Functional analysis screening for multiple topographies of problem behavior

Bell and colleagues watched an ongoing functional analysis. While it ran, they looked at six extra problem behaviors that had not been tested.

They asked: can we tell what keeps these other behaviors going just by eyeballing their pattern inside the same session? No extra conditions, no added time.

Visual inspection matched the true function for five of the six extra topographies. That is 83 percent correct without running a single new condition.

Some behaviors even showed clear sub-functions, like escape-to-attention, that later tests proved right.

Dougherty et al. (1994) told us to test each topography on its own. Bell keeps that idea but shows you can sometimes read the answer while the first test is still running.

LeFrancois et al. (1993) already showed that minute-by-minute trends inside one session can replace a long FA. Bell widens the trick to extra behaviors that pop up on the side.

Morris et al. (2023) did the same mine-extra-data move for sociability. Together these papers say: look deeper inside the session you already have before adding more.

You can shave hours off assessment. When a second or third behavior appears, pause and graph its level across the four standard conditions. If the pattern lines up with the primary function, you can move straight to treatment instead of starting a whole new FA.