behavioral assessment final

target behavior

behavior selected for change

behavioral excess

behavior to be reduced

behavioral deficit

behavior to be increased

social validity

whether an intervention's goals, procedures and/or outcomes are socially important or meaningful

direct assessment

observing a behavior in real time

indirect assessment

reported secondhand by recalling previous observations (interviews, questionnaires, etc)

habilitation

the degree to which the person’s repertoire maximizes reinforcers for that individual AND minimizes punishers

relevance of behavior rule

is that target bx likely to produce SR / maintain in their environment

indistinguishability

the idea that the bx of a person with a disorder/disability can be changed enough that they can’t be identified as different from “normal” people

ableism

a social process of discrimination and bias toward people with disabilities

medical model of disability

disability as a PHYSICAL difference

social model of disability

disability as a result of obstacles society places on people

objective

refers only to observable characteristics

clear

understandable and unambiguous

complete

delineates the boundaries of what is and what is not the behavior

concise

no longer than is needed to convey all of the above (objective clear complete)

function based definition

defining a behavior by it’s outcome or effects on the environment

function or topography based:
coming to a complete stop while driving

FUNCTION — defined by how the car is affected not by the movements made by the driver

topography based definition

defining a behavior according to how it looks

function or topography based behavior:
sports performance — a swing with a bad form

TOPOGRAPHY
may result in the desired outcome sometimes, but you want to teach the proper form

issues with operational definitions

• avoid defining a term with itself

• dont attempt to quantify in a subjective way

• too many components

• not individualizing to each client

count

number of responses

rate

count per unit of time

duration

the amount of time the behavior occurs

latency

amount of time between the stimulus and the onset of the response

IRT

time between responses

magnitude

strength or force of response

free operant behavior

behavior can be emitted any time

restricted operant behavior

the behavior cannot occur until some antecedent event has occurred

• e.g., answering questions, intraverbals, response to name, following instructions

purpose of a preference assessment

to identify the most preferred stimuli from among a certain selection of stimuli

preference assessment v reinforcer assessment

• preference assessments typically produce ranked hierarchies (how items are relative to one another)

• preferred does not necessarily = reinforcer

- behavior measured in a PA is selection, approach or engagement

- whether a preferred item will be a reinforcer for other tasks: unclear until a reinforcer assessment is conducted

false positive

something was identified that doesn't really exist

false negative

a real finding was missed

true positive

something correctly identified

true negative

something was correctly not identified

what PA has a tendency for false positives?

SSPA

why is an FA important?

• provides an answer about why a bx is occurring

• permits the use of less restrictive and more effective interventions

- allows for replacement behaviors to access the functional reinforcer

- or providing safer access to the functional reinforcer

behavior modification

a term associated with pre functional analysis approaches to reducing problem behavior

3 levels of functional behavior assessment

• indirect assessment: no direct obs., interviews, questionnaires, etc

• descriptive assessment: direct obs, without manipulation

• functional analysis: observation with manipulation of variables hypothesized to be maintaining the behavior

what does the tangible condition of an FA test for?

social positive reinforcement

is there a standard FA?

no, the Iwata conditions are often referred as such but many other FAs exist and viewing an FA this way creates barriers to implementation as an FA should be individualized

process v procedure

process: a series of actions taken in order to achieve a particular end (defined by outcome/goal)

procedure: an established or official way of doing something (defined by prescribed steps/actions)

process

a series of actions taken in order to achieve a particular end (defined by outcome/goal)

procedure

an established or official way of doing something (defined by prescribed steps/actions)

steps of a complete assessment

• indirect assessment

• descriptive assessment

• FA

conditional probabilities

number of intervals with problem behavior that was followed by the consequence divided by the total number of intervals containing problem behavior

how to test/control conditions of an FA

• test: create suspected EO, deliver suspected SR

• control: remove suspected EO, withhold suspected SR

myths of an FA

• takes too much time

• too complex

• too risky/unsafe

• difficult to sell to stakeholders

FA procedures to decrease risk of injury/intensity

- FR1 schedules for problem behavior (if bx doesn't contact EXT, it does not need to escalate to more severe topographies)

- clear signals and contingencies in each condition

when is an FA needed?

when challenging behavior persists in spite of best practice interventions

is an FA a process or procedure?

process

reversal FA

• used to enhance discriminability between conditions

• gives the client time to learn and adapt to the contingencies associated with each condition

• replication of the implicated test condition is usually a best practice

pair wise design or single function FA

• similar to reversal but enhanve discriminability of conditions and could maximize efficiency by only testing certain conditions

• experimental control is somewhat enhanced by real-time alternation with a control condition

brief FA

• originally designed to fit assessment and a quick treatment probe into a 90 min outpatient visit

• 5 min sessions: as few as one per test condition (ideally replicated of the implicated test condition)

• limitations: no steady state of behavior achieved in any condition (you would need at least 3 data points to make a trend)

screening for automatic reinforcement

• rule in or out automatic reinforcement by running a series of alone or ignore sessions at the start of the FA process

