Use of Operant-to-Operant Interval Data in the Applied Analysis of Academic Behavior

Abstract

Two elementary school students worked in a programmed math text under three conditions: baseline, response cost, and bonus points. Data in the form of percent of time attending did not reflect changes in performance across conditions although the amount of work produced did vary considerably. To obtain greater precision, operant-to-operant intervals were obtained by having the subjects press a footswitch each time they completed a frame. The footswitch operated an event recorder. The results indicated operant-to-operant interval data were more sensitive than percent attending data and provided useful information not available through the attending data or the data based on total amount of work produced per session.