So let’s say that I want to see what happens when I spray my cat with water after she scratches the couch. Right now, every time she scratches the couch, I yell at her. So the baseline phase in this example is yelling. I want to test the effects of spraying her with water, so that is the intervention.
What you’re currently doing; the treatment is NOT implemented
The treatment that you want to test
Isn’t the cat the subject in this case? Wouldn’t baseline be the cat’s behaviour of scratching the couch? Wouldn’t yelling be an unsuccessful intervention and then spraying the cat be a different intervention?
I believe that the subject is the behavior of scratching the couch and that yelling is the baseline because that is currently how they are dealing with said behavior.
Wouldnt the treatment of spraying the cat with water cause negative reinforcement and possible cause the cat to become afraid of its owner instead of teaching the cat a positive response/ behavior.