Sharp Rebecca A, Mudford Oliver C, Elliffe Douglas
The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2015 Spring;48(1):153-66. doi: 10.1002/jaba.193.
Deciding on appropriate sampling to obtain representative samples of behavior is important but not straightforward, because the relative duration of the target behavior may affect its observation in a given sampling interval. Work-sampling methods, which offer a way to adjust the frequency of sampling according to a priori or ongoing estimates of the behavior to achieve a preselected level of representativeness, may provide a solution. Full-week observations of 7 behaviors were conducted for 3 students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities. Work-sampling methods were used to select momentary time samples from the full time-of-interest, which produced representative samples. However, work sampling required impractically high numbers of time samples to obtain representative samples. More practical momentary time samples produced less representative samples, particularly for low-duration behaviors. The utility and limits of work-sampling methods for applied behavior analysis are discussed.
确定合适的抽样方法以获取具有代表性的行为样本很重要，但并非易事，因为目标行为的相对持续时间可能会影响在给定抽样间隔内对其的观察。工作抽样方法提供了一种根据行为的先验估计或持续估计来调整抽样频率的方法，以达到预先选定的代表性水平，可能会提供一个解决方案。对3名患有自闭症谱系障碍和智力残疾的学生的7种行为进行了为期一周的观察。使用工作抽样方法从整个感兴趣的时间段中选择瞬时时间样本，从而得到具有代表性的样本。然而，工作抽样需要大量不切实际的时间样本才能获得具有代表性的样本。更实际的瞬时时间样本产生的代表性样本较少，尤其是对于持续时间较短的行为。本文讨论了工作抽样方法在应用行为分析中的效用和局限性。
