A comparison of sources of baseline data for treatments of problem behavior following a functional analysis

It is common practice in research on the treatment of problem behavior to compare levels of targeted behaviors during treatment to levels when treatment is not in place. Some researchers use data collected as part of a multielement functional analysis as the initial baseline, whereas others collect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 53; no. 1; p. 102
Main Authors Scheithauer, Mindy, Schebell, Shannon M, Mevers, Joanna Lomas, Martin, Clarissa P, Noell, George, Suiter, Kerri C, Call, Nathan A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 2020
Subjects
single-subject design
visual inspection
data analysis
scientific behavior
problem behavior
functional analysis
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Summary:It is common practice in research on the treatment of problem behavior to compare levels of targeted behaviors during treatment to levels when treatment is not in place. Some researchers use data collected as part of a multielement functional analysis as the initial baseline, whereas others collect new baseline data following completion of the functional analysis. We evaluated whether the source of baseline data influences the reliability and efficiency of decision-making. Results suggest that similar decisions are made in regard to treatment efficacy using the different sources of baseline data, but using data from a multielement functional analysis as baseline may save time. Interrater agreement was adequate, but lower for some graphs than has been observed in past studies. Several potential explanations for this discrepancy are discussed.
ISSN:1938-3703
DOI:10.1002/jaba.549