A proposal for the assessment of replication of effects in single‐case experimental designs

• Published in: Journal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 997 - 1024
• Main Authors: Manolov, Rumen, Tanious, René, Fernández‐Castilla, Belén
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2022; Wiley
• Subjects: Behavioral Science Research; Brinley plot; Case Studies; Causal Models; Evaluation Methods; Experiments; expert judgment; Graphs; Intervention; replication; Replication (Evaluation); Research Design; Research Methodology; single‐case experimental designs; visual analysis; replication; single-case experimental designs; expert judgment; visual analysis; Brinley plot
• ISSN: 0021-8855; 1938-3703
• DOI: 10.1002/jaba.923

In science in general and in the context of single‐case experimental designs, replication of the effects of the intervention within and/or across participants or experiments is crucial for establishing causality and for assessing the generality of the intervention effect. Specific developments and proposals for assessing whether an effect has been replicated or not (or to what extent) are scarce, in the general context of behavioral sciences, and practically null in the single‐case experimental designs context. We propose an extension of the modified Brinley plot for assessing how many of the effects replicate. To make this assessment possible, a definition of replication is suggested, on the basis of expert judgment, rather than on statistical criteria. The definition of replication and its graphical representation are justified, presenting their strengths and limitations, and illustrated with real data. A user‐friendly software is made available for obtaining automatically the graphical representation.