A methodological review of preference displacement research

Abstract

The purpose of this review was to identify and compare methodological components of preference displacement research and outcomes. We coded, categorized, and defined patterns of preference displacement for a total of 133 participants across 10 studies. We found that patterns of displacement differed within and across studies, and over 46% of participants did not engage in patterns of displacement. Therefore, the commonly held notion that edible stimuli are more likely to displace tangible stimuli is not as ubiquitous as once thought. However, due to considerable variation in methodology and reporting across reviewed studies, it is difficult to determine what variables may be responsible for obtained study outcomes. We conclude that future researchers consider the importance of each methodological variable coded in our review, and make methodological decisions in the context of the research question they are looking to answer. We also provide additional suggestions for future research and clinical practice.

An examination of stimulus technology level and preference displacement during multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments

“…Participants received 60 s access to preferred items during all preference and reinforcer assessments across the high‐tech and low‐tech conditions. Additionally, this study is the only study to date that used 60 s access to leisure items—prior research primarily provided 15–30 s access (White et al., 2021). Future research may extend these findings by examining displacement effects of high‐tech and low‐tech items while examining the effects of manipulating magnitude perhaps using procedures similar to Clark et al.…”

“…White et al. (2021) conducted a methodological review of preference displacement research. Their review of 10 published studies identified that complete displacement of leisure items by edible items occurred in only 30% of participants across the reviewed studies.…”

“…White et al. (2021) also noted that all reviewed studies examined preference displacement with edible and leisure stimuli.…”

Analysis of four measures of positional bias within a multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment

“…Recent preference assessment studies have focused on preference displacement (e.g., Slanzi et al, 2020;White et al, 2021) and preference stability (e.g., Butler & Graff, 2021;MacNaul et al, 2021;Melanson et al, in press). For both preference displacement and preference stability, positional bias may influence their findings.…”

“…A research agenda on positional bias in MSWO assessments would not only allow researchers to understand how to systematically measure bias in an MSWO assessment but also to develop standardized bias levels. Recent preference assessment studies have focused on preference displacement (e.g., Slanzi et al., 2020; White et al., 2021) and preference stability (e.g., Butler & Graff, 2021; MacNaul et al., 2021; Melanson et al., in press). For both preference displacement and preference stability, positional bias may influence their findings.…”