Association for Behavior Analysis International

The effectiveness of behavioral programs is dependent on the interveners’ accurate and reliable recording of target responses. The current study evaluated the accuracy and reliability of observers’ detection of target responses when two different data sheets were used. Fifteen graduate students working in a University-Based, State-funded Service Delivery Program (USSDP) at a Midwestern University were asked to record the occurrence of target responses depicted in a videotape, while using two different data sheets. Each condition differed only to the extent that each required the participants to use a different data sheet to record the same target responses depicted in the video. Data sheet layouts (i.e. portrait or landscape) differed, as well as column sizes across both data sheets. Results showed that participants detection and recording of the target responses was more accurate and reliable when using data sheets, they were most familiar with (i.e. data sheets with portrait layout and smaller columns), as opposed to newer data sheets (i.e. data sheets with landscape and larger columns). These results provide useful implications for applied settings, and also demonstrate the utility of methods developed by Signal Detection Theory in evaluating observer detection of target behavior.

In large manufacturing companies, it is common practice to hire contractors to do specific activities, especially during periods of high work intensity. The majority of these companies are able to successfully apply behavioral safety protocols such as B-BS (Behavior-Based Safety), giving a higher focus on the increase of numbers concerning safe behavior and decreasing the percentage of accidents and injuries workers are daily exposed to. A multiple baseline approach and a statistical test C has been used to confirm the validity of the final results and to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the B-BS protocol. The study precisely focuses on the effectiveness of the B-BS protocol in relation to external contracting workers. Such work has been implemented in an engineering industry, Trillium Pumps Italy (Gabbioneta PumpsTM), that is specialized in the application of pumps and valves. The results obtained demonstrated the effectiveness of the B-BS protocol also regarding the contractors, with an increase in the number of safe behaviors. The integration, at all levels, of the individuals working in a company (contractors and workers), during a B-BS process, demonstrated it effectiveness in preventing and improving the understanding and application of a culture based on safety.

According to a research in 2019, there are over 10 million people with ASD in China currently, which causes a huge gap of professional therapists in the field of autism treatment. In order to provide effective treatment for people with ASD, a professional post training system is necessary to ensure the overall quality of therapists in this field. Considering the whole world was influenced by COVID-19 in 2020 and the needs of them might have changed a lot, a new questionnaire was designed to find out therapists’ current needs. A total of 202 questionnaires were collected and 185 of them are providing treatment for clients with ASD. The main purpose of the study is to explore the needs of therapists in the field of autism treatment and provide suggestions for institutions and organizations who provide post trainings in this field. Three suggestions are offered for public organizations, private institutions and universities based on the result of this research.

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services (PDC-HS) is an indirect assessment used to identify environmental variables contributing to deficiencies in job performance. The PDC-HS is quickly becoming popular among human service organizations (Wilder et al., 2020) and was designed to be completed by managers, however no research exists providing guidance on appropriate informants. In the current study, the PDC-HS was completed by both administrative (i.e., managers) and non-administrative (i.e., direct care staff) employees for a variety of performance improvement initiatives (PII) in an inpatient hospital unit. These initiatives were aimed to improve employee performance in the following areas: staff call outs, switching shifts, adjustments to time clock documentation, providing positive feedback, compliance with written reviews, hand hygiene, annual competency completion, vaccination requirements, treatment fidelity, and reporting injuries. Results indicated that administrative and non-administrative employees identified the same domains across PII on average 58% of the time, suggesting multiple informants may strengthen the validity of the PDC-HS. We also found the most commonly identified domain was Performance Consequences, Effort, and Competition. Implications surrounding these findings are discussed.