The Use of Stimulus Preference Assessments to Determine Procedural Acceptability for Participants

The social validity of behavior intervention is rooted in consumer perception. This information is typically garnered through questionnaires and interviews conducted with relevant consumers such as teachers or caregivers. Often, the participants (i.e., the individuals with disabilities receiving the intervention) play less of a role in the assessment of social validity, despite their primary role in intervention. This study examines a procedure for including participants in the assessment of social validity, namely procedural acceptability. Three participants selected their preferred intervention in a paired stimulus preference assessment. Videos presented the intervention options, and participants’ preferred interventions were implemented. These interventions decreased target behavior(s) and increased on-task behavior for all participants. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for use of this procedure and considerations for including participants in social validity assessments.

Comparing Paired-Stimulus Preference Assessments With In-the-Moment Reinforcer Analysis on Skill Acquisition: A Preliminary Investigation

Today, the use of formal preference assessments, including paired-stimulus preference assessments, is widely utilized to help determine which items to use as reinforcers during intervention. A second way to determine potential reinforcers is to analyze multiple dimensions of a stimulus in the moment, a procedure known as in-the-moment reinforcer analysis. Although paired-stimulus preference assessments are widely used, there is no experimental evidence that extensive advance preference assessments actually produce higher rates of learning than in-the-moment reinforcer analysis. The present study compared rates of learning on a simple expressive labeling task when correct responses were reinforced with items selected based on extensive formal paired-preference assessments versus items selected by a teacher using in-the-moment analysis of reinforcer effects. The results indicated no clear difference in skill acquisition, but there were clear differences in terms of efficiency and maintenance.