Single Case in the Social Sciences

Comparing the Effectiveness of Restricted-Operant and Free-Operant Teaching Arrangements on Measures of Acquisition and Fluency Outcomes

Andrew Bulla — 2024-10-07

Discrete-trial teaching (DTT), a restricted-operant teaching arrangement, and frequency-building instruction (FBI), a free-operant teaching arrangement, represent two instructional strategies derived from operant conditioning. Researchers and practicing behavior analysts have used both to establish and firm up novel stimulus-behavior relations. Despite the effectiveness of both procedures, few studies have compared the two techniques and assessed the effects on the emergence of fluent responding. The current study extends the research to typically developing college students to directly compare DTT and FBI. We taught participants the numerals 0-10 in unknown foreign languages (i.e., Mandarin, Arabic, and Hindi) using both procedures. Under both conditions, we held constant the number of practice trials and frequency of reinforcement. Results found quicker acquisition under restricted-operant conditions for all participants, though none of the participants met the desired frequency aim prior to the end of the study. We discuss the results of the study in the context of planning for learning across three stages of learning.

Impact of Protagonist Race on Preschoolers’ Engagement and Preferences in Book Reading: A Systematic Replication

Jessica Hardy — 2024-10-07

In this systematic replication, we used an alternating treatments design to examine whether preschoolers’ engagement in book reading activities was greater for books with protagonists of the same race compared to books with protagonists of a different race. Seven of the eight participants were White; one was Black. The books used were identical except for the skin color and hair texture of the protagonists. We measured children’s initiations, responses to questions, passive engagement, and preferences for books. Children’s engagement did not consistently vary based on protagonist.

Systematic Review of Gaps in Single Case Design Research: Evaluation of Study Quality and Rigor Using the Single Case Analysis and Review Framework

Tyler-Curtis Elliott — 2024-10-07

As the use of single case research design (SCRD) to answer socially significant research questions increases, so too should the rigor and quality of those designs. Higher rigor and quality decreases the chance of threats to internal validity and increases the chance of replication, both of which are critical to determining the effectiveness of an intervention. We conducted a systematic review of systematic literature reviews (k =18) that scored the quality and rigor of SCRD papers using the Single Case Analysis and Review Framework (SCARF; Ledford et al., 2023). On a continuous rigor/quality scale of 0-4, the 1,251 articles in all included reviews obtained an average of 2.14 with a standard deviation of 0.62 suggesting large gaps in the rigor/quality of SCRD. We discuss the implications of these gaps and offer recommendations for researchers to increase the rigor and quality of their SCRD studies.

Using Brief Experimental Analysis to Compare the Effects of Reading Comprehension Interventions with a Middle School Student

Katherine A. Graves — 2024-10-07

This study examined the use of a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to efficiently identify effective reading comprehension interventions. BEA offers a swift evaluation of multiple interventions through mini reversals but has previously been mostly applied to reading fluency. The study investigated the impact of the three interventions (i.e., story mapping, reinforcement + corrective feedback, comprehension prompts) on the reading comprehension of an 8th-grade male student performing below grade-level expectations in reading. The results indicated that there were clear differentiated effects across the three interventions, and reinforcement plus feedback resulted in greater changes in skill level. Future research is needed in using BEA to choose an intervention to increase students’ reading comprehension in the classroom.

Letter from the Editor(s)

Cian Brown — 2024-10-07