TEACHING BEHAVIOR TECHNICIANS TO CREATE PUBLICATION-QUALITY, SINGLE-CASE DESIGN GRAPHS IN GRAPHPAD PRISM 7

In this investigation, we (a) define the desirable features of publication-quality, single-case design graphs based on recommendations in the scholarly literature, (b) suggest GraphPad Prism as a suitable graphing program for creating graphs with those features, and (c) develop and validate a video-modeling tutorial designed to train behavior technicians to create such graphs. Our review identified nine commonly recommended features, and Prism facilitated the creation of graphs with those features. We evaluated the effects of a video-modeling tutorial on graphing performance in Prism using a multiple-baseline design. All four technicians showed mastery-level graphing accuracy with accompanying increases in efficiency following training, which maintained at follow-up without direct feedback from an expert behavior analyst. Social-validity measures found the posttraining graphs to be significantly better than publication quality. We discuss these findings relative to challenges of developing efficient and effective staff-training tutorials.