A translational evaluation of potential iatrogenic effects of single and combined contingencies during functional analysis

Abstract

Recent research suggests that combining putative reinforcers for problem behavior into a single, synthesized contingency may increase efficiency in identifying behavioral function relative to traditional functional analysis (FA). Other research suggests potential shortcomings of synthesized contingency analysis (SCA), such as the potential for false-positive outcomes. In prior comparisons of traditional FAs and SCAs, investigators could not ascertain with certainty the true function(s) of the participants' problem behavior for use as the criterion variable. We conducted a translational study to circumvent this limitation by training a specific function for a surrogate destructive behavior prior to conducting a traditional FA and SCA. The traditional FA correctly identified the previously established function of the target response in all six cases and produced no iatrogenic effects. The SCA produced differentiated results in all cases and iatrogenic effects (i.e., an additional function) in three of six cases. We discuss these findings in terms of the mechanisms that may promote iatrogenic effects.

Keywords: behavioral assessment; functional analysis; iatrogenic effects; induction of novel functions; synthesized contingency analysis.

Figure 1.

Percentage of independent responses for Response One (open circles) and Response Two (closed squares) for all participants during pretraining an operant function. The data labels indicate the progressive prompt delay to physical guidance. Note for Adam and Bobby independent responses sometimes occurred during the 0-s prompt delay due to the participant engaging in the response as the therapist was introducing the establishing operation. EXT = extinction, FR 1 = fixed ratio 1

Figure 2.

Surrogate destructive behavior per minute across sessions for each participant during the initial functional analysis (FA), the synthesized contingency analysis (SCA), and the second FA. A booster session occurred prior to the session marked with an asterisk for Doug.