ABA Data, Scientific Rigor - A Stitch in Time Podcast 8 - A Stitch in Time ABA technical concepts covered in this podcast: Data collection; measurement; determinism; empiricism; topography; operationalize; frequency; intensity; duration; range; mean; latency; philosophic doubt; functional equivalence; replacement behaviour; social positive reinforcement; extinction; positive punishment; feedback reinforcement; scientific rigor; inter-observer agreement; pattern analysis; validity; normative vs single-subject data; baseline; reliable indicators; functional equivalence; variability; fidelity; maintenance; generalization. Presenters - Bobbi Hoadley, Cathy Knights. The ups and downs of data and statistics are touted as the best consumer tool in our digital economy, and certainly for behaviour change. A stitch in time saves nine. If you identify it quickly, or fix right away the problem is smaller. In behaviour analysis, a lot of us are all about the data. The word data can strike fear in someone's heart – it can be very intimidating. The whole idea of taking data, puts me in the category of being a nerd. But we all use it. For example, buying a car - I knew I wanted certain things such as a colour, engine type, etc. I did research. You can go online and get all kinds of data about anything – the criteria are going to be different between you and I. Any intelligent person who wants to make a good decision will collect data. There are some behaviour analysts that focus more on the data than the person – we need to do a better job of teaching the humanistic side of our technology. In order to get good data, you need to be a person who clears your head of bias. All behaviour is quantifiable. For example, count frequency and intensity of behaviour. First thing we do is to describe behaviour and ask questions that move people into clear descriptions – tell me what you see, not what you think. A topography is a description that is operationalized, e.g. he trips, he pushes, and he'll hit someone from behind. Then I'll ask how often does it occur? When you're focused on bad behaviour you anticipate it all the time. I'll ask, does it happen 3 times an hour? Does it happen 3 times a day? Or 3 times a week? What's the most and the least it could possibly happen? Then we want to know the intensity - often I'll get people to show me, does it leave a bruise? Show me how hard that hit was. Often it's not that aggressive or violent. I can usually tell by the way they're talking about it how much violence is in there. If I can sense from them a lot of anxiety and fear, then I know there is probably a lot of violence to it. If it's a push, do they fall over, cause an accident? Sometimes we'll find that some behaviours termed as "aggressive" or "violent" are actually little warnings that people need to pay attention to and say "Oh I'm sorry you're overwhelmed, I'll get out of your space". Then we teach the person to use words instead of that push. How much impact on the environment and how much does the environment change? How long does it last, the duration? In a recent case, we had someone violent towards everyone in the facility. They would have very brief outbursts of swearing that lasted 30 seconds, so we got them to start saying as soon as he recovered-good control. We ended up preventing all the greater, more challenging behaviours. What they were actually doing was reinforcing his anger management – getting control. They were lumping that in with truly violent things. We took the high level ones and said there was zero tolerance with a natural consequence of calling 911 right away. For the low level behaviours, he could be cued to get control or withdraw. When I get staff to collect data, we get staff to look for productive behaviour. We are building in the reinforcement of the alternate behaviours and focus