Preference for social stimuli: A comparison of stimulus modes used in preference assessments
Use short videos in paired-stimulus assessments to keep social-stimulus preference ranks stable for at least a month.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wilson’s team ran paired-stimulus preference assessments with three kinds of social stimuli.
They used short videos, color photos, and simple line drawings of the same people.
Each adult client picked between two items at a time until a full rank list was built.
The whole process was repeated one month later to see which ranks stayed put.
What they found
Video and photo modes gave almost the same first-day rankings.
Drawings shifted the order; some top picks dropped to the middle.
After thirty days, video lists stayed the steadiest, photos moved a little, drawings moved the most.
Downside: making the clips took the longest—about triple the prep time.
How this fits with other research
Butler et al. (2021) watched edible, leisure, and social items for a full year. They saw edible choices stay rock-solid while social items drifted. Wilson now shows that, if you must track social stimuli, video mode can cut that drift down to one month.
Ford et al. (2022) tried single-stimulus tests with dementia patients and found simpler was better. Wilson keeps the paired format but adds a media twist, extending the idea that how you show the item matters as much as the format you pick.
Zeleny et al. (2020) saw food ranks stay frozen even after weeks of therapy. Wilson’s social ranks moved unless videos were used—an apparent contradiction that fades when you note food is eaten daily while social stimuli are harder to standardize.
Why it matters
If you run social-stimulus preference checks for conversation partners, praise clips, or peer faces, shoot a quick 5-second video instead of snapping a photo or sketching a stick figure. You will spend more time up front, but you will not need to re-assess next month. One solid hour of prep can save four weeks of re-ranking later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractSocial stimuli are some of the most commonly used reinforcers. Previous research shows that preference for social stimuli can be identified using paired‐stimulus preference assessments (PSPA) employing various stimulus modes (e.g., pictures of the actual social stimuli). To date, no study has evaluated the correspondence in preference for social stimuli identified via PSPAs completed using three differing stimulus modes. Therefore, this study compared the correspondence in preference hierarchy identified via PSPAs completed using video of the social stimuli (VSM), pictures of the actual social stimuli (PSM‐A), and drawings of the social stimuli (PSM‐D) and whether preference hierarchy remained stable over repeated administration of the PSPAs (i.e., 1 month). Moreover, we assessed participants' preference for the three types of stimulus modes. Results demonstrated that during the initial PSPAs, preference hierarchies were most similar across the PSPAs completed using VSM and PSM‐A, that preference was most stable across repeated administration of the PSPAs completed using the VSM, and that participants' preference for differing stimulus modes was idiosyncratic. Moreover, the PSPAs completed using the VSM required the longest amount of time to create materials and administer the assessment.
Behavioral Interventions, 2024 · doi:10.1002/bin.2034