Matching analysis of socially appropriate and destructive behavior in developmental disabilities

This study examined socially appropriate and destructive behavior in unconstrained natural environments using a matching law analysis (MLA) of real time observational data. The participants were two school-age children and one adult with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities. Event lagged sequential analysis (SQA) provided the obtained rates of staff attention to socially appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, which were then used in the matching law equations. For one participant the matching analysis showed a high (72%) variance-accounted-for (VAF) in behavior allocation in response to attention. For a second participant, matching analysis conducted on behavior allocation in response to staff attention showed lower (50%) VAF by staff attention. In the third case, the MLA also showed high (94%) VAF by attention. Suggestions for future extensions of matching analysis to clinically significant behavior and the limitations of the MLA for evaluating functional relationships in natural environments are discussed.