Abstract
Single-case design (SCD), also known as single-case experimental design, single-subject design, or N-of-1 trials, refers to a research methodology that involves examining the effect of an intervention on a single individual over time by repeatedly measuring a target behavior across different intervention conditions. These designs may include replication across cases, but the focus is on individual effects. Differences in the target behaviors and individuals studied, as well as differences in the research questions posed, have spurred the development of a variety of single-case designs, each with distinct advantages in specific situations. These designs include reversal designs, multiple baseline designs (MBD), alternating treatments designs (ATD), and changing criterion designs (CCD). Our purpose is to describe these designs and their application in behavioral research. In doing so, we consider the questions they address and the conditions under which they are well suited to answer those questions.
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Notes
- 1.
Reversal designs, first described by Leitenberg (1973) and later reviewed by Wine et al. (2015), originally referred to a type of design in which the effects of one IV on two topographically distinct DVs (DV 1, DV 2) were repeatedly measured across time. The intervention, such as reinforcement, was presented in each phase but was in effect for either DV 1 or DV 2. The purpose of the use is to show changes in rates of responding when an IV is introduced to DV 1 and withdrawn from DV 2, as the rate of responding for each would change across phases when in the presence or absence of the IV. However, the reversal design as described is rarely used in contemporary behavior analytic literature and is often used interchangeably with withdrawal design.
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Lipien, L., Kirby, M., Ferron, J.M. (2023). Single-Case Designs. In: Matson, J.L. (eds) Handbook of Applied Behavior Analysis. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19964-6_20
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