Educational Research

Chapter 10
Single-Subject Experimental Research

Gay, Mills, and Airasian

Single-Subject Research
 Topics discussed in this chapter
 The unique characteristics of single-subject
designs
 External and internal validity
 Designing single-subject research
 Three types of single subject designs
 Analyzing data
 Replication
Single-Subject Research
 Two unique characteristics
 The sample size is one subject
 Each subject serves as his or her own control
 Notation
 ‘A’ indicates a non-treatment phase usually referred to as a
“baseline”
 ‘B’ indicates a treatment phase
 Examples
 A-B-A indicates a non-treatment baseline phase followed by a
treatment phase which is followed by a return to a non-
treatment baseline phase
 A-B-A-B indicates four phases of treatment (baseline,
treatment, baseline, and treatment)
Objectives 1.1, 1.2, 1.5
Single-Subject Research
 Why use a single-subject design?
 In some situations it is unethical to deny a
control group treatment, so a single-
subject design is the alternative
 Denying Title I resources to children who
qualify for them
 In other situations there are low incidences
of subjects available to participate
 Children with specific special needs

Objective 1.3
Single-Subject Research
 External validity
 The lack of external validity is the major
concern with single-subject designs
 Generalizability is addressed through
multiple replications of the same treatment
and design that produce similar results for
a number of different participants

Objective 1.4
Single-Subject Research
 Internal validity
 Internal validity is always a concern with single-
subject research
 Two major threats
 Instrumentation
 Specificity of variables
 Controlling threats
 Baselines are multiple measures of pretest performance
 By repeating baseline measures over a period of time
threats to internal validity can be controlled
 History
 Maturation
Objectives 1.6 & 1.7
Single-Subject Research

 Number of manipulated variables

 Only a single variable should be
manipulated in single-subject designs
 Adding and withdrawing more than one
variable becomes problematic in terms of
analyzing the individual effect of either
variable

Objective 1.8
Single-Subject Designs
 Three major categories
 A-B-A withdraw
 Alternating phases of baseline (A) and
treatment (B)
 Alternatives include the A-B-A-B design
 Multiple baselines
 The systematic addition of behaviors, subjects,
or settings for intervention
 Used when baselines cannot be recovered after
treatment has been received
Objective 1.9
Single-Subject Designs
 Three major categories (cont.)
 Alternating treatments
 Rapid alternation of treatments to a single
subject to assess the effectiveness of two or
more treatments

Objective 1.9
A-B Withdraw Design
 The A-B design
 OOOOOOOXOXOXOXO
Baseline Treatment
 Internal validity threats are of concern
 Use of designs with additional baseline
and/or treatment phases helps to control
threats to internal validity

Objective 1.10
A-B-A Withdraw Design
 The A-B-A design
 OOOOXOXOXOOOOO
Baseline Treatment Baseline
 If the outcome is better during treatment than
either baseline, the treatment is likely effective
 Internal validity threats can be controlled
 The major concern
 The experiment ends with the subject not receiving the
treatment
 If the treatment has been shown to be effective this is
an ethical concern
Objective 1.10
A-B-A-B Withdraw Design
 The A-B-A-B design
 OOOOXOXOXOOOOOXOXOXO
Baseline Treatment Baseline Treatment
 Internal validity threats can be controlled
 The effects of the treatment can be demonstrated twice
 If the results are the same, it is likely the influence of
extraneous variables has been controlled
 Ethical concerns related to the A-B-A design are
eliminated
 The right pattern of results provides convincing
evidence of the effectiveness of the treatment
Objective 1.10
Multiple Baseline Designs
 Three basic multiple baseline designs
 Across behaviors
 Data are collected on several behaviors for a single
subject
 Treatment is applied to each behavior one at a time until
all behaviors have been treated
 Across subjects
 Data are collected on several subjects for one behavior
 Treatment is applied to each subject one at a time until
all subjects have been treated

Objective 2.1
Multiple Baseline Designs
 Three basic multiple baseline designs
(cont.)
 Across settings
 Data are collected on one behavior for one
subject across several settings
 Treatment is applied to each behavior one at a
time in each setting until all settings have been
treated

Objective 2.1
Multiple Baseline Designs
 Three basic multiple baseline designs (cont.)
 An example across behaviors
 Behavior 1 O O X O X O X O X O X O
Behavior 2 O O O O X O X O X O X O
Behavior 3 O O O O O O X O X O X O
 Design concerns
 If behaviors are treated the behaviors must be independent
of one another
 If subjects are treated the subjects must be similar
 If settings are treated the settings must be as natural as
possible

Objective 2.1
Multiple Baseline Designs
 Advantages
 Can be used when baseline data are not
recoverable after treatment
 The effects of reinforcement are designed to be
maintained after the reinforcement is removed
 Can be combined with A-B-A designs to
establish a very convincing case for cause
and effect
 An A-B-A design is applied across three
behaviors
Objective 2.2
Alternating Treatments Design
 Involves the relatively rapid alternation of treatments
for a single subject
 Treatment does not occur at fixed time periods
 Treatments are changed sporadically
 Advantages
 Useful in assessing the relative effectiveness of two or more
treatments
 No withdraw of treatment is necessary
 No baseline is needed
 The effects of treatment can be studied quickly and
efficiently
Objectives 3.1 & 3.2
Data Analysis and Interpretation
 Two phases
 An evaluation of the adequacy of the
design
 An assessment of the treatment
effectiveness
 Two techniques
 Visual inspection of the data
 Graphical presentation of the results
Objective 4.1
Data Analysis and Interpretation
 Significance
 Clinical significance
 Effects related to the behaviors being treated
 Meaningful in a “real” sense
 Parallels the importance of practical significance
 Statistical significance
 Statistical tests are available but often result in statistical
significance that has little if any clinical significance
 Use is currently debated in the field

Objective 4.2
Replication
 Replication is an important aspect of single-
subject research
 The more one’s results are replicated the more
confidence one has in the procedures that
produced the results
 Three stages of replication
 Direct replication
 Same researcher, same subjects, specific setting
 Simultaneous replication refers to the use of different
subjects and increases the generalizability of the study
Objectives 5.1 & 5.2
Replication
 Three stages of replication (cont.)
 Systematic replication
 Follows direct replication efforts
 Involves different researchers, behaviors, or settings
 Over time techniques are identified that consistently
produce effective results
 Clinical replication
 Follows systematic replication
 Involves the development of treatment packages
composed of two or more effective treatments

Objective 5.2