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| Organizational Behavior Management: Feedback and Experimental Designs |
| Sunday, May 25, 2025 |
| 10:00 AM–10:50 AM |
| Convention Center, Street Level, 146 A |
| Area: OBM; Domain: Translational |
| Chair: Davis Simmons (University of Florida) |
| Abstract: Effective feedback provision has been extensively studied in Behavior Analysis and Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). Generally, provision of more immediate, frequent, specific, and accurate feedback will be more effective. Although crucial, feedback provision is only a portion of a dynamic and often interactive feedback process (i.e. communication). Recent investigations of other variables in this feedback process including speaker reactivity, listener acceptance, feedback preferences, and feedback seeking behaviors may advance a fuller understanding of feedback, improve workplace communication and promote better workplace performance. The first study will describe an advancement in teaching feedback reception skills to Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT). The second study will explore the impact of feedback seeking behavior (asking questions) on task performance. Further, understanding common experimental designs in Organizational Behavior Management research is warranted. A third paper will review experimental designs used in OBM research and describe implications for the field. As we seek to answer experimental questions that are harder to measure, concurrent use or expansion of different research designs may allow a more complete answer. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Feedback Reception, Feedback-Seeking Behavior, Research Methodology |
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Using Task Clarification and Feedback to Teach Feedback Reception Skills to Registered Behavior Technicians |
| (Applied Research) |
| DAVID A. WILDER (Florida Institute of Technology), Kira Elizabeth Flynn (Florida Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: Feedback is a common behavioral intervention to address performance issues in a variety of settings. Feedback has been heavily studied in organizational behavior management; most of this research has focused on the parameters of feedback delivery and behaviors of the feedback provider that impact the effectiveness of the feedback delivered. However, only two studies to date have examined how to teach individuals to effectively receive feedback. The current study investigated the efficacy of task clarification and feedback to teach appropriate feedback reception skills to individuals. One participant met mastery criteria of the feedback reception skills with task clarification alone, while two participants required an additional intervention component, performance feedback, to reach mastery criteria. The results of this study show that task clarification was effective in initially increasing feedback reception skills across all participants, however, additional components may be necessary to maintain performance increases. Implications of the present study are discussed and suggestions for future research in the area of feedback reception skills are provided. |
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| Does Feedback Seeking Behavior (FSB) Influence Performance; an Empirical Evaluation of Asking Questions on a Novel Complex Task |
| (Applied Research) |
| DAVIS SIMMONS (University of Florida), Kelcie McCafferty (University of Florida), Malchijah Williams (University of Florida), Nicole Gravina (University of Florida) |
| Abstract: Performance feedback remains one of the most studied and widely effective intervention components to improve workplace performance. Most behavior analytic research on performance feedback involves one-sided top-down delivery by an individual (e.g., a supervisor to an employee) to improve a specific performance target. One-sided delivery may impede information gathering, effective bi-directional communication between the employee and supervisor, mutual problem-solving, and implementation of necessary process-level solutions. A broader analysis that incorporates employee performance feedback seeking behavior (FSB) may encourage employees to seek feedback that is most helpful for them at that time and promote bi-directional communication between them and other employees. For proof of concept, we used a multiple baseline design across undergraduate participants to examine whether asking feedback questions lead to improved procedural fidelity when conducting a preference assessment. Data suggests that asking questions (FSB) can improve performance on a complex task. Implications, future directions, and limitations will be discussed. |
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An Analysis of Research Designs in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (2000-2022) |
| (Theory) |
| Franchesca Izquierdo (Florida Institute of Technology), DANIEL J CYMBAL (Georgia Southern University), Ronald J. Clark (University of Florida), David A. Wilder (Florida Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: Historically, research published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JoBM) has largely used single case or within subject experimental designs. However, recent trends in the use of single case versus other research methodologies in JoBM are unknown. In this study, we examined all issues of JoBM from 2000 through 2022 to identify the type of research design employed (single case, between subjects group, correlational) in empirical articles. When a single case design was used, we also identified the specific type of single case design employed. Results show that 60% of empirical studies employed a single case experimental design and about 20% employed a group experimental design. Although single case designs remain dominant, a slight decreasing trend in their use and an increasing trend in the use of group designs is apparent during the last two decades. The most commonly used single case designs were multiple baseline designs, followed by withdrawal / reversal designs, and multielement / alternating treatments designs. We discuss the implications of these findings for the field of organizational behavior management. |
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