A graph in which each data point indicates the number of times a behaviour occurred in a period of time

Question 10

What is a cumulative frequency graph?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What is a single case experimental design?

Answer 11

Research design in which the behaviour of an individual is compared under experimental & control conditions
There are observational SCED studies where no intervention phase happens

Question 12

What is the baseline period?

Answer 12

A period during which the behaviour under study is recorded but no attempt is made to modify it

Question 13

What is the ABAB reversal design?

Answer 13

A single case design in which baseline & intervention conditions are repeated with the same person

Question 14

What is a multiple baseline design?

Answer 14

A single case design in which the effects of an intervention are recorded across situations, behaviors, or individuals
Allows you to measure multiple individuals at once

Question 15

What is an alternating treatment design?

Answer 15

A single case design in which two or more interventions alternative systematically

Question 16

What is an A-B design?

Answer 16

a two-part or phase design composed of a baseline (“A” phase) with no changes and a treatment or intervention (“B”) phase

Question 17

Issue with AB design

Answer 17

Doesn’t account for other (confounding) variables e.g., Other variables which may contribute to change of the person’s behaviour

Question 18

Study example of A-B design (Dadarrio et al., 2007)

Answer 18

▪ Every time disruptive behaviour occurred teacher removed M&M’s from the bowl to see it’s effect on disruptive behaviour
▪ Disruptions decreased

Question 19

Study example of A-B-A-B Reversal design (Krentz et al., 2016)

Answer 19

Does token reinforcement could increase the distance walked with adults with intellectual disability?
▪ Ppts earnt tokens for walking laps
▪ Were able to cash in tokens for certain prizes
▪ At baseline they would of figured out what ppts would want with their tokens
▪ This was repeated twice
▪ Semi suggests that token reinforcement encourages increased walking

Question 20

Why does ABAB reversal design not always work?

Answer 20

It doesn’t work with serious behaviour e.g., If someone is engaging in violent behaviour you don’t want them to return to baseline

Question 21

Study example of multiple baseline design (Groden & Cauetela., 1988)

Answer 21

-Does covert reinforcement improve verbal initiations?
-Pupil with ASD who struggles with social interaction & verbal initiation
Asked ppt “what is might be like to initiate contact with another individual?”
-Multiple baseline analysis was used to assess the effects of individual training sessions on peer verbal initiations
Results demonstrate that verbal initiations can be changed in socially deficient adolescents labeled “autistic”.

Question 22

What is an alternating treatment design?

Answer 22

A single case design in which the experimental condition or treatment assigned to the participant changes from session or w/in sessions
Treatments must be balanced (systematically varied) across those periods or conditions

Question 23

Example of alternating treatment design? (Hua et al., 2020)

Answer 23

▪ Investigate effects of 2 reading intervention
▪ Does paraphrasing & vocab before reading a story impact reading
▪ Does paraphrasing before reading a story impact reading
Results showed vocab intervention to be most effective

Question 24

Can different designs be combined?

Answer 24

Different designs can be combined e.g., ABAB with multiple baseline design

Question 25

What is an issue with ABAB design?

Answer 25

Washout effect: A period in a clinical study during which subjects receive no treatment for the indication under study and the effects of a previous treatment are eliminated

Question 26

What is an ecological momentary assessment?

Answer 26

Study people’s thoughts and behaviour in their daily lives by repeatedly collecting data in an individual’s normal environment, at or close to the time they carry out that behaviour
This is a diary method - structured diary techniques to appraise subjective experience in daily life
By taking multiple measurements you’re able to see the eb and flow over a time period

Question 27

What is experience data? (Active data)

Answer 27

Phenomenology such as mood, pain, fatigue, cognitions, perceptions and appraisal
Measured via sampling, daily diaries, event sampling

Question 28

What is behaviour data? (Active data)

Answer 28

Actions that are observable to others such as drinking, smoking, exercise, talking, eating, interactions & location
Measured via sampling, daily diaries, event sampling

Question 29

What is physiological data? (Active data)

Answer 29

Internal workings of the body & brain such as temperature, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, hormone levels
Measured via neuroendocrine or physiology sampling

Question 30

What is passive experience data?

Answer 30

Experience is inferred through observation e.g., unobtrusive auditory sampling w/ electronically activated recorder (EAR)

Question 31

What is passive behaviour data?

Answer 31

Behaviors are measured no intervention or reporting necessary
Measured via sampling, acoustic sampling, passive telemetric, context sampling

Question 32

What is passive physiological sampling?

Answer 32

Data collected with no direct involvement
Intervention by ppt e.g., passive sampling of BP, HR, glucose
Measured via neuroendocrine, physiological sampling

Question 33

Lecture conclusion

Answer 33

SCED is the main way that behavioural scientists conduct research