Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Degree Granting Department

Child and Family Studies

Major Professor

Raymond Miltenberger, BCBA-D

Committee Member

Catia Cividini-Motta, BCBA-D

Committee Member

Kimberly Crosland, BCBA-D

Keywords

Feedback, Reactivity, Staff Management, Treatment Integrity

Abstract

Treatment integrity is of great importance in applied behavior analysis because of its influence on skill acquisition and behavior reduction. Staff management procedures have been assessed and found to increase levels of treatment integrity. Despite this, implementers exhibit reactivity to the presence of a supervisor with high levels of treatment integrity when supervisors are present and low levels when they are absent (e.g., Pantermuehl & Lechago, 2015). Researchers have tried to account for the effects of reactivity with limited success. The purpose of the current study was to increase treatment integrity in observer absent conditions by delivering feedback to participants following observer absent observation sessions. Two of the three participants increased their rate of positive social engagements above criterion level following BST and feedback in the observer present condition, but this increase was only seen in the observer present condition. Therefore, the combination of BST and feedback in the observer present condition effectively increased treatment integrity when supervisors were present but did not improve reactivity. The third participant responded above criterion in the observer present condition during baseline and so went straight into feedback in the observer absent condition following BST. After the delivery of feedback in the observer absent condition, the participants exhibited a level change to criterion, so feedback in the observer absent condition increased treatment integrity both with and without feedback in the observer present condition preceding it. Responding during generalization probes was variable for Sam, but remained below criterion for Clover and Alex suggesting that feedback should be delivered in all contexts in which treatment integrity is expected of implementers.

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