- if behavior persists = automatic

- if behavior does not occur or extinguishes = social, requires further testing

latency FA

• well suited for behaviors that either

- are too dangerous

- cannot reliably reoccur

• session terminates after first instance of target bx

• data are collected / grapged on latency to the first instance

• graph is read upside down

• lack of response repetition makes discriminability of codnitions even more important to ensure

precursor FA

• well suited for dangerous behaviors you don't want to occur repeatedly during assessment

• precursor FAs are the same as any other FA except reinforcement is delivered for the precursor bx

• identifying behaviors that are truly a reliable precursor is the most challenging aspect of arranging a precursor FA

precursor

any bx that reliably precedes the target bx of interest can usually be conceptualized as a hierchical response class

trial based FA

• sessions are conducted in trials rather than sessions

• trial ends if bx occurs, or if maximum trial duration is reached

• trials are embedded in daily routine whenever it's feasible to conduct them

• test and control trials -- usually control followed by test

• studied and used often in classroom and home settings, due to naturalistic nature

• data are compared in % of trials with bar graphs

what type of FA has a bar graph?

trial based

FA decision making considerations

• consider hypotheses from indirect and descriptive assessments

- rule out conditions that don't seem likely

- rule in unique / idiosyncratic test conditions that might be relevant

• consider the usual suspects first

-   >90% of FA outcomes indicate maintenance by tangible, attention, escape, and automatic SR

FA accuracy

the identification of the "true" reinforcers maintaining the behavior

FA methodology

a particular approach or type of FA (e.g., multielement, pairwise, etc)

iatrogenic effects

a condition which is induced due to assessment or testing - broadly

- in FA means that the FA created a function that didn't exist before the FA was conducted

6 considerations when selecting FA methodology

1. empirical evidence

2. time

3. behavior severity

4. topography of bx

5. automatic reinforcement

6. low rate bx

EIBI

refers to a wide range of intervention approaches and sometimes manualized intervention packages which share some common features

common features of EIBI

• early: initiated when the child is young (under 3-5 years)

• intensive: 1:1 teaching, delivered for a long time (2 years), and for many hours/week

• behavioral: grounded in principles of behavior analysis

norm-referenced skill assessments

designed by administering to a large, representative sample of the population; all scores are interpreted with statistical reference to the norm

percentile scores

refers to the subject's placement relative to the rest of the overall pop.

grade equivalent scores

refers to the subjects placement relative to grade level of tested pop.

age equivalent

refers to the subjects placement relative to age of tested population

why are norm referenced assessments limited?

• they don't usually directly indivate instructional goals or targets but instead gives a broad assessment of performative relative to the norm, without info on specific skills that further explain those deviations from the norm

• often require licenses or specific training to be qualified to administer

criterion referenced assessments

measures a child's performance with respect to specific skills that represent common developmental "milestones"

• scored in terms of whether the skill for each given milestone/skill area is present/absent

curriculum-based assessments

measure performance relative to a specific set of instructional objectives / curriculum

VB-MAPP

• criterion referenced

• based on skinner's 1957 analysis of verbal behavior

visual-visual conditional discrimination

(conditional stimulus + comparison stimuli) > behavior > consequence

what type of contingency is a visual visual conditional discrimination?

4 term contingency

auditory-auditory conditional discrimination

conditional stimulus: 1 sound

comparison stimulus: 3 different sounds

auditory-visual conditional discrimination

listener identification / receptive id

conditional stimulus & 3 comparison stimulus

what is response to name

• early developmental milestone in the first year of typical development

• begins as looking at the person who calls one's name

• diagnostic for ASD

• an early goal in most early intervention curricula for children with ASD

why teach response to name?

• pivotal skill (behavioral cusp)

• might be one of the earliest forms of simple auditory discrimination

• potential missed learning opps due to non-response to name

• critical for safety

procedural fidelity

the extent to which procedures (intervention, baseline, etc) are implemented correctly / as planned

why is procedural fidelity an important piece of behavioral assessment?

1. to ensure your interventions are being implemented correctly and consistently; if they're not you have no way of knowing if the intervention is effective

2. to assess the impact of your training procedures on staff or caregiver behavior

treatment drift

when the implementation of an intervention or procedure changes over time (gradually getting further away from what was planned or intended)

errors of omission

when the implenter fails to do something thats a part of the procedure

errors of comission

when the implementer does something that is not a part of the procedure

sequential components

steps that need to happen in a set order regardless of what happens during session

conditional components

if/then contingencies regarding what the interventionist needs to do based on specific events or conditions

what is a false positive?

A stimulus was identified as a reinforcer but really wasn't

what is a false negative?

A true reinforcer was missed

True or False: Covert problem behavior rarely or never occurs when others are around.

True

According to the Graff & Karsten (2012) survey, a majority of clinicians reported conducting SPAs how often?

less than once a month

In a single operant reinforcer assessment, which type of effects does it tell you?

absolute

Concurrent operant reinforcer assessment

given a choice between 2 stimuli, how will you spend your time/effort?; relative effect

True or False: A functional assessment is a process used to determine why a behavior occurs

True

What is the antecedent in the alone condition in Iwata et al. (1982/1994)?

participant alone in a room with no toys or activities

What is the consequence for the Play condition in Iwata et al. (1982/1994)?

nothing

True or False: The alone condition in Iwata et al. was the control to test for base rate of behavior in the absence of other EO

false