An evaluation of the effects of experimenter control of objects on individuals' engagement in object stereotypy.

In two experiments, the authors evaluated the extent to which (a) individuals preferred engaging in object stereotypy versus observing an experimenter while the experimenter engaged in object stereotypy and (b) an experimenter's engagement in object stereotypy decreased the participants' engagement in object stereotypy. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that behaver-controlled (BC) object stereotypy was preferred over experimenter-controlled (EC) object stereotypy by three of four participants. Results of Experiment 2 indicated that EC object stereotypy decreased object stereotypy for only one of three participants.

A comparison of reliability measures for continuous and discontinuous recording methods: inflated agreement scores with partial interval recording and momentary time sampling for duration events.

The authors evaluated the extent to which interobserver agreement (IOA) scores, using the block-by-block method for events scored with continuous duration recording (CDR), were higher when the data from the same sessions were converted to discontinuous methods. Sessions with IOA scores of 89% or less with CDR were rescored using 10-s partial interval recording (PIR) and 10-s momentary time sampling (MTS). Results indicated that IOA scores for 10-s PIR and 10-s MTS were consistently higher than IOA scores based on CDR for the same sessions.