Citation

Camp EM, Iwata BA, Hammond JL, Bloom SE. J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 2009; 42(2): 469-483.

Affiliation

University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1901/jaba.2009.42-469

PMID

19949538

PMCID

PMC2695355

Abstract

Comparisons of results from descriptive and functional analyses of problem behavior generally have shown poor correspondence. Most descriptive analyses have focused on relations between consequent events and behavior, and it has been noted that attention is a common consequence for problem behavior even though it may not be a functional reinforcer. Because attention may be prescribed simply as a means of stopping serious problem behavior, it is possible that naturally occurring antecedent events (establishing operations) might be better predictors of problem behavior than consequences. We conducted descriptive and functional analyses of the problem behaviors of 7 participants. Conditional probabilities based on combined antecedent and consequent events showed correspondence with the functional analysis data for 4 of the 7 participants, but antecedent events were no better than consequent events in identifying the function of problem behavior.

Language: en