Clinical Frequencies Recording System: Standardizing staff observations by event recording

Certain aspects of staff performance and resident behavior are less adequately assessed by standardized time sampling procedures than by complete recording of the incidence of specified events. An approach to gathering such data through systematizing the observations of clinical staff — the Clinical Frequencies Recording System — is described. Scores from the Clinical Frequencies System reflect the rate per opportunity with which individual behaviors are performed, with computer summarization providing higher-level behavioral indexes for research and evaluation purposes. Staff training and system implementation are discussed, and reliability and validity data from a system employed on two different treatment units over a period of several years are presented.The research reported in this article was supported, in part, by Public Health Service Grants MH-15553 and MH-25464 from the National Institute of Mental Health.Presented at the 87th Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York City, September 1979, as part of a symposium on New assessment systems for residential treatment, management, research, and evaluation.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VERBAL INSTRUCTION ON TEACHING BEHAVIOR-MODIFICATION SKILLS TO NONPROFESSIONALS1

The effectiveness of a mastery criterion, lecture-based training program for teaching behavior modification to sheltered workshop personnel was evaluated. Staff performance was assessed in terms of: (1) verbal proficiency, as determined from a pre- and posttraining written exam, and (2) application proficiency, as measured by the frequency and appropriateness of staff responses to client behaviors. A direct count was made of the number of positive, negative, and neutral statements following client appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and the number and type of client behaviors ignored. Thus, it was possible to determine the extent of generalization from classroom to applied settings, as well as the appropriateness of lectures for training specific performance skills. Lecture units introduced stimulus control procedures, shaping-chaining, and contingency management. Characteristic features of the training program were frequent testing, study objectives, immediate remediation, and contingent reinforcement. Verbal instruction was shown to be effective in improving subjects' verbal skills concerning behavior-modification principles, while only partially effective in improving application skills. There was an increase in the total number of staff-client interactions observed for all subjects, but only two of the response classes emphasized in the training program (reinforcing desirable client behavior and ignoring undesirable behavior) showed considerable improvement over pretraining levels. Despite this partial improvement, verbal instruction alone was shown to be insufficient for teaching the full range of behavior-modification skills required to function effectively in applied settings.     

A COMPARISON OF INDIRECT MEASURES FOR LONG-DURATION BEHAVIORS1

A computer program was developed to simulate long-duration behavior. The program generated data by using two time-series models linked together by a covariance parameter. By varying the parameters of the program, the characteristics of the simulated behavior were altered, including the mean and variance of the durations of behavior, the mean and variance of the interresponse time, and the degree of relationship within and between durations of behavior and interresponse times. Four data-collection methods were applied to the simulated data: whole interval, partial interval, momentary time-sampling, and continuous measures. The accuracies of the first three recording measures were judged by comparing them to the continuous measure. The results indicated that only the momentary time-sampling approach yielded unbiased results. The degree of bias for the whole and partial interval measures was a function of the ratio of the interval recording length to the sum of the mean duration of behavior and the mean interresponse time. Unfortunately, it was concluded that researchers cannot estimate the magnitudes of these latter two parameters for most behaviors of interest and, consequently, are unable to choose an appropriate interval length. Therefore, it was recommended that the use of interval recording approaches be greatly restricted and that momentary time-sampling be substituted where possible.     

Jeab at 50: coevolution of research and technology

Evidence of how behavioral research and technology have evolved together abounds in the history of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB). Technology from outside the discipline (exogenous), from such disciplines as electronics and computer science, has been adapted for use in behavioral research. Technology from within the discipline (endogenous) has developed from both basic behavioral research and existing apparatus. All of these sources of technology have contributed to the corpus of behavioral research as it has evolved in JEAB. Such research, in turn, has provided the environmental pressure necessary for continuing technological evolution both within and outside the discipline. The new technology thus evolved further spurs research along in novel directions. This dynamic coevolutionary interplay between research and technology is an important variable in the past, present, and future of JEAB.     

