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Applications of Functional Analysis Methodology |
Saturday, May 26, 2012 |
4:00 PM–4:50 PM |
LL05 (TCC) |
Area: DDA |
Chair: Amanda Zangrillo (University of Southern Maine) |
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Further Analysis of the Correspondence Between Results of Brief Functional and Extended Functional Analyses |
Domain: Applied Research |
AMANDA ZANGRILLO (University of Southern Maine), Nathan Call (Marcus Autism Center), Natalie A. Parks (Marcus Autism Center), Andrea R. Reavis (Marcus Autism Center) |
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Abstract: Kahng and Iwata (1999) compared the outcomes of functional analyses (FAs Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994) to those produced by brief functional analyses (BFA; Northup et al., 1991). In their study, a BFA was constructed from the first session of each condition from a lengthier FA that consisted of several sessions from each condition. Results indicated that outcomes of the constructed BFA matched those of the original FA for 66.0% of the cases. However, the constructed BFA differed in several ways from the type of BFA typically conducted in clinical settings. For example, the order of conditions in a BFA is typically not randomized (Wacker et al., 2004), as was the case in the constructed FA, and caregivers frequently serve as therapists in a BFA (Cooper et al., 1992). In the current analysis, researchers compared the outcomes of separate BFAs conducted in an outpatient clinic to extended FAs conducted with the same participants in an intensive day-treatment program. Fifteen individuals with developmental disabilities participated. Preliminary data analysis shows that results of the BFA and FA matched for the vast majority of participants. |
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Analysis of a Large-n Implementation of Demand Assessments in the Treatment of Severe Behavior |
Domain: Applied Research |
JOSLYN CYNKUS MINTZ (Marcus Autism Center), Nathan Call (Marcus Autism Center), Natalie A. Parks (Marcus Autism Center) |
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Abstract: Potential negative reinforcers are generally selected for inclusion in the test conditions in a function analysis based upon information obtained from indirect sources such as caregiver report. Recently, systematic demand assessments have been developed for this purpose (Call, Pabico, and Lomas, 2009; Roscoe et al., 2009). In the study by Call et al., the aversiveness of a task was measured by the latency to the first instance of problem behavior following presentation of various demands. However, that study only presented data from two participants who each displayed different patterns of responding: either all demands or only a few evoked problem behavior. These results raise the question as to whether such patterns of responding are common during such demand assessments, and how these patterns may inform clinical practice. The purpose of the current study was to examine patterns of responding during 57 demand assessments as described by Call et al. Results show that the assessment was able to create a hierarchy of aversiveness for each participant, but results for individual participants varied with respect to the amount of skew in that hierarchy. Discussion will focus on the utilization of the results of this demand assessment methodology for clinical practice. |
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