PREFERENCE ASSESSMENT WITHOUT REPLACEMENT 1

Preference Assessment without Replacement

Mary Scanlon

EDU 348
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Introduction

Reinforcement is an important task to learn when working with children and students. As

an educator, it is important to know the different types of reinforcement and the simple changes

that one can make to achieve a desired behavior from a student. According to Shea and Bauer

(2011), it is highly unlikely for a behavior to change if an item that is preferred or desired does

not reinforce it. A preference assessment is a helpful tool to use when determining which items

motivate a student. A preference assessment is a formal assessment that identifies the most

imperative reinforcer and what can be used to increase the student’s motivation in achieving the

desired behavior.

According to Graff and Karsten (2012), there are four different types of preference

assessments. They are single-stimulus; which is when a stimulus is presented to the student

during different trials, paired stimulus; which is when a student must choose between two stimuli

at the same time across multiple trials, multiple-stimulus with and without replacement;

multiple-stimulus with replacement is when students are asked to select an item from a group.

During each trial, every item is presented. Contrarily, multiple-stimulus without replacement is

when stimuli are put in front of a student and they must choose one item that will not be

replaced, lastly, brief free operant; many items are put in front of the student and they can use

any of the items for a five minute period.

In this paper, Multiple-Stimulus Without Replacement will be used to assess which items

the student prefers over the others.

Participant

Tom (pseudonym) is a 7-year-old Caucasian boy in first grade with ADHD and an

intellectual disability. He is homeschooled by his mother and is performing on the lower end of
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the spectrum for a first grade student. Tom plays soccer, football, and basketball on the local

teams in his town. He is a very smart boy and loves to learn. That being said, he has been having

a hard time focusing and gets frustrated when he does not grasp the material that his mother is

teaching him. Because he is not on medication, he struggles with staying on task and completing

assignments, which is leading him to fall behind in his learning. Tom is a twin and was born

prematurely. After birth, he spent a month in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which has been

proven to be a cause for ADHD due to all the stimuli and movement within the incubator and

surrounding environment. Tom does not struggle with any behavioral issues but struggles greatly

with ADHD and his intellectual ability, resulting in low performance levels. Tom has a lisp but it

is not detrimental to his speech. Tom is the second youngest of eight children and is from a very

loving home. The youngest four of the family are all homeschooled together by their mom. They

are from an active environment where they are constantly outdoors. Tom is allowed work with

his older siblings but his mother constantly has to prompt him to stay on task. His mother wanted

a preference assessment performed on him to see what items motivated him and helped him

learn.

Setting

Tom and his family came to visit one weekend and the preference assessment was

performed at a house off campus. To change the setting and scenery, Tom moved throughout

different rooms in the house together when the assessment was performed, while his twin sister

was receiving the same assessment in another part of the house. Tom was administered the

assessment in different rooms such as a bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen. All the rooms

had desks where Tom and the assessor sat side by side from one another. At one point, Tom was

moved to the backyard and performed part of the assessment on the patio to see if his results
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would changed at all. This allowed him to be in different settings and not get tired of the

questioning. The assessment was given on October 7th, 2017 at one in the afternoon.

Materials

For this preference assessment, five materials were used throughout the observation.

Tom’s mother provided him and his twin sister, Clare, similar items to see whether or not the

same objects motivated them. The items used were: play dough, 1 starburst, 3 Lego pieces,

stickers, and small football helmets with different football team logos on them. Tom’s mother

brought items that were found around their house so that she could use them as reinforcement in

the future. His mother gave the assessors these items because both twins enjoy hands-on and

tactile manipulatives. The materials were stored in a plastic bag and were selected at random so

that when the assessment was conducted the assessor could place the items in a different order.

Procedures

The preference assessment chosen for this project was the Multiple Stimulus Without

Replacement. I chose this assessment because we were instructed on how to perform this

assessment in class. I think this assessment is helpful for teachers and parents who are trying to

use positive reinforcement for desired behaviors in their classroom or home life. This assessment

was carried out successfully five times which helped clearly see what interested Tom and what

would help his mother reinforce desired behaviors. Before coming to visit, Tom’s mother told

him that he would be participating in a fun game with his twin sister and that there would be two

instructors.

Before assessing Tom, I made sure that I had my trial list filled out so that the assessment

could be conducted smoothly. Once I took Tom to the room, I explained why I was doing the

assessment and the purpose of the activity. I have met Tom multiple times so he was familiar
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with me and felt comfortable. I mentioned to him that I was doing this assessment so that I could

become a successful teacher and he was thrilled to help me finish my assignment.

When starting the assessment, I explained to Tom that these were his favorite items

selected by his mom. After I set up all the items, I told Tom to choose one item that he wanted to

play with most. Once he selected the item of choice, I let him play with it and then would put the

items back in the bag. I would ask him questions along the way so that he could engage in a

conversation and not get bored with the assessment.

