Threats to Internal Validity

The following are common threats to internal validity.  If you would like a recap over internal vs. external validity, visit this link. 

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Test Tuesday

Given the following example, what would be the most appropriate response.  You are a BCBA that is well-trained and experienced with toilet-training and feeding disorders.  Most of your clients are referred to you for these reasons.  However, a client's mother has just contacted you to help with her son that has severe self-injurious behavior.  She insists that they have tried all antecedent modifications and reinforcement procedures, and she insists that a punishment procedure be implemented.  What would be the FIRST thing you would do.

1.  Refer the client to another BCBA that specializes in self-injurious behavior. 

2.  Read books, do research, and speak to others in the field to educate yourself on self-injurious behaviors, but in the mean time start procedures based on your research and recommendations from others. 

3.  Put in a punishment procedure because a punishment procedure can be implemented once all alternatives have been tried. 

4.  Conduct your own FA's and determine the function of the problem behavior to determine which procedure would be most effective.

1. Refer the client to another BCBA that specializes in self-injurious behavior. 

In this situation, with little experience in other areas besides toilet-training and feeding, it is unethical to begin treatment.  However, you can refer the client to another BCBA for their SIB behavior, and in the mean time you can educate yourself on the client's SIB.  You can read research, consult with other BCBA's that specialize in the field, and you can educate yourself on the the SIB.  Once you are educated, you can begin working with the client, but in the mean time the client should be receiving services from another certified behavior analyst in the field.

Internal vs. External Validity

What is internal validity?

Extent to which the experiment shows the changes in the behavior are due to the independent variable and not the result of uncontrolled or confounding variables 

Examples of confounding variables:  

-Starting medication

-Change in home life (divorce, death, new baby, move, etc)

-Change in school/therapy life (new therapists, clinicians, new building, new school, etc.)

What is external validity?

The degree to which a study's findings have generality to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors

-Will this study prove effective if a different population of participants is used?

-Will this study be effective if used with a different type of behaviors?

If the study was done in a clinic, will it be effective if conducted in a school classroom setting?  What about in a home environment?

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Test Tuesday

Which of the following is not a component of informed consent?

1.  The ability to express his or her choices

2.  Voluntary Decision

3.  All potential risks and benefits of the planned procedure must be given

4.  Once the treatment has started, they are not able to refuse the treatment.

4.  Once the treatment has started, they are not able to refuse the treatment.

Due to the knowledge of treatment, the client has the right to refuse continued treatment at ANY time.  

Testing a Definition

So now that you have learned the characteristics of a good definition, how do you test to see if your definition is actually good?

Cooper, Heron, and Heward describe a few questions and answers to determine if you have a good definition.

1.  Can you count the number of occurrences?

-You should be able to answer "Yes"

2.  Will a stranger know what to look for based on the definition alone?

-You should be able to answer "Yes"

3.  Can you break the target behavior down to smaller,  more specific components?

-You should answer "No"

-The target behavior should already be broken down into the most specific components as possible

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Characteristics of Good Definitions

So, you here all the time that you need to write good, clear definitions when defining target behaviors.  For example, you would not just define a target behavior as "hitting" because what one person might score as hitting, another person might not. 

Therefore, it is VERY important that you learn how to write good definitions.

So, what are the characteristics of good definitions?

Objective

The definition should only refer to events that are observable.  

For example:  You cannot say that the client has to be "sad" or appear "angry" when hitting for it to be scored as hitting.  However, you can say that the client has a negative affect, it is paired with crying, etc.  All of the events have to be observable.

Objective=Observable

Clear

It has to be readable and unambiguous.

There should not be any questions.  For example, if you are writing a definition for eloping, you should put how many feet the client has to leave the area for it to be scored as eloping.  Otherwise, the therapist might have many questions about what is considered eloping

Clear=unambiguous

Complete

Precise and concise definitions

Complete=precise

Test Tuesday

Which of the following is not an ethical professional claim that a BCBA or BCaBA should make:

1.  I have had success working with children like your daughter.

2.  I have experience working with children like your daughter.

3.  I am certain that I am able to help your daughter.

4.  Give me 6 months and your daughter will be a new child.  

I tricked ya!  There are two answers.  You should never say both of the following:

3.  I am certain that I am able to help your daughter.

4.  Give me 6 months and your daughter will be a new child.  

You want to make sure that you do not make professional claims such as those above due to the BACB ethical guidelines.  Review the guidelines at the following link.

http://www.bacb.com/index.php?page=100165#guidelines

Comparison of Frequency, Interval, and Time-Sampling Methods of Data Collection

The following powerpoint was prepared based on the following article.  

ReppA. C, Roberts D. M, Slack D. J, Repp C. F, Berkler M. S. A comparison offrequency, interval, and time-sampling methods of data collection. Journalof Applied Behavior Analysis. (1976);9:501–508. doi:10.1901/jaba.1976.9-501.

