Implementing Designs

  1. You would like to increase a client’s compliance with evaluating their glucose levels more times throughout the day, in order to better control their diabetes. What design would you select and why? (10 points)
  2. You would like to see the effects that a new computer app has on all (3) of your children’s ability to read site words. What design would you select and why? (10 points)
  3. You would like to determine if classical music or techno helps you write more pages of your dissertation. What design would you select and why? (10 points).
  4. You want to compare the effects of forward and backward chaining on cooking skills. What design would you select and why?

consider a research study you would be interested in conducting – especially if you wish to take EDF 6944 Advanced Single Case Design. Considering all of material from this course, please answer the following prompts that would be in your introduction and methods section.

Introduction (30 points)

a) Topic: Briefly describe your topic of interest and why it is important. Importance should be related to previous research in the field and need to assess the intervention. (5 points)
b) Literature Review: Locate an article related to your topic of interest. Indicate how it is related to your topic of interest. Be sure to cite it in APA style. (5 points)
c) Research Question: Create a research question based on the topic. Remember to include all of the components of a good research question. (10 points)
d) Independent Variable: Identify the intervention or treatment package. (5 points)
e) Dependent Variable: Identify the target behavior(s). (5 points)

Method (70 points)

a) Participant(s): Describe the population and justify why they were selected for your study. (5 points)
b) Measurement Procedure: Identify how you will capture the dependent variable and include whether the measurement you selected is continuous or discontinuous. (10 points)
c) Design: Select one of the single-case designs you learned about and justify the reason for selection. (10 points)
d) Measurement Integrity: Based on your measurement procedure and design, indicate which IOA procedure you will use. (10 points)
e) Procedural Integrity: Describe how you will account for treatment integrity. (5 points)

Method (70 points) Continued

f) Maintenance and Generalization: Describe considerations for maintenance and generalization. (10 Points)
g) Social Validity: Defend how your study has social validity (5 points)
h) Ethical Considerations: Identify any ethical considerations in your research, such as consent, assent, conflicts of interest, etc. (5 points)
i) General: Indicate where your visual display of data be located in a scientific paper. (5 points)
j) General: Indicate where you would place the implications of your results in a scientific paper? (5 points)

Full Answer Section

          Why: This design is perfectly suited for evaluating the effect of a single intervention (the new computer app) on the same target behavior (reading sight words) across multiple individuals (your three children). It allows for the demonstration of experimental control without requiring a reversal phase, which might be undesirable when teaching new skills. You would collect baseline data for all three children, then introduce the computer app to the first child while the others remain in baseline. Once a stable effect is observed for the first child, the intervention is introduced to the second child, and so on. If each child's reading sight words improve only after the app is introduced for them, it provides strong evidence that the app, and not some extraneous variable, is responsible for the change.  

8. Classical Music vs. Techno on Dissertation Writing Pages

  Design Selection: Alternating Treatments Design (Multi-Element Design) Why: The alternating treatments design is highly efficient for comparing the relative effectiveness of two or more distinct interventions (classical music vs. techno) on a single target behavior (pages written) for a single participant (yourself). You would rapidly alternate between sessions where classical music is played and sessions where techno is played, while keeping all other conditions constant. This rapid alternation helps to minimize sequence effects and allows for a direct visual comparison of the data paths for each music type, quickly revealing which intervention leads to more pages written.

Sample Answer

       

Single-Case Research Design Scenarios

   

6. Client Glucose Levels Compliance

  Design Selection: Changing Criterion Design Why: A changing criterion design is ideal when the goal is to gradually increase (or decrease) the rate or frequency of a behavior. In this scenario, the aim is to increase the client's compliance with evaluating their glucose levels more times throughout the day. This design allows for the systematic introduction of successive performance criteria (e.g., first, measure glucose 3 times a day; then, 4 times a day; then, 5 times a day). Experimental control is demonstrated when the client's behavior changes in a step-wise fashion to meet each new, more stringent criterion. This approach is well-suited for shaping behavior and allows the client to build compliance incrementally,