Repertoire-altering effect

Anonymous

Hi Anonymous,   

I am not sure if this is a tact or a mand?  For now, I am going to interpret this as either a) a request for #ABAchat topic or b) a request for me to write a post on this topic.  I can certainly accomplish these both  (in due time of course)!

Stay tuned!

~Tricia-Lee 

Spring 2013 #ABAchat Schedule

Announcing the Spring 2013 #ABAchat schedule.  As always, we welcome people from all areas of the field to join in a casual discussion on topics and issues relating to Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA).  For more information on what #ABAchat is and how to join, please read this.  

A small change to note: we’ll be starting at 9:30 p.m. EST (instead of our usual 9 p.m. EST)

Topics were suggested by #ABAchat participants; however, other topic suggestions and offers to moderate/host the chats by people other than myself are always welcome. I often moderate the chats but I am by no means an expert at the topics being discussed.  If you don’t see a topic that interests you, please offer to contribute to our #ABAchat community by hosting a chat, suggest articles to share etc.

Wednesday May 8, 2013 - Effectiveness of praise*

Wednesday May 15, 2013 - The use of apps for behaviour analysis.* Hosted by Kathy Murphy, SLP, BCBA and Summer Conway, Special Education Teacher 

*Please note that the topics for these dates may alternate as we’re waiting to confirm dates of our guest moderators!

Wednesday May 22, 2013 - no ABAchat this week!  We’ll pause as people will be preparing for, or travelling to #ABAI2013.  Follow the hashtag for #ABAI2013 to keep up with new ideas and presentations at this year’s conference!

Wednesday May 29, 2013 - Ethical Corner:  Balancing “least restrictive” with “most effective” - decision making tools and criteria

Wednesday June 5, 2013 - Assessment tools used in ABA: VB-MAPP, ABLLS, AFLS

Wednesday June 12, 2013 - Home-based ABA programs: ethics and parent involvement

Wednesday June 19, 2013 - Token economies - introduction of, application and monitoring, troubleshooting

Wednesday June 26, 2013 - Journal Club **send us your suggestions, articles you’d like to discuss with peers! 

Looking forward to our chats together!  Have a question or topic idea?  Find me on Twitter (@behaviouratplay) or drop me a line in my ‘ask’ box.

~Tricia-Lee

How do you assess 1) setting events 2)MO's ?

Anonymous

Hi Anonymous and thanks for the question. Before I answer, I’ll refer readers to previous posts on 1) setting events and 2) motivating operations (MOs)

I tend to assess for these variables through observation and recording of the antecedent conditions that are present before the target behaviour occurs - i.e., the who, what, where, when of the situation before (see Horner, 1994). Some of the environmental variables I may make a point of noting include:

  • Clarity and ease of work expectations - is the work too difficult or boring?  Are the expectations clear?  Sometimes these variables act as the establishing operation (EO) for escape.
  • Addition of other sensory stimuli in the environment - noise level, proximity to others, lights, temperature, smells.
  • Occurrence of minor disappointments (i.e., delays or denied access to reinforcers, preferred activities) and/or changes to the routine.  Sometimes a few of these happening together or one after the other “set-up” our learner to have a tougher time coping with the next disappointment or change.  
  • Biomedical signs or symptoms: is the client more sleepy?  Have they eaten lately? Are they showing signs of pain or discomfort?  Have they come from a period of highly active or sedentary level of activity? 
  • Communication from home or other caregivers.  Sometimes caregivers will inform us that the person did not sleep well, or they’re coming down with something.

Once I have a hypothesis about a possible setting event or MO affecting the behaviour I may then move to a more direct measurement of these events (where possible) or I compare rates of the target behaviour under one condition versus another.  Some of the things I’ve directly measured or compared include:

  • Tracking when and how often positive reinforcement is delivered, how often the person experiences success
  • The inter-response time between an event and the target behaviour.
  • Comparing rates of the behaviour between two different types of activities (e.g., individual work versus group work; seated work versus motor tasks, preferred activities versus non-preferred; see Dunlap, Kern-Dunlap, Clarke & Robins, 1991; Foster-Johnson, Ferro & Dunlap, 1994).
  • Weekly rates of the behaviour when person is premenstrual versus not
  • Comparing rates of behaviour against the barometric pressure (where our hypothesis was person experiencing migraines related to weather conditions).

