Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Direct Behavioral Assessment: What to Record and How Chapter 21

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Overview Characteristics of behavior to assess Methods of assessment Ensuring accuracy

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Direct Assessment Behaviors directly observed Advantage: –More accurate than indirect assessment Disadvantages: –Time consuming –Observers need to be trained –Cannot monitor covert behaviors

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Characteristics to Consider 1.Topography 2.Amount 3.Intensity 4.Stimulus control 5.Latency 6.Quality

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Topography The form of a particular response –Physical appearance or movement involved with the response Can use various methods to help visualize and record

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 2. Amount Measured by frequency and duration Frequency –Number of instances a behavior occurs in a given period of time –Synonym: rate Duration –How long a behavior lasts –Relative duration Length of time a behavior occurs within some period

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Graphs Frequency Graph –Each data point represents total number of instances of behavior in each period of time Cumulative Graph –Each data point represents a total number of responses up to that point

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 21-4 – A frequency graph (A) and a cumulative graph (B) of the same data. “A frequency graph of the happiness indicators displayed by one of the participants in the three conditions is shown in Figure 21-4A. Now look at Figure 21-4B.” (page 257)

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 3. Intensity Force of a response Use various devices to measure force –Loudness of speech (measured in decibels) –Strength of grip (measured by grip meter)

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4. Stimulus Control Behavior occurs in the presence of certain stimuli and not others High correlation between occurrence of stimulus and response

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 5. Latency Amount of time between stimulus and response –How long before you respond –EX: Alarm clock –EX: Starting gun

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 6. Quality How well an activity is performed –Arbitrary designation of one or more of characteristics of behavior EX: good singing EX: good handwriting

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Recording Behavior 1.Continuous recording –Recording every instance in a specified time segment 2.Interval recording –Specify block of time –Divide time into equal short intervals –Does behavior occur or not during interval? –Partial-interval recording  – Most frequently used  – Behavior recorded a maximum of once during interval –Whole-interval recording – Only record if occurs over entire interval

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Recording Behavior 3.Time-sampling recording –Interval recording –Intervals are separated by longer periods of time 4.Momentary time sampling –Record if behavior occurs at specific points in time

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. FIGURE 21-7 – A time-sampling data sheet for recording behavior of a child who frequently sits and rocks. “An example of a data sheet for time sampling appears in Figure 21-7.” (page 264)

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Table 21-2 – Summary of Types of Recording Strategies. “For a summary of the recording strategies just discussed, see Table 21-2.” (page 264)

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Accuracy of Observations Sources of Error –Response definition too vague or unclear –Observational situation makes observations difficult –Poor training of observer –Poorly designed data sheets Interobserver reliability (IOR) –Do ratings of different observers agree?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Figure 21-6 – Sample data sheet for interval recording. For each behavior, if an instance occurs once during a 10-second interval, a tally is made on the data sheet (for a sample data sheet, see Figure 21-6). (page 263) Sample data sheet for interval recording and measuring interobserver reliability (IOR)