Roane, H. S., Vollmer, T. R., Ringdahl, J. E., & Marcus, B. A. (1998).
Evaluation of a brief stimulus preference assessment.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
31, 605-620.
We evaluated the utility of a brief (5-min) stimulus preference
assessment for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Participants had noncontingent (free) access to an array of
stimuli and could interact with any of the stimuli at any time.
Stimuli were never withdrawn or withheld from the participants
during a 5-min session. In Experiment 1, the brief preference
assessment was conducted for 10 participants to identify
differentially preferred stimuli, and reinforcer assessments were
conducted to test the reinforcing efficacy of those stimuli
identified as highly preferred. In Experiment 2, a comparison was
conducted between the brief preference assessment and a commonly
used paired-stimulus preference assessment. Collectively, results
demonstrated that the brief preference assessment identified
stimuli that functioned as reinforcers for a simple operant
response, identified preferred stimuli that were differentially
effective as reinforcers compared to nonpreferred stimuli, was
associated with fewer problem behaviors, and required less time
to complete than a commonly used paired-stimulus preference
assessment.
DESCRIPTORS: reinforcer, preference, concurrent operants,
developmental disabilities