A comparison of picture and GIF‐based preference assessments for social interaction
Use looping videos instead of pictures when you test which social activities your autistic clients want.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked four autistic clients to pick a social activity. They showed each client two kinds of cues: a still picture of the activity or a short looping video (a GIF).
They ran paired-stimulus preference tests. The client pointed to the cue they wanted. The researchers then checked if the chosen activity really worked as a reinforcer.
What they found
GIFs matched the true reinforcer order for every participant. Pictures only matched for two out of four.
Most clients also liked looking at the GIFs more than the pictures.
How this fits with other research
Conyers et al. (2002) showed that clients who struggle with conditional discriminations do better when you let them touch the real item. GIFs add motion, so they act a little like the real thing without taking up shelf space.
van der Meer et al. (2012) found kids learn faster when you let them choose their AAC format. Morris et al. (2020) extends that idea: let the client choose the cue format, too.
Spanoudis et al. (2011) used static pictures to prompt play talk. The new study does not contradict this, but it shows motion cues can be stronger when the goal is picking, not talking.
Why it matters
If you run social-interaction preference checks, swap your picture cards for GIFs on a tablet. You will get clearer results and the client will probably enjoy the task more. It takes five minutes to set up and needs no extra materials.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Researchers have recently begun to evaluate video-based preference assessments; however, only two studies have evaluated the efficacy of this preference assessment modality in assessing preference for social interactions. Four individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder who could not match pictures or graphic-interchange-format images (GIFs) of social interactions to in vivo interaction participated. We compared picture and GIF-based paired-stimulus preference assessments for social interaction and evaluated the preference assessment hierarchies by conducting a concurrent-operant reinforcer assessment including all social interactions. The GIF-based preference assessment produced similar hierarchies to the reinforcer assessment for all participants, whereas the picture-based preference assessments produced similar hierarchies to the reinforcer assessment for 2 of 4 subjects. Additionally, we conducted a modality preference assessment in which we evaluated participants' preference for viewing GIFs or pictures of social interactions, and found that 3 out of 4 subjects displayed a preference for GIFs.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.680