The role of assessment in identifying effective teaching interventions

Abstract

Experimental analyses are designed to identify the variables maintaining responding, the results of which can be used to develop a treatment that directly addresses the function of the behavior. Experimental analyses of acquisition are a means to quickly compare treatment alternatives to identify the conditions that are likely to result in child learning. Assessment conditions are typically designed to identify skill versus performance deficits, and a number of variations in experimental arrangement have been reported. The purposes of the current study were to (a) replicate the results of previous research, specifically those obtained by Lerman et al. (2004), with a younger population with no known diagnoses and (b) compare three experimental designs in terms of efficiency and validity. The methodology designed by Lerman et al. was sufficient to identify an effective intervention for 20 of the 23 tasks that were assessed in Study 1. Results of Study 2 indicated that the brief multielement design was most efficient while the standard reversal was most efficacious. Given these findings, potential modifications to the assessment arrangement to enhance efficiency, while maintaining a high degree of predictive validity, are discussed.