Unit 7: Chapter 12 Single-Subject Experiments Flashcards
(21 cards)
ABA design
research design that includes a baseline period, a treatment period, and a subsequent withdrawal of treatment
AB design and two of its issues
also called a comparison design; single- participant research de- sign that consists of a baseline followed by a treatment (301)
1)it may be impossible to return to the baseline (like surgically removing something)
2) you may not want the patient to revert back to their baseline
ABAB design
also called a repeated treatments or replication design; an ABA design with treatment re- peated after the with- drawal phase
baseline
the measure of behavior before treatment that establishes a reference point for evaluating the effect of treatment 301
It measures the current level of the behavior, and it predicts what the behavior would be in the future if no treatment were administered.
multiple-baseline design
research design that introduces different ex- perimental manipulations to see if changes coincide with manipulation. Three types of manipulation: behaviors, subjects, and settings (305)
changing criterion design
Why is it convincing?
research design that introduces succes- sively more stringent criteria for reinforcement to see if behavior change coincides with the changing criteria (cool!-I could try this on myself!)
It means the reward is encouraging greater and greater hurdles
alternating treatments design
a type of single- participant design that allows the comparison of two different independent variables
What is power and what can you do to increase it?
a researcher has two ways of increasing the probability of finding a significant result in an experiment: increasing the size of the effect or increasing the size of the sample (google)
a researcher has two ways of increasing the probability of finding a significant result in an experiment: increasing the size of the effect or increasing the size of the sample 298
Name several prominent psychologists in history who used single subjects in psychological research. Briefly describe their areas of research.
-Gustav Fechner, who some historians say is the founder of experimental psychology
-Hermann Ebbinghaus did his experimental work on memory
-Wilhelm Wundt, who is credited with founding the first psychological laboratory
-BF Skinner
Compare the assumptions between the single-subject approach and the individual-differences, group-research approach to psychological research.
The single-participant tradition assumes that most variability in the participant’s behavior is imposed by the situation and therefore can be removed by careful attention to experimental control. The individual-differences, group-research tradition assumes that much of the variability is intrinsic and should be statistically controlled and analyzed. 296
What are the disadvantages of the single-subject approach? Proivde an example for each (A)
- It may be impossible to control the other sources of variability suffi- ciently to observe the experimental effect in one subject.
-some experimental effects are by definition between-subjects effects. (you can’t teach two methods to the same person)
What are the types and benifits of single research design?
-focuses on individual performance and does not screw up the data by comapring averages
(example on learning curve)
In a single-participant experiment, the effect of a minor variable is less likely to be discovered so the experimenter will not be distracted by it. In addition, the researcher can spend time reducing variability so that the effect of a given variable will be maximized, instead of spending time testing more participants.
When is the ABAB design superior to the ABA design?
One advantage of this design over the ABA design is that the participant will end up in the experimental condition (B), which is often a beneficial treatment.
What is the A and what is the B in an AB research design.
A=baseline
B=treatment
What is the baseline? Why is it necessary to maintain a stable baseline before treatment begins?
the measure of behavior before treatment that establishes a reference point for evaluating the effect of treatment
It measures the current level of the behavior, and it predicts what the behavior would be in the future if no treatment were administered.
What is a multiple-baseline design? Under what conditions is this design useful?
Multiple-baseline designs are especially useful if the expected behavior change is irreversible, because you don’t have to remove the treatment to demonstrate causality.
It is possible to do multiple baselines between more than just behaviours. What else can you measure your baseline against?
Subjects and settings
What is a changing-criterion design? Under what conditions is this design useful?
research design that introduces successively more stringent criteria for reinforcement to see if behavior change coincides with the changing criteria
It is good when reverting back to the baseline is impossible or undesirable
(you basically stablize each increment)
Describe briefly two areas of psychology in which the single-subject approach is commonly used.
psychophysics
experimental psychology?
What did early researchers assume about the validity of using only one research participant?
individual participants are essentially equivalent and that one should study additional participants only to make sure the original participant was not grossly abnormal.
List four advantages of Single subject design
-intensive study of the individual client and experimental evaluation of treatment for that particular client.
-requires only a small number of subjects. (best when particular kind of subject is not easy to find) –withholding a potentially beneficial treatment from some patients is not required in order to provide a control group.
-Can avoid some ethics issues
