Reference no: EM133470588

Word Bank:

Threat to Validity, Reliability, or Accuracy

- use of indirect measurement

- measuring the wrong dimension of the target behavior

- using discontinuous measurement

- poorly scheduled measurement periods

- insensitive measurement scale

- difficult to use measurement system

- observer expectations

- inadequate observer training

- observer reactivity

- history

- maturation

- instrumentation

- testing

- regression to the mean

- diffusion of treatment

- generality across responses

- generality across settings

- generality across time

- generality across behavior change agents

- multiple treatment interference

Given the above word bank, please label each below scenario with the name of the threat from the word bank above, that is most applicable given the information provided.

1. A BCBA uses a punishment procedure to decrease swearing. The intervention has an effect on the behavior & during ABA sessions the behavior decreases. After sessions, the behavior increases and remains at a high level during the period of time following an ABA session.

2. An ABA Therapist has told her team members (including the behavior analyst) that he believes John socially interacts more when girls are present versus boys. He has been quite opinionated that John should sit at a table in the classroom with only boys (to increase attending to task) and at a table with girls at lunch (to facilitate social interaction). The BCBA designs a measurement system where the therapist notes the gender of peers present when John socially interacts.

3. In a classroom, a teacher assistant is measuring the duration of sleep the student demonstrates (teachers are concerned that the student is falling asleep often in class). After a baseline period, the student is prescribed a sleep medication to improve sleep. During the first month of use of this medication, the student and his family move to a new home.

4. An instructor would like to evaluate the quality of his graduate course, so he has students complete a course evaluation at the end of the semester.

5. A BCBA oversees home services provided twice per week to a student with autism. Once per week the BCBA observes the sessions. During this session, she evaluates how well the ABA provider measures. During the other session, the provider is not observed. The provider is nervous about these observations and a bit more attentive to detail when being observed by the BCBA.

6. A BCBA designs a measurement system to count frequency of aggressive behavior. After a month, the BCBA revises the operational definition of aggression because he feels he originally missed several topographies of aggression the student exhibits.

7. A behavior analyst is interested in knowing how long a student can attend to a reading assignment without requiring a prompt to remain on task (duration). She designs a measurement system that requires the ABA Therapist to record how many times a day the student initiates reading (frequency).

8. A home-based ABA provider wants to measure how often a student interacts verbally during meals. She designs a measurement system that requires the ABA Therapist or a parent to record the number of unprompted verbal statements a child makes during a meal. She has the therapist chose either lunch or dinner to conduct the observation and record data. The meals last roughly the same amount of time, but not exactly. At lunch, the child's nanny, who is very talkative, is present with the child and his siblings. She often tells the children stories while they eat. At dinner, both of the child's parents are present. The child typically has not spent time with either parent before dinner, as both work during the day.

9. A behavior analyst designs a data sheet and sends a copy to the ABA therapists via e-mail. She tells them to "look it over and ask her if they have any questions". Neither therapist has extensive experience in measurement.

10. A woman has decided to use self-monitoring to measure her smoking behavior. She begins to record the # of cigarettes she smokes each day. She begins to think about the recording, and wonders if the repeated exposure to the recording is making her less likely to smoke throughout the day.

11. A student scored very low on the measurement final examination. They retook the exam, and the second time, scored higher, or closer to the class average.

12. A behavior analyst asks a classroom teacher to measure the duration of attending of a specific student during a morning circle time. Attending is defined as the student sitting still, facing the teacher, and making eye contact with the teacher. While she is running the circle, the teacher is asked to start the stop watch when the student attends and stop it when-ever the student ceases attending. The teacher is unable to measure and run the morning circle at the same time.

13. A team is collecting baseline data on a child and a specific target. At the same time, they have been discussing possible interventions for this target. One of the ABA Therapists begins implementing the proposed intervention before the baseline period has ended without reporting this.

14. A BCBA designs an intervention to use in structured speech therapy sessions which results in a child sitting still for long periods of time. The BCBA tells the parent to try the same intervention in the less structured home setting, assuming it will be just as successful there.

15. A child is receiving speech therapy sessions over the course of a year. The team is measuring the student's accuracy with labeling. Some measures recorded the number of items the child can measure at the beginning of services, and again a year later, before a new service plan is developed. The child has changed in many ways over the year; some of these ways have not been targeted in sessions, and some have.

16. An intervention known as matched stimulation has been used for decreasing motor stereotypy in a student. His BCBA is hoping that it will also work to treat his vocal stereotypy.

17. Jeffrey receives ABA Therapy, Speech Therapy, OT and attends therapy one afternoon per week. His parent assesses his overall change in use of expressive language, and attributes it to the ABA therapy.

18. A Case Manager designs an intervention for the target behavior - tantrums. The Case Manager implements the intervention and experiences certain results during his sessions, but notices that the data is much higher with other ABA Therapists, despite their correct implementation of the procedure.

19. A behavior analyst wants to measure the # of times a student initiates a social interaction. For convenience, she has staff record a + or a - every 2 minutes to record whether the student had initiated an interaction at all during that 2-minute period.

20. Research has suggested that a certain intervention is effective for individuals with severe autism. The intervention has not been used studied for individuals with other types of disabilities or with less severe autism.

21. A BCBA designs a measurement system to measure following directions of a child. The system is set up so that the therapist simply records "yes" or "no" for each session. This gives a very imprecise measure of the target behavior.