Teaching staff to implement reinforcer assessments

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2020

First Committee Member

Karsina, Allen

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Third Committee Member

MacDonald, Rebecca

Abstract

"Reinforcer assessments can be an important assessment tool for clinicians, yet there is no research to our knowledge that evaluates methods for training staff to conduct reinforcer assessments. In the current study, we trained 3 direct-care staff at a school for individuals with autism to conduct single-operant (SO) reinforcer assessments using simple written instructions and enhanced written instructions (Graff & Karsten, 2012) if necessary. We used a multiple-baseline-across-participants design to evaluate the effects of written instructions. Two of the 3 participants met mastery criteria (3 consecutive sessions with 90% or greater accuracy) with written instructions; the third participant met mastery criteria when enhanced instructions were provided. To assess generalization to an untrained assessment type, data were taken on performance of progressive ratio (PR) reinforcer assessments during baseline and training of SO reinforcer assessments. Although some generalization occurred for each participant, mastery criteria for PR reinforcer assessments were not obtained until these procedures were directly trained with enhanced instructions. We trained a second set of 3 direct-care staff to conduct PR reinforcer assessments by sequentially introducing written instructions, enhanced instructions, and enhanced instructions with feedback until mastery was achieved. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used, and none of these participants met mastery criteria with written instructions. Two participants met mastery criteria with enhanced instructions, and the remaining participant required enhanced instructions with written feedback to meet mastery criteria. During baseline and training of the PR reinforcer assessments, acquisition of SO reinforcer assessment procedures were evaluated. All 3 participants met mastery criteria for the SO reinforcer assessments without direct training."

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