Date of Award
12-2018
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Applied Behavior Analysis: M.S.
Department
Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy
College
School of Health and Human Services
First Advisor
Michele Traub
Second Advisor
Benjamin Witts
Third Advisor
Kimberly Schulze
Fourth Advisor
Sara Ibbetson
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
discriminative stimuli, functional analysis
Abstract
This study expanded on current research regarding discriminative stimuli (SDs) included in functional analyses (FA) by comparing conditions with pre-session statements that do not specify contingencies in place to conditions that have pre-session statements that specify contingencies in place (e.g., starting a condition with “I need to do some work” versus “I need to do some work, if you yell I will ask you to stop.”) A multi-element design consisting of at least four trials of three different conditions with general statements, followed by the same conditions with contingency-specifying statements was used. Three BCBAs with at least 10 years of experience reviewed the assessment results via survey to determine function, as well as the session number at which the function became apparent. Functional determination was agreed upon for four out of five assessments with contingency-specifying statements, whereas in the general statement analyses, function was only agreed upon in one assessment. In the assessment where function was agreed upon in both statement and no statement analyses, it occurred five conditions sooner with statements. Overall, results indicate that using contingency-specifying statements as SDs in FA may lead to faster and clearer functional determination.
Recommended Citation
Wylie, Erin R., "Using Contingency-Specifying Statements as Discriminative Stimuli in Functional Analyses" (2018). Culminating Projects in Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy. 53.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cpcf_etds/53
