Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ABA
Measure behavior to answer questions
Is the basis for talking about behavior
Allows you to determine if a behavior has changed
Practical Applications
Also used to measure behavior and evaluate effects of
interventions
Used before, during, and after treatment
Used to guide decision making
Used to
Discontinue ineffective treatment
Continue or increase effective treatment
Benefits of Measurement
Optimize effectiveness
Verify legitimacy of treatments
Identify and end use of pseudoscience
Accountability
Meet ethical standards
Features of Measurement
Has dimensions or distinct features that can be
measured
Three fundamental properties
Countability: behavior can be counted
Repeatability: Get the same result over and over
Temporal Extent: Duration of the Behavior
Temporal Locus: When does the behavior occur or
stop
Counting
Number of responses emitted during an observation
period
Periods can vary
Reported as frequency count
Problem
May not provide sufficient information for analysis
Duration may be more important variable
Repeatability / Reliability
Do you get the same result over and over?
When observing or examining a behavior , should get
similar results during different observation periods.
If not, may have multiple stimuli controlling or
influencing the behavior.
Rate/Frequency
Is a ratio of count per observation period
More meaningful than count alone
Include counting time for reference
Number of Responses / 10 Minute Period
Can also examine rate of correct vs. incorrect
responses
Correct responses / Total responses
# Widgets made correctly / Time or Total Widgets
made
Is helpful in skill development
Usually reported as number / standard unit of time
Guidelines When Using Rate
Take complexity of response into account
May need to break out into different responses
Is a very useful measure for free operants
Not appropriate
For responses within discrete trials (end of a class
period)
For continuous behavior over extended period
Both can be adapted if needed.
Celeration
Is a measure of the change in rate of responding per
unit of time
Behavior studying / 15 minutes
Examine stimuli influencing the behaivor
Reported using Standard Celeration Chart
Captures behavior acceleration and deceleration
Can be used to identify stimuli that are influencing
behavior
Duration of Responding
The amount of time a behavior occurs
Total duration of session
Duration of each occurrence
Reported in standard time units
Counting plus duration measures provide different
pictures of same behavior
May be critical in changing a behavior
Response Latency
Measure of elapsed time between onset of stimulus
and initiation of response
Studying and acting out
Typically reported using mean, median, and range
Interresponse Time
Amount of time that elapses between two
consecutive instances of a response class