Evaluation of an indirect assessment for identifying tasks to include in functional analysis

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2016

First Committee Member

Roscoe, Eileen

Second Committee Member

Sassi, Jessica

Third Committee Member

Hanley, Gregory

Abstract

"Pre-assessments, such as a demand analysis, have been found helpful in identifying potential motivating operations for the functional analysis (FA) demand condition. Another pre-assessment tool that has been used for this purpose is the Negative Reinforcement Rating Scale (NRRS), an indirect assessment. In the current study, five individuals with an autism spectrum disorder who exhibited aggression or disruption participated. We administered the NRRS with two informants to identify potentially highly-aversive tasks (i.e., those associated with high levels of problem behavior and low levels of compliance) and potentially non- or less-aversive tasks (i.e., those associated with low levels of problem behavior and high levels of compliance). Next, we conducted a demand analysis that included six tasks identified by the NRRS to assess its validity. A functional analysis that included highly-aversive and less-aversive demand conditions confirmed outcomes obtained from the demand analysis but not the NRRS."

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