An In-Depth Analysis of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist – Human Services (PDC-HS)

Abstract

The current study aims to assess a digital version of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist – Human Services (PDC-HS; Carr et al., 2013; Carr & Wilder, 2016). In Experiment 1, within three non-concurrent multiple baseline designs, three groups of participants (i.e., a Traditional PDC-HS group, a Baseline Control group, and a Digital PDC-HS group) were tasked with solving a 3x3 sliding puzzle across three conditions. Participants in the Traditional and Digital PDC-HS groups experienced baseline, domain manipulation, and barrier removal conditions. Participants in the Baseline Control group experienced baseline contingencies across all three conditions. During the baseline condition, participants were presented with an online version of a 3x3 sliding puzzle and simply asked to solve it. During the domain manipulation condition, participants were asked to solve the puzzle again, however, some barriers were removed to promote fluent puzzle solving. During the barrier removal condition, participants were asked to solve the puzzle again immediately after receiving behavioral skills training on how to solve the puzzle fluently. All participants were administered the PDC-HS after completing the first and second conditions; participants in the Traditional PDC-HS group were administered the PDC-HS via interview and participants in the Digital PDC-HS and Baseline Control groups were administered the PDC-HS via Qualtrics® Research. Participants in Experiment 2 experienced the same procedures as Experiment 1; however, modifications were made to the barriers removed in the domain manipulations condition. In both Experiments 1 and 2, the majority of participants in both the Traditional and Digital PDC-HS groups only solved the puzzle following behavioral skills training, suggesting lack of training was the barrier to fluent task completion. The results of Experiment 1 indicated that while both the Digital and Traditional PDC-HS identified Training as barrier, other domains were identified as well. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the Traditional PDC-HS may accurately identify barriers within a manufactured work environment. Taken together, these findings, and the viability of a Digital PDC-HS, are discussed in the context of existing literature as well as next steps toward improved validation of the PDC-HS.