Question: This term is defined as a misleading picture of behavior because of the way the behavior is measured. A phenomenon that can result from using time sampling to measure behavior, and/or having limiting measurement scales and/or scheduling inadequate measurement periods. Answer: Measurement Artifacts.

The scenario is the definition, as well as the causes, all in one. If you can memorize the question, you basically know what you need to know about measurement artifacts. But what’s very important to understand is, a lot of people think that an artifact is a mistake or a bias. Somebody measured incorrectly. But that is not correct. Actually, everything was done appropriately. Whether they were using time sampling or they scheduled the behavior to be observed, the measurement piece was done correctly. But something about the measurement piece creates this misleading picture of the behavior. With time sampling, one of the risks is over and underestimation. So is that data wrong? No. Does that data potentially over and under estimate behavior and therefore is misleading about what happened? Yes.

Limiting measurement scales. If you don’t have a scale that allows the client’s entire potential to be seen, then that is going to be misleading about what they can or cannot do. If you measure a spelling test with ten words, and then claim that this person can spell ten words, that’s not wrong. It’s not incorrect. That is what you measured. But because of that limiting scale, you’re creating a very misleading picture of what that client is able or not able to do. And then, measurement periods that are poorly scheduled. Again, is the measurement correct? Are they measuring what they saw? Yes. So it’s not an error per se, but it can be misleading because that time period didn’t allow equal opportunity for occurrence or non-occurrence or anything to do with the behavior and how it was measured.

Related Content

Validity

Measurement is trustworthy when the measurement that produces data is applicable and specific to the target behavior of interest and the relevant dimension of that behavior; in other words, you…

Reliability

Measurement is trustworthy when the degree to which repeating a measurement procedure under the same conditions produces the same result.

Reactivity

Refers to the changes in an individual’s behavior due to the presence of an observer.

Observer drift

When observers collecting data have a shift/drift in how they interpret the operational definition of the target behavior that affects the validity of their data.

Observer reactivity

When an observer’s data collection or performance is influenced by the awareness that they are being monitored and evaluated.

Measurement artifact

Data that represents an unwarranted and misleading picture of behavior because of how it was measured, typically a product of time-sampling, limiting measurement scales, or poorly scheduled measurement periods.

Measurement bias

When an observer’s measurement is influenced by an expectation or belief they hold rather than what actually occurred.

Interobserver agreement (IOA)

A measurement of the degree to which two or more observers report the same values when observing and collecting data for the same behaviors/events.

Accuracy

The degree to which what was measured (observed value) is representative of what actually occurred (true value); in other words, the data was measured correctly.

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