Abstract
Recent research has demonstrated that conducting safety observations increases the safety performance of the observer. The purpose of this study was to help determine whether observers make self-verbalizations regarding their own safety performance and whether these reports are functionally related to safety performance. In order to answer these questions two experiments were conducted using both protocol analysis and the silent dog method. The objective of Experiment 1 was (a) to determine whether safety performance with continuous, concurrent talk-aloud procedures is functionally equivalent to safety performance without talk-aloud reports, and (b) to determine whether that safety performance is altered when participants are presented with a distracter task. The goal of Experiment 2 was to determine whether the safety-related verbalizations made by Experiment 1 participants were task-relevant and functionally related to safety performance. The results from both Experiments 1 and 2 provide support for the existence of a functional relationship between safety-related verbalizations and increases in safety performance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agnew, J. L., & Redmon, W. K. (1992). Contingency specifying stimuli: The role of “rules” in organizational behavior management. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 12(2), 67–74.
Alvero, A. M. & Austin, J. (2003). The observer effect. In T. McSween (Ed.), The values-based safety process (2nd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Alvero, A. M., & Austin, J. (2004). The observer effect: The effects of conducting behavioral observations on the behavior of the observer. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 457–468.
Austin, J., & Delaney, P. F. (1998). Protocol analysis as a tool for behavior analysis. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 15, 41–56.
Baer, D. M. (1977). Perhaps it would be better not to know everything. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 167–172.
Ball, C. T., Langholtz, H. J., Auble, J., & Sopchak, B. (1998). Resource-allocation strategies: A verbal protocol analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 76, 70–88.
Bhaskar, R., & Simon, H. A. (1977). Problem solving in semantically rich domains: An example from engineering thermodynamics. Cognitive Science, 1, 193–215.
Blakely, E., & Schlinger, H. (1987). Rules: Function-altering contingency-specifying stimuli. The Behavior Analyst, 10, 183–187.
Doyle, A. C. (1892). The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Reprinted in Sherlock Holmes: Complete novels and stories (Vol. 1, pp. 455–477). New York: Bantam Books, 1986.
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data. (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hayes, S. C., & Nelson, R. O. (1983). Similar reactivity produced by external cues and self-monitoring. Behavior Modification, 7, 183–196.
Hayes, S. C., White, D., & Bissett, R. T. (1998). Protocol analysis and the “silent dog” method of analyzing the impact of self-generated rules. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 15, 57–63.
Huitema, B. E. (1985). Autocorrelation in applied behavior analysis: A myth. Behavioral Assessment, 7, 107–118.
Kanfer, F. H., & Gaelick-Buys, L. (1991). Self-management methods. In F. H. Kanfer & A. P. Goldstein (Eds.), Helping people change (4th ed.) (pp. 305–360). New York: Pergamon.
Komaki, J. (1986). Toward effective supervision: An operant analysis and comparison of managers at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 270–279.
Komaki, J., Barwick, K. K., & Scott, L. R. (1978). A behavioral approach to occupational safety: Pinpointing and reinforcing safe performance in a food manufacturing plant. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 434–445.
Komaki, J., Heinzmann, A. T., & Lawson, L. (1980). Effect of training and feedback: Component analysis of a behavioral safety program. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65, 261–270.
Krause, T. R. (1997). The behavior-based safety process. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Malott, R. W. (1992). A theory of rule-governed behavior and organizational behavior management. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 12(2), 45–65.
Mawhinney, T. C., & Austin, J. (1999). Using concurrent verbal reports to examine data analyst verbal behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 18(4), 61–81.
McSween, T. E. (2003). The values-based safety process (2nd ed). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (1998). OSHA Ergonomics Report DT931018 [Data file]. Available from: http://www.oshaslc.gov/SLTC/ergonomics/ergo-hiosh.html.
Office of Health and Safety Information System. (1998). Safety manuals [Data file]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/od/ohs/default.htm.
Parsonson, B. S. (1999). Evaluating experimental and quasi-experimental field data. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 18(4), 47–51.
Parsonson, B. S., & Baer, D. M. (1992). The visual analysis of data, and current research into the stimuli controlling it. In T. R. Kratochwill, & J. R. Levin (Eds.), Single-case research design and analysis: New directions for psychology and education (pp. 15–40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Perone, M. (1988). Laboratory lore and research practices in the experimental analysis of human behavior: Use and abuse of subjects’ verbal reports. The Behavior Analyst, 11, 71–75.
Rachlin, H. (1974). Self-control. Behaviorism, 2, 94–107.
Sasson, J. (2002). Examining the effects of conducting behavior-based safety observations. Unpublished master’s thesis, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.
Schlinger, H. D. (1993). Separating discriminative and function-altering effects of verbal stimuli. The Behavior Analyst, 16, 9–23.
Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Fellner, D. (1984). Searching for performance targets in the behavioral analysis of occupational health and safety: An assessment strategy. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 6(2), 53–65.
Wulfert, E., Dougher, M. J., & Greenway, D. E. (1991). Protocol analysis of the correspondence of verbal behavior and equivalence class formation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 56, 489–504.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The research presented in this manuscript was part of the first author’s dissertation work at Western Michigan University, which was funded, in part, by the Western Michigan University Graduate College Travel and Research Grant. Some of the data from this paper were previously presented at the 29th Annual Convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis in San Francisco, CA.
The authors would like to extend many thanks to all of the research assistants who helped with the extensive data collection process.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alvero, A.M., Austin, J. An Implementation of Protocol Analysis and the Silent Dog Method in the Area of Behavioral Safety. Analysis Verbal Behav 22, 61–79 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393027
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393027