1.8 Using Baseline to Describe Data
Let’s say this is a graph of my cat scratching in baseline when I’m yelling at her. I can describe this data as being generally around 15 scratches per day.
Purposes of Baseline
DESCRIBE
the behavior
PREDICT
what would happen if baseline continued
Based on the graph, we can see that the scratches raise up to 17times after first day yelling, drops to 14 times on the forth day. However, sharp up to 19 times on fifth, then sharp drops to 11 times on the seventh day. It backs to 18 times on the eighth day, and keep 16 times on the ninth and tenth. All in all, the average of scratches time even higher before the yelling treatment. We can see the yelling intervention does not help, so, we need to stop yelling and change the treatment.
You made a great observation! The fluctuations in the data clearly show that yelling isn’t reducing the scratching behavior, in fact, it seems to make it worse. I agree that it’s a good idea to stop the yelling and try a more positive or supportive intervention.
I totally agree too!
Looking at this graph it seems like the scratching behavior starts fairly high and continues to bounce around a lot even if yelling is happening. There is no clear decrease outside of session 7, which appears to be more of an outlier than a consistent change due to intervention implementation.
I agree, the scratching doesn’t consistently go down after the yelling, so it doesn’t seem to be helping. It would be better to try a different intervention.
I can predict that the cat is scratching roughly 15 times a day. Over the 10 days it is tracked, the behaviour went as high as 18 times on one day and as low as 12 times on day 7. Based on this baseline graph, I can predict that the scratching will not stop if I continue just yelling at the cat.
I agree! The cat’s scratching is generally fluctuating around 15 times per day, but it did increase slightly. However, it also decreased, the data was rather unpredictable.
Based on the graph, the cat is scratching is not very consistent and tends to bounce around a lot. Thus, the cat scratching treatment is likely not working. If the baseline continued, it would continue to bounce around unpredictably.