APPLICATION SCENARIOS: DEFINING AND MEASURING BEHAVIOR
Lupita is working on feeding with one of her clients. Before the beginning of the session she and her assistant
weigh the child's food separately to determine an accurate weight and get agreement on the number provided by
the scale. Each time Lupita and her assistant place the food on the scale they are given a different value, and as
a result they cannot get agreement on that measure. In this case, the scale as a measurement system has poor:
reliability
Sam lives in a local group home and has a history of engaging in property destruction. Sam usually engages in
1-2 bouts of property destruction each week; however recently his caregivers are reporting the property
destruction is getting worse. When reviewing the data Sam’s BCBA finds that the frequency of property
destruction has remained stable (1-2 bouts each week); however due to the caregivers reports of increased
severity the BCBA wants to know if the bouts are lasting longer. The BCBA asks the caregivers to change their
data collection method to record the total number of minutes Sam engages in each bout of property destruction.
What kind of data collection are the caregivers now taking on the behavior of property destruction?
duration
Ms. Jenkins wanted to increase the on-task behavior of the students in her 5thgrade class during their 15-minute
independent study time. She creates a token system and each day the students have the opportunity to earn a
sticker if they were on-task. To determine if a student earns a token Ms. Jenkins measures if they are engaged in
on-task behavior for the entire 15-minutes; what kind of measurement procedure is Ms. Jenkins using?
whole-interval recording
Taylor, a BCBA, is conducting an intake session for a new client. Taylor begins by interviewing the parents of
their new client about the common antecedents and consequences for each topography of problem behavior.
What type of assessment method is Taylor using?
indirect assessment
A behavior analyst is working on teaching soccer skills to adults. Kicking the ball is defined as any time the ball
makes contact with the inside of the player's foot. This is an example of:
a topography-based definition
Mr. Walker's school principle tells him that he is allowed to decide how long his class gets to eat lunch each
day. Mr. Walker decides that he will survey the students every five minutes from the beginning of lunch time to
get an estimate of how many students are still eating at certain times. He will use that information to inform his
decision of how long to allocate for lunch each day. This is an example of what kind of measurement system
time sampling
The general manager of Customer Service & Company wants to know how long it takes his staff to reply to
emails after they have received them. He sets up a program that will tell him how long each staff member takes
to respond. This is an example of measuring which dimension of behavior?
latency
Loren’s ABA therapist has been working with him on developing his reading repertoire. Since reading will
expose Loren to new contingencies and new environments it is considered an important:
behavioral cusp
Aliz takes her daughter to the doctor because she is coughing. The doctor asks Aliz how often her daughter
coughs, and Aliz reports, "Once every two minutes." Aliz is reporting on what dimension of her daughter's
behavior?
rate
