Experimental Analysis of Precursors to Severe Problem Behavior

Abstract

Some individuals engage in both mild and severe forms of problem behavior. Research has shown that when mild behaviors precede severe behaviors (i.e., the mild behaviors serve as precursors), they can (a) be maintained by the same source of reinforcement as severe behavior and (b) reduce rates of severe behavior observed during assessment. In Study 1, we developed an objective checklist to identify precursors via videotaped trials for 16 subjects who engaged in problem behavior and identified at least 1 precursor for every subject. In Study 2, we conducted separate functional analyses of precursor and severe problem behaviors for 8 subjects, and obtained correspondence between outcomes in 7 cases. In Study 3, we evaluated noncontingent reinforcement schedule thinning plus differential reinforcement of alternative behavior to reduce precursors, increase appropriate behavior, and maintain low rates of severe behavior during 3 treatment analyses for 2 subjects. Results showed that this treatment strategy was effective for behaviors maintained by positive and negative reinforcement.

Precursor behavior and functional analysis: A brief review

“…When behaviors are maintained by their automatically produced consequences, it is unlikely that less severe problem behaviors will result in similar consequences; therefore, response‐class hierarchies will not develop. Fahmie and Iwata (), Fritz et al (), and Smith and Churchill () have suggested that it is unlikely that precursors to severe problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement will be maintained by the same consequence as the severe problem behavior. Nevertheless, it is possible that the logic of PFA could be useful in such situations, particularly if the target behavior is part of a behavior chain or can be broken into subresponses.…”

“…A possible direction for future research is the use of precursor‐assessment procedures as a first step in a functional analytic decision‐making model. Fritz et al’s () trial‐based procedure for identifying precursors is structurally similar to both trial‐based (e.g., Bloom, Iwata, Fritz, Roscoe, & Carreau, ; Sigafoos & Saggers, ) and latency‐based (Thomason‐Sassi, Iwata, Neidert, & Roscoe, ) FA procedures. By extension, it may be possible to use the results of precursor assessments as preliminary evidence about the contingency maintaining severe problem behavior.…”

“…Several replications and extensions of PFA have produced similar outcomes. Five published studies that compared PFA and FA results (Borlase, Vladescu, Kisamore, Reeve, & Fetzer, ; Borrero & Borrero, ; Fritz, Iwata, Hammond, & Bloom, ; Herscovitch, Roscoe, Libby, Bourret, & Ahearn, ; Smith & Churchill, ) showed matches between PFAs and FAs of severe problem behavior for 15 of 16 participants (94%). Results of these and two additional studies that reported measures of severe problem behavior during PFA and baselines (Dracobly & Smith, ; Najdowski, Wallace, Ellsworth, MacAleese, & Cleveland, ) indicated that severe problem behavior was reduced or eliminated during PFA for 17 of 20 cases (85%).…”

“…Fritz et al () evaluated a trial‐based procedure for identifying precursor behaviors. They presented antecedent conditions typical of standard FA conditions (i.e., attention, demand, and tangible) in a discrete trial format.…”

Ethics in sexual behavior assessment and support for people with intellectual disability

“…In the situation in which determination of function for a behavior with a sexual topography is necessary, BCBAs should consider alternate means of functional assessment, such as structural analysis [41], precursor analysis [42], brief functional analysis [43], and single-trial [44,45]. Clinicians must also consider that while sexual behavior has operant properties and is subject to behavioral interventions [32], it is inherently more complex than much of other operant behavior given interactions of hormones, possible medication side effects, social interaction, possible social positive reinforcement, and interaction with media depictions of sexuality combined with vicarious reinforcement, just to name a few.…”