LECT 51

TREATMENT INTEGRITY(Peterson et al., 1982)

Treatment integrity: Was the ___ implemented as the experimenter _____________ it to be?

Double standard in applied research:

• Researchers often _______ the DV, but not the IV

• Assume IV is implemented _________

• Operational definitions of observed behavior (DV), but not to those behaviors when they are ____

LECT 52

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

Example: A teacher is supposed to give a token to a student every 5 min (IV) if the child does not emit disruptive behavior (DV). Does the teacher actually give the tokens on time and only when the child behaves correctly?

Example: A therapist is supposed to deliver verbal praise (IV) to a child every time the child correctly matches words to pictures (DV). Does the therapist deliver praise every time? What exactly does “praise” consist of?

• Demonstration of a functional relationship requires measurement of _____ the IV and DV.

• Is experimental control enough? ______________ doesn’t mean that the IV was

implemented effectively.

LECT 53

What happens if the IV is not implemented properly? Bad treatment may be judged effective

e.g., Experimenter was supposed to deliver praise after a child correctly identified letters, but the researcher gave the child more time to respond in treatment than in baseline,

e.g., Extraneous variables may have affected treatment - therapy for social phobia using homework based practice sessions may not have worked (participants did not actually practice at home), but participants reported less social fear to make up for it.

Otherwise effective treatments may be ineffective – hard to tell why they were ineffective

e.g., token economy didn’t work, why? (maybe because the researchers didn’t deliver tokens when they were supposed to)

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

LECT 54

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

Treatment integrity as threat to _______________ - Conclusions may be questionable because changes

cannot be ___________ to changes in the IV If behavior changes does not occur, you don’t know if it

was because the treatment was ineffective or the IV wasn’t ________________________

Treatment integrity as threat to ______________ - If the IV was not implemented well, it may be hard to

__________ the study

Gresham et al. (1993)

LECT 55

Considerations of treatment integrity:

1. __________________ – change in how IV is implemented across time

2. ____________- therapist might adhere to treatment more when being observed

3. _________________ -report observing what the therapist was supposed to be doing

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

LECT 56

Do researchers report treatment integrity?

Peterson et al. (1982) Studies between 1968-1980 20% of studies between reported treatment integrity 16% reported operational definitions of the IV.

Gresham et al. (1993) Studies with children between 1980-1990 54% provided operational definitions of the IV 15.8% systematically measured and reported levels of treatment

integrity 8.9% monitored treatment integrity

Conclusions: Most studies did not report the _________ with which independent variables were implemented (i.e., treatment integrity

LECT 57

Ensuring treatment integrity:

Investigators should provide clear __________________ of IV when it involves behavior (same as with DV)

Record___ behaviors along with DV behaviors & calculate IOA

________ those who deliver treatment

Informal _________

Compare measures of IV to value ____________________ (i.e., against what the experimenter intended)

_____________ treatment delivery as much as possible

Researchers should measure treatment integrity across ___________, __________, and ___________

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

LECT 58

Conditions to Watch Out For

• Treatments that are________, _______, or _____ (hard to implement)

• Paraprofessional or ____-management

• ____________ procedures (treatment agent may implement only parts that they like)

• ________ trained therapists

• Complicated experimental designs

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

LECT 59

Treatment integrity important in laboratory research too: ___________________ __________________________

Ensuring treatment integrity in the laboratory: Researcher should ____ programs (play pigeon/subject) Researchers should frequently test ____________ Researchers should report __________ values of IV as

well as ____________ values,

• e.g., obtained delays to food, obtained amounts of food,

TREATMENT INTEGRITY

LECT 510

What concerns about treatment integrity should you have?

A researcher is investigating the effects of a new anti-depressant drug on depression. Participants are to take the drug daily for 3 months.

A study is investigating whether music type, e.g, rock or classical, affects learning in students. The students are to listen to each music type 30 min while studying, and then later take a test.

Experimenters are interested in whether clicker training (using sounds paired with food rewards) is better than traditional training techniques (food and petting) in teaching dogs to behave appropriately: sit, stay, and return to owner.

A program is investigating whether overcorrection is effective in reducing severe disruptive behavior in a young male with a developmental disability. When the boy throws chairs at mealtime, he is required to pick up the chairs and straighten all of the chairs and tables in the dining room.