The Effect of Post-Choice Access Duration on the Preferences of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

There is a lack of research in the literature surrounding the effect of access duration on the results of a preference assessment. In the current study, preference assessments with access durations of 30 s and 5 minutes were conducted with seven adults with intellectual disability. I conducted progressive ratio reinforcer assessments using the most preferred items according to the results of two independent series of preference assessments with varying post-choice access times: 30 s condition and 5 min. The results showed that most participants had more stable preferences in the 30 s condition second condition, as demonstrated by the smaller standard deviations obtained from the outcomes of the preference assessments. These findings support the use of brief preference assessments. There was a large amount of variation between the individual results of the participants, as some had consistently stable preferences, while others did not. Preference for the highly preferred items were more stable than the other items in the array for all of the participants, except one. This is consistent with and extends upon the findings of previous research. The mixed results indicate that while it is more likely for preferences to be more stable in the 30 s condition condition, others may show more stability with a longer postchoice access duration and that 5 minutes may not be enough to differentiate any effects of access duration on preference stability.