An evaluation of multiple stimulus with replacement preference assessment variations : effects on motivation

This experiment evaluated the differential effects of three Multiple Stimulus With Replacement preference assessment variations on the motivation of four participants with developmental disabilities to respond to a mastered task. No discernible difference was demonstrated between the Five Pre-Session Choices condition and the Five Within-Session Choices conditions, suggesting that the timing of choice opportunities did not affect motivation, demonstrated through lack of differentiation in a multi-element experimental design for the dependent variables of Latency to Task Initiation, Total Task Duration, Percentage Correct Responding, or No-Responses. Subsequently, a One Pre-Session Choice condition was initiated to evaluate the efficacy of a preference assessment method with lower practitioner response effort. The introduction of this condition also resulted in undifferentiated data. Implications and future research are discussed.