The last session was held outside on the patio and Tom became very distracted by noises,

leaves, squirrels and birds he saw. I could tell he did not want to partake in the assessment

anymore, so I had to keep prompting him and telling him that once we were done we could play

in the yard. I told Tom that at the end the assessment I had a prize for him for being such a good

student and gave him his favorite candy bar, a Twix. This helped to keep him motivated and he

was eager to play outside once we were done.

Results

In order to see which item was most preferred and which item was least preferred the

assessor had to create an equation at the end to see what item was most desired. The total number

of times an item was chosen had to be divided by the total number of times it was presented.

Each item was presented during each session, but once the object was chosen, it was taken away

from the student after they had the chance to play with it. There were not many distractions that

took place during the assessment but from the information gathered, Tom selected the candy

each time. During the last two sessions, Tom was very distracted and did not want to partake in

the assessment any longer, so that may have influenced his last two preferences.
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As the results show, Tom’s hierarchy of preferences is listed below. Tom’s first

preference was starbursts during each session. Second to starburst was the play-doh because it

was chosen five out of the 15 times. Next, the football helmets were selected four out of the 17

times. Then, the legos were chosen three out of the 16 times. Lastly, the stickers had the lowest

impact on Tom because they were chosen two out of the 17 times. It is easy to tell that Tom

prefers starburst to any of the other items and was set on choosing this each time

Session 1 Date: October 7, 2017

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

1 Starburst Y - - - 1
Play-Doh N Y - - 2
Stickers N N Y - 3
Legos N N N N 0
Football Helmets N N N Y 4

Session 2 Date: October 7, 2017

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

1 Starburst Y - - - 1
Play -Doh N N N Y 4
Stickers N N N N 0
Legos N N Y - 3
Football Helmets N Y - - 2
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Session 3 Date: October 7, 2017

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

1 Starburst Y - - - 1
Play Doh N N Y - 3
Stickers N N N N 0
Legos N Y - - 2
Football Helmets N N N Y 4

Session 4 Date: October 7, 2017

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

1 Starburst Y - - - 1
Play-Doh N N N Y 4
Stickers N Y - - 2
Legos N N Y - 3
Football Helmets N N N N 0

Session 5 Date: October 7, 2017

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

1 Starburst Y - - - 1
Play Doh N Y - - 2
Stickers N N N N 0
Legos N N N Y 4
Football Helmets N N Y - 3

Tom’s Hierarchy of Preferences

Items Percentage of Trials Chosen First
Starburst 100% (5 of 5 trials)
Play-Doh 33% (5 of 15 trials)
Stickers 11% (2 of 17 trials)
Legos 18% (3 of 16 trials)
Football Helmets 23% (4 of 17 trials)
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Discussion

After completing this Multiple Stimulus without Replacement preference assessment, it is

clear that candy would be a good reinforcer for Tom’s mother to use. This gives insight into what

motivates Tom and how these items influenced him. For instance, giving Tom stickers would be

the last item to motivate him because he does not find them interesting. Tom enjoyed moving

around during the assessment and changing locations. In the future, Tom’s mother will know to

either use candy or tactile items that keep Tom engaged or interested in the learning.

It is important to note that when using reinforcement, the strongest reinforcement should be

used for the most desired behaviors. For instance, if Tom is struggling with an assignment but

behaves all day and completes the work with little to no disruption, he should be given the

reinforcement that is most effective. Conversely, when Tom is misbehaving but still finishes his

work, he should be given a reinforcer that does not have as much influence. It is important to

know what item reinforces the highest level of performance and which reinforcer only enforces

some effort.

Two things that I would have done differently would have been having the sessions more

spaced out among time and not having his sister Clare in the house. Because Tom was only here

for the weekend, I had a limited amount of time to assess him. If he had been here for longer, I

would have drawn out the assessment and given more time in between. Roane, Vollmer,

Ringdahl, and Marcus (1998) suggest in their article that it is important to wait a period of time

after the assessment before beginning the next sessions with the same items. Tom was also very

concerned with what Clare was doing and wanted to know if she was finished before him. That

being said, as the assessor, I would have picked a different location or time then when his twin

sister was doing it.

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Bibliography

Shea, T. M., & Bauer, A.M. (2011). Behavior management: A practical approach for educators.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Graff, R. B., & Karsten, A. M. (2012). Assessing preferences of individuals with developmental

disabilities: A survey of current practices. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(2), 37-48.

Roane, H. S., Vollmer, T. R., Ringdahl, J. E., & Marcus, B. A. (1998). Evaluation of a brief

stimulus preference assessment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31(4), 605-620.