Evaluating the use of a multiple schedule as a method for identifying treatment effects

Abstract

Many traditional methods for evaluating behavior (e.g., multiple baseline, alternating treatments, withdrawal, etc.), while effective, can often prove to be time and labor intensive. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a brief methodology for identifying treatment effects. Participants were 2 children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder who exhibited high levels of vocal stereotypy. For both participants, functional analyses showed that the behavior was likely maintained by automatic contingencies of reinforcement. Following the functional assessment, vocal stereotypy was exposed to baseline, motor response interruption and redirection (RIRDm), and vocal response interruption and redirection (RIRDv) conditions using a multiple schedule design. RIRDm and RIRDv procedures were similar to the procedures reported by Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, and Chung (2007). Following the multiple schedule, vocal stereotypy was exposed to the same conditions using a traditional withdrawal design (ABABACAC). A proportional analysis of the data was completed in order to determine whether a difference was obtained between the baseline and treatment conditions. Results showed that use of the multiple schedule produced a consistent treatment effect for one of the participants. Both RIRDm and RIRDv produced lower levels of behavior in treatment relative to baseline. A similar treatment effect was obtained when exposing that participant's vocal stereotypy to both treatments within the traditional withdrawal design.