Operant Behavior and Measurement

Defining and measuring behavior are two of the most foundational skills a behavior analyst must develop. From the onset of their supervision, your supervisees must learn what constitutes a behavior, how to operationally define behavior, and how to accurately and reliably measure behavior. In this chapter, you will introduce your supervisees to the characteristics of an operational definition: objective, measurable, clear, complete, and concise. During the group supervision meeting, you will describe the many measurement systems they will likely employ over the course of their field experience. During the individual supervision meeting, they will gain experience operationally defining behaviors and selecting measurement systems using examples and vignettes before applying these skills with their client. During the final supervision meeting, you will instruct your supervisee to select two client behaviors to define and measure. Your supervisee will select a measurement system and develop a data sheet. You and your supervisee will independently measure the client’s behavior, after which they will calculate interobserver agreement for the two observations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA Tonya N. Davis & Jessica S. Akers

1. Tonya N. Davis