Visit the following blog link for more examples of data collection.  

http://bcbatestprep.blogspot.com/2014/02/frequency-rate-duration-latency-and.html

Repp A. C, Roberts D. M, Slack D. J, Repp C. F, Berkler M. S. A comparison of frequency, interval, and time-sampling methods of data collection. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. (1976);9:501–508. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1976.9-501.

Test Tuesday

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a good operational definition?

1.  Objective

2.  Concise

3.  Socially valid

4.  Clear

5.  Complete

3.  Socially Valid

Test Tuesday

Given the following example, could you use a reversal design?

  During baseline a client cannot do a single math problem.  You are wanting to put in an intervention to increase the number of addition problems a client can do.  Could a reversal design be used in this situation?  Why or why not?

No.  A reversal design can NOT be used if the behavior is learned and irreversible. 

Need a recap on the reversal design.  Check out this link.  

http://bcbatestprep.blogspot.com/2014/03/reversal-design.html

Test Tuesday

If you are trying to measure a continuous behavior that does not have a discrete beginning and ending, which method is best to use?

A.  Any continuous recording

B.  Whole-interval recording

C. MTS

D. Frequency

E.  Rate

F.  Partial-Interval Recording

B.  Whole-interval recording

Whole-interval recording is useful for high rate behaviors that cannot be discretely counted.

Questions?  Check out the blog post on continuous measurement recording. 

http://bcbatestprep.blogspot.com/2014/03/continuous-measurement-procedures.html

Multiple Baseline Design

Busy week this week, so today we get screenshots of the lesson!  Woo hoo! :)

Multiple baseline designs... My favorite! :)

Test Tuesday

What is contingent observation and when should it be used?

This is when the child is no longer able to participate in the desired activity, but they are able to watch the activities that are still going on. 

This can be used when you are in an environment that it would be hard to remove the child from, for example a birthday party.  This can also be used when the child wants to engage in the reinforcing activity, and instead the punishment is that they have to watch their friend engage in the fun activity.  

Example: The child is jumping with friends at the trampoline park.  The child hits a friend, and the mom makes him sit on a bench next to the trampolines for a certain amount of time.  The child is still able to watch all of his friends jump, but he is not able to jump himself. 

Need a refresher on time-out procedures?

http://bcbatestprep.blogspot.com/2014/02/time-out-procedures.html

Reversal Design

Fourth Edition Task List

Section 1

B-04

Reversal Design

(Also known as ABA design)

How does it demonstrate experimental control?

Demonstrates experimental control by repeatedly introducing and withdrawing the experimental control.

Also, confounding variables are unlikely to repeatedly occur at the same times as the experimental variable

The following visual represents a typical ABA or Reversal Design. 

A= Baseline

B=Intervention

A= Baseline

So, the reversal design sounds fantastic.  What is the catch?

You cannot use the reversal design with variables that are irreversible or it is unethical to return to baseline.

Examples of when reversal designs would NOT work...

If you teach a child how to read words, it is irreversible, so a reversal design would not work.

If during baseline, the student knew how to read 3 words.  Then you implement the intervention and now the student can read 12 words.  You cannot reverse back to baseline because even if you remove the intervention the student has been taught to read 12 words and they will continue to read 12 words. It is irreversible.

If a child is engaging in head-banging during baseline 30 times per minute.  A doctor has determined that they are very close to going blind in one eye due to the intensity of the head-bangs. Therefore, if during the intervention you reduce the head-banging to 1x per hour, it would be unethical to remove the intervention and allow the child to head-bang up to 30x per minute.  In this situation, a reversal design would not work. 

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Experimental Control

First of all, what is experimental control?

Experimental control is when the independent variable is what causes the change in the dependent variable and not any other confounding variables.  It is achieved when a predictable change in behavior can be reliably produced by manipulating the independent variable and measuring the effects on the dependent variable.

Remind me... What is the independent and dependent variable again?

Dependent variable:  Looking for effects on the dependent variable that might be caused by the change in the independent variable

Independent variable:  Variable that the experiment manipulates.  THIS IS WHAT YOU CHANGE!

So, why is experimental control so important?

Experimental control is a necessary component of ABA because it is the highest level of scientific understanding.  

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Test Tuesday

If you are taking data on low-frequency and short duration behaviors, what type of recording should you use?

Frequency.

Questions about this topic?  Visit this blog post.  

http://bcbatestprep.blogspot.com/2014/02/frequency-rate-duration-latency-and.html

Continuous Measurement Procedures

Fourth Edition Task List

Section 1

A-12

Continuous measurement is conducted in a way in which ALL instances of a response class are detected during an observation period.

The following chart shows the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of continuous measurement.

Questions?  Just leave a comment, and I will get back to you! :)

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.

Basic vs. Applied Research

Basic vs. Applied Research

Basic: does not focus on real-world application, and instead it just tries to describe the fundamentals of behavior.

Applied: focuses on application in the real world, but it still is based upon previous theory and assumptions that are made. 

Try it.

In the field of ABA, are we more concerned with applied or basic research?

Applied.

Resources:  Cooper J.O, Heron T.E, Heward W.L. Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007.