Evaluating an Excel‐based tool for interpreting functional analyses: A functional analysis decision support system
A free Excel tool gives near-expert FA interpretations in half the time and shields you from graph tricks that fool the eye.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Preston et al. (2024) built a free Excel file called FADSS. It reads your FA data and tells you the likely function.
The team checked if the tool agreed with expert eyes. They also timed how long decisions took with and without the file.
What they found
FADSS matched expert consensus 95% of the time. It also cut decision time in half.
Even after months of use, staff still agreed with the tool 81% of the time.
How this fits with other research
Dowdy et al. (2024) warn that small graph tweaks can sway human judgment. FADSS removes that risk by using fixed rules.
Chiviacowsky et al. (2013) gave us visual-inspection rules for people. FADSS turns those same rules into automatic Excel formulas.
Contreras et al. (2023) show that other shortcuts, like descriptive assessments, only match FA results half the time. FADSS keeps the gold-standard FA but speeds up the last step.
Why it matters
You can download FADSS today and get a fast, expert-level read of your next FA. No new training, no cost, and you still keep the full experimental control that makes FA the gold standard.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
When applied to functional analysis results, structured visual inspection criteria have resulted in improvements in the levels of agreement between raters as well as earlier identification of the function of challenging behavior. However, multistep criteria can be difficult to apply in real time, which could be a barrier to widespread adoption in practice. This study evaluated a Microsoft-Excel-based functional analysis decision support system (FADSS), which could aid behavior analysts with interpreting functional analysis results. Final overall agreement between the FADSS and post hoc visual inspection was high at 95%. Final overall agreement between the post hoc results generated by FADSS and ongoing results generated by FADSS was acceptable at 81%, representing a 50% increase in efficiency. These results indicate that FADSS could aid behavior analysts when interpreting functional analysis results in real time.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2024 · doi:10.1002/jaba.2901