ASSESSING OBSERVER ACCURACY IN CONTINUOUS RECORDING OF RATE AND DURATION: THREE ALGORITHMS COMPARED

The three algorithms most frequently selected by behavior‐analytic researchers to compute interobserver agreement with continuous recording were used to assess the accuracy of data recorded from video samples on handheld computers by 12 observers. Rate and duration of responding were recorded for three samples each. Data files were compared with criterion records to determine observer accuracy. Block‐by‐block and exact agreement algorithms were susceptible to inflated agreement and accuracy estimates at lower rates and durations. The exact agreement method appeared to be overly stringent for recording responding at higher rates (23.5 responses per minute) and for higher relative duration (72% of session). Time‐window analysis appeared to inflate accuracy assessment at relatively high but not at low response rate and duration (4.8 responses per minute and 8% of session, respectively).     

心理学研究工具刍议

本文探讨了心理学研究工具的几个侧面：在心理学研究工具的界定问题上,心理学科同时具备自然科学和社会科学属性的学科特殊性,造成了心理学研究工具的多样化,应以一种更宽广的视角来界定心理学研究工具;在心理学研究工具的价值上,本文探讨了研究工具与心理学理论的相互影响和相互关系,理论假设会对工具使用过程造成影响,而工具的使用和发展对理论的建构和发展也有着重要的影响。在心理学研究工具的发展趋势上,在部分科研工具的高端化和精密化的同时,教学演示工具、学生实验仪器、心理测验、心理康复与心理治疗工具表现出不同的发展趋势。     

Enhancing frequency recording by developmental disabilities treatment staff

We evaluated a staff training and management package for increasing accuracy of recording frequency of problem behavior in a residential care facility. A multiple baseline design across the first and second work shifts showed that 2 of 8 participants increased their accuracy following in-service training, and all 8 improved during a condition with supervisor presence and feedback. Improvements were maintained when feedback was removed and generalized to activity periods when neither supervisor presence nor feedback was provided. Other staff behavior was not adversely affected by the intervention package.     

1. On note taking

In this paper the author explores the theoretical and technical issues relating to taking notes of analytic sessions, using an introspective approach. The paper discusses the lack of a consistent approach to note taking amongst analysts and sets out to demonstrate that systematic note taking can be helpful to the analyst. The author describes his discovery that an initial phase where as much data was recorded as possible did not prove to be reliably helpful in clinical work and initially actively interfered with recall in subsequent sessions. The impact of the nature of the analytic session itself and the focus of the analyst's interest on recall is discussed. The author then describes how he modified his note taking technique to classify information from sessions into four categories which enabled the analyst to select which information to record in notes. The characteristics of memory and its constructive nature are discussed in relation to the problems that arise in making accurate notes of analytic sessions.     

Categories in the pigeon brain: A reverse engineering approach

Pigeons are well known for their visual capabilities as well as their ability to categorize visual stimuli at both the basic and superordinate level. We adopt a reverse engineering approach to study categorization learning: Instead of training pigeons on predefined categories, we simply present stimuli and analyze neural output in search of categorical clustering on a solely neural level. We presented artificial stimuli, pictorial and grating stimuli, to pigeons without the need of any differential behavioral responding while recording from the nidopallium frontolaterale (NFL), a higher visual area in the avian brain. The pictorial stimuli differed in color and shape; the gratings differed in spatial frequency and amplitude. We computed representational dissimilarity matrices to reveal categorical clustering based on both neural data and pecking behavior. Based on neural output of the NFL, pictorial and grating stimuli were differentially represented in the brain. Pecking behavior showed a similar pattern, but to a lesser extent. A further subclustering within pictorial stimuli according to color and shape, and within gratings according to frequency and amplitude, was not present. Our study gives proof‐of‐concept that this reverse engineering approach—namely reading out categorical information from neural data—can be quite helpful in understanding the neural underpinnings of categorization learning.