Assignment task: Introduction
Behavior analytic research has clearly demonstrated its efficacy in changing behavioral excesses and deficits exhibited by numerous populations, including individuals with autism and other related developmental disabilities. A growing area of behavior analytic research is caregiver training. Our article for this today by Sarokoff and Sturmey (2004) exams the use of behavioral skills training (BST) to train teachers to implement discrete-trial training.
Sarokoff, R. A. and Sturmey, P. (2004), THE EFFECTS OF BEHAVIORAL SKILLS TRAINING ON STAFF IMPLEMENTATION OF DISCRETE-TRIAL TEACHING. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37: 535-538. doi:10.1901/jaba.2004.37-535
Instructions:
Please read the Sarokoff and Sturmey article and answer the following questions concerning the behavioral skills training and experimental design. Please make sure you answer using your own conceptualization of the material. Do not simply copy sections from the journal that pertain to each question. The easiest way to do this is to answer as if you were describing the study to a colleague.
1. Describe the dependent variable. Make sure you provide a summative statement of the dependent variable, though also provide the specific details of such.
2. Describe the staff training procedure. Again, you can label the particular variables, but make sure you provide a bit of detail for each.
3. Describe the data (Figure 1) in terms of any trends, level, and variability with each participant for each phase (Baseline and Treatment for each participant).
4. Why was the multiple baseline design the best experimental design for this evaluation?