Instruction in Functional Assessment, 2014a

Instruction in Functional Assessment Chapter 2
one day or during the same hour). This design is also known as alternating treatment or
simultaneous treatment research design (Martin & Pear, 2011). The conditions are alternated
across days (e.g., Day 1: attention, demands, alone, play; Day 2: demands, alone, play,
attention, etc.) to reduce the confounding effects of order. Like an ABAB research design,
the purpose of the multielement research design is to determine which of several conditions
or treatments produce a change in the behavior of interest. The difference in levels
of the challenging behavior between conditions is evaluated to determine which condition
affects the behavior most. In the following graphical presentation of FAn seen in Figure 3,
the frequency of aggressive behavior is highest in the attention condition compared to the
other conditions providing experimental evidence that attention positive reinforcement is
maintaining the individual’s aggressive behavior.
Figure 3
An example of a multielement research design to determine the effects of attention, demands,
play, and tangible conditions on an individual’s frequency of aggressive behavior
The following is an example of the steps involved in conducting
Example of a functional analysis procedure using a multielement research design:
Define the problem behavior.
In a controlled setting, present 10 min where the attention condition is in
effect and instances of the problem behavior are recorded.
5 min break.
Present 10 min of the demand condition
5 min break
Present 10 min play condition
5 min break
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