A systematic analysis of the influence of prior social context on aggression and self-injury within analogue analysis assessments.
Pre-session events like attention or demands can flip FA outcomes, so record and control them.
01Research in Context
What this study did
O'Reilly et al. (1999) ran analogue functional analyses on a small group with developmental delay.
Before each session they changed the social set-up: some kids got lots of attention, others faced demands, and some sat alone.
They then watched how these pre-session histories changed aggression or self-injury during the standard FA conditions.
What they found
The same FA condition gave different results after different warm-ups.
For example, attention given right before the test could hide the usual attention function.
Each child reacted in his own way, showing that context leaks into the data.
How this fits with other research
Storch et al. (2012) and Bao et al. (2017) later showed the spill-over works both ways: running an FA can later raise or lower problem behavior in class or at home.
Sturmey (1995) had already warned that analogue baselines are fragile; this paper gave the first clear data proving him right.
Perez et al. (2015) answered the mess by offering a phased FA that hunts for these hidden context effects, giving clinicians a road map.
Why it matters
If you skip what happened ten minutes before the FA, you may pick the wrong function and build a useless plan.
Log the hallway, the car ride, or the wait-room every single time.
One extra note line can save weeks of bad treatment.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Experimental analogue analyses are sometimes used to identify the operant function of aberrant behavior for individuals with developmental disabilities. These methods are proposed to be superior to other assessment techniques because they systematically control for the presence and absence of hypothesized maintaining contingencies within the analogue analysis. Analogue analyses are usually performed over a brief period of time with little reference to the broader social context within which they are conducted. Social interactions that a person experiences prior to an analogue analysis assessment might influence performance within the assessment. The authors examined the influence of prior social conditions on levels of aberrant behavior under analogue assessments with two individuals with severe developmental disabilities. Results indicated that prior social conditions significantly influenced analogue analysis results in idiosyncratic ways for both. These findings are discussed in terms of the need to examine broad contextual influences when conducting functional analyses of aberrant behavior.
Behavior modification, 1999 · doi:10.1177/0145445599234004