Dead man's test
The dead man's test says that if a dead person could do it, it is not behavior and should not be used as a target.
The test is a quick check that a target describes real, active behavior. A dead person can be quiet, stay seated, not hit, not cry and not leave the room. None of those are behaviors, so data on them cannot be collected in a meaningful way and reinforcing them is unclear. The test is credited to Ogden Lindsley, who proposed it as a guide for writing targets.
When a goal fails the test, it is rewritten as something the person does. "Not hitting" might become "keeping hands in lap or on materials" or "asking for a break during hard tasks". "Sitting still" might become "keeping feet on the floor and writing on the worksheet". "Being quiet" might become "speaking only after raising a hand and being called on". These replacement descriptions can be observed, counted or timed, and they tell the client what to do.
The dead man's test is not a full operational definition; it is a first screen. A target that passes the test still needs clear onset, offset, examples and nonexamples. RBTs apply the test when writing session notes and describing behavior to a supervisor, so that what they report is something that actually happened.
Example and non-example
| Example | A teacher asks the team to work on "not running in the hallway". The supervisor rewrites the goal as "walking beside the line from class to the cafeteria", which passes the dead man's test. |
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| Non-example | "Raises hand and waits to be called on" already passes the test, because a dead person cannot raise a hand. |
Don't confuse it with
| Operational definition | The dead man's test only checks whether a target is behavior; the operational definition describes it fully for measurement. |
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| Replacement behavior | The dead man's test is a check on target wording; a replacement behavior is an appropriate behavior taught to meet the same need as a problem behavior. |
Test yourself
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Question 1Which target fails the dead man's test?
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D: Not calling out during group. The dead man's test asks whether a dead person could do it. A dead person can "not call out," so it is not a behavior; the other options are actions a person actively performs.
- A: Raising a hand is an action a dead person cannot perform, so it passes.
- B: Speaking is an action a dead person cannot perform, so it passes.
- C: Walking is an action a dead person cannot perform, so it passes.
Task A.5 · 40-hour curriculum section C
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Question 2A goal reads, "The client will not hit during group." Which alternative target passes the dead man's test?
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B: Signing or saying "break" to ask for one. Asking for a break is an action a dead person cannot do, so it is a behavior that can be observed and measured. The other options describe things a dead person could also "do."
- A: A dead person is calm and does not hit, so this fails the test.
- C: Refraining is the absence of a behavior, which a dead person can do.
- D: A dead person can sit still, so this fails the test.
Task A.5 · 40-hour curriculum section C
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On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task A.5 Describing behavior in observable, measurable terms in content area A, Data Collection and Graphing, which is 13 of the 75 scored questions.