Free operant preference assessment
A free operant preference assessment gives a person open access to several items at once and records how long they engage with each.
Instead of presenting items in trials, the RBT makes a set of items freely available, for example in a play area, for a fixed period such as 5 minutes. The client may move from item to item without any requests or demands, and nothing is removed. The RBT records the duration of engagement with each item, often with a timer or with interval recording.
Items are then ranked by the amount of time the client engaged with them. Because no item is taken away and no choice is forced, this format tends to produce less problem behavior than trial-based methods, which makes it useful for clients whose problem behavior is triggered when items are removed. It can be done in a contrived setup or during natural routines.
Its limit is that a client may spend the whole period with one item, so the assessment may identify only the top preference and give little information about the others. The operational definition of "engagement" must be clear so time is recorded consistently. RBTs avoid prompting the client toward particular items, since the point is to see what they choose on their own.
Example and non-example
| Example | An RBT sets out blocks, a music toy, crayons and a sensory bin and lets a child play freely for 5 minutes, timing how long they touch or use each item. |
|---|---|
| Non-example | Presenting the music toy and the crayons side by side and asking the child to pick one is a paired stimulus assessment. |
Don't confuse it with
| Multiple stimulus without replacement | Free operant records engagement time with all items available; MSWO records discrete choices and removes each chosen item. |
|---|---|
| Single stimulus preference assessment | Free operant offers all items at once; single stimulus offers one item at a time. |
Test yourself
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Question 1In which preference assessment are two items presented at a time and the client chooses one of them?
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D: Paired stimulus. In a paired-stimulus (forced-choice) assessment, items are presented two at a time, and each item is paired with every other item. The client's choices are used to rank the items.
- A: Single-stimulus assessment presents one item at a time.
- B: MSWO presents an array of several items at once.
- C: A free-operant assessment makes all items available at the same time with no trials.
Task B.1 · 40-hour curriculum section D
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Question 2In a clinic playroom, several toys are spread out and an adolescent can move freely among them for 10 minutes. The RBT records how long the client engages with each toy. Which preference assessment is this?
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A: Free operant. A free-operant assessment gives continuous, unrestricted access to items for a set period and measures time spent with each. No item is presented or removed by trial.
- B: Single-stimulus assessment presents one item at a time in separate trials.
- C: MSW uses repeated choice trials from an array.
- D: A paired-stimulus assessment uses trials with two items.
Task B.1 · 40-hour curriculum section D
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Question 3A young child often screams and grabs when a toy is taken away. The supervisor decides on a free-operant preference assessment. Why is this format a good fit?
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C: Items stay available, so no item is taken away. In a free-operant assessment, all items remain available for the whole session, so the removals that often trigger problem behavior do not occur.
- A: Testing reinforcing effects requires a reinforcer assessment.
- B: There are no choice trials in a free-operant assessment.
- D: Forced choices are part of paired-stimulus assessment, not free-operant assessment.
Task B.1 · 40-hour curriculum section D
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On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task B.1 Preference assessments in content area B, Behavior Assessment, which is 8 of the 75 scored questions.