Evaluation of a latency-based competing stimulus assessment (LBCSA)
Abstract
A competing stimulus assessment (CSA) is used in the treatment of automatically maintained problem behavior to identify items that compete with the sensory consequences that are associated with the targeted problem behavior. The proposed study aims to evaluate a more efficient means of conducting a CSA by evaluating the effectiveness of a latency-based competing stimulus assessment (LBCSA). During the LBCSA, a therapist presented potential competing stimuli to the participants, and contingent on the occurrence of problem behavior the session was terminated. The results of this study indicated that the items identified as long latency to problem behavior were effective in competing with the hypothesized sensory consequences relative to items identified as short latency to problem behavior for two out of three participants. Subsequently, the LBCSA effectively increased the efficiency of evaluating competing stimuli by systematically decreasing the amount of time it took to evaluate these items.
Degree
M.S.