This is the beauty of the scientist-practitioner model inherent in the standards of Applied Behaviour Analysis.  We use measurements of events before, during and after to determine what may (or may not) be a setting event or an MO contributing to the occurrence of the behaviour.  Just as every person and their behavioural repertoire is unique, so are the various assessment methods we may use to confirm that a functional relationships exists.

References:

Dunlap, G., Kern-Dunlap, L., Clarke, S. & Robbins, F.R. (1991). Functional assessment, curricular revisions and severe behavior problems. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24(2), 387-397.

Foster-Johnson, L., Ferro, J. & Dunlap, G. (1994). Preferred curricular activities and reduced problem behaviors in students with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(3), 493-504. 

Horner, R.H. (1994). Functional assessment: Contributions and future directions. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(2), 401-404.

Antecedent Control All Over Those Mini-Eggs

This is a story of how not to find yourself eating all the Easter chocolates you bought for the kids.

I thought I was being a good auntie by getting all the Easter stuff ahead of time. I brought all the goods inside the house to deal with later. This was probably a bad move since before I could gift them, I started to creep inside the bag and eat some of the chocolate. Chocolate was just sitting there, ready and available, signaling what yummy reinforcement would likely come if I ate some. And so I did.

And boy did it reinforce the behaviour! The next day I ate more. The day after that another bag of mini-eggs disappeared in my mouth. As long as there was preferred chocolate in the house, I was eating it. It was too easy. This continued to the point of needing to go back to the store to replace what I had eaten. The goods were spread too thin for me to proudly deliver what remained.

Rather than purchase the same chocolate and find myself in a similar situation, I decided to arrange some of the antecedent (i.e. before behaviour) variables by getting a particular brand of chocolates I did not like.  Since I tend to avoid these chocolates (because they’re punishing), their presence in my house would not cue me to eat them. Those chocolate then made it to their rightful owners.

Problem solved on my end. My sister however has something else to say about that!

Related posts:

Antecedent control to wash my face

Post-It Notes as antecedent cues

Watch MY Language

Ever since I have been in this field and learned more about Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior I find myself analyzing written language and communication: catching any word or sentence that might function differently (i.e., have a different meaning or outcome) for someone else.  I am watching what I say and don’t say.  

There’s not much time (or space) to get into all the specifics of verbal behaviour in this post, but the key points to know from a behaviour analytic viewpoint are:

  • Verbal behaviour functions differently depending on the context before and after. Behaviour analysts are more interested in its function than its form. One word can function differently depending on this context.  Example: If I say “doughnut” I might be requesting a doughnut. This is called a mand.  I might be labeling one that I see. This is called a tact.  Or I might be answering someone’s question about what I like to eat.  This is known as an intraverbal.  All three examples I gave are three different functions of verbal behaviour using the same form, “doughnut”. It’s not obvious which function is at play unless you consider what is going on before and after.  
  • With verbal behaviour, there is both a “speaker” and a “listener” role for whom the behaviour has a different functional relationship. If I ask the question, “Where do you live?” I am manding.  The person hears my question and replies with “I live in Toronto”.  That is an intraverbal.

I want my verbal behaviour to function as effectively and efficiently as possible.  To accomplish that, I have adopted parsimony in what I say and write. I often plan and rehearse what I’m going to say before I go to say it. It takes me several read-overs of an email  - both before I press send and ones that I receive - so that I can take both the listener and speaker perspective.  I want to make sure I pause on having that knee-jerk reaction to what other may write or say to me.  I obsessively read and re-read emails, tweets, blog posts etc. looking for the function. 

The curse of being a behaviour analyst (in training) is that you.never.stop.thinking.about.this.stuff.  I may be efficient in what I say.  I just don’t know how efficient I am with my time.

Reference:

Skinner, B.F. (1957).  Verbal Behavior. Copley Publishing Group.

Related Posts:

And what words should I use?

The functions of a compliant

The R-word for example