New England Center for Children and Northeastern University, USA.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2009 Summer;42(2):425-46. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2009.42-425.
This study compared the outcomes of three descriptive analysis methods-the ABC method, the conditional probability method, and the conditional and background probability method-to each other and to the results obtained from functional analyses. Six individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental delays and exhibited problem behavior participated. Functional analyses indicated that participants' problem behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement (n = 2), social negative reinforcement (n = 2), or automatic reinforcement (n = 2). Results showed that for all but 1 participant, descriptive analysis outcomes were similar across methods. In addition, for all but 1 participant, the descriptive analysis outcome differed substantially from the functional analysis outcome. This supports the general finding that descriptive analysis is a poor means of determining functional relations.
本研究比较了三种描述性分析方法（ABC 法、条件概率法和条件及背景概率法）之间的结果，并将其与功能分析的结果进行了比较。六名被诊断为发育迟缓且表现出问题行为的个体参与了研究。功能分析表明，参与者的问题行为是由社会正强化（n=2）、社会负强化（n=2）或自动强化（n=2）维持的。结果表明，除了 1 名参与者外，所有方法的描述性分析结果都相似。此外，除了 1 名参与者外，描述性分析结果与功能分析结果有很大差异。这支持了描述性分析是确定功能关系的一种较差方法的一般发现。
