Evaluating the accuracy of behavioural observation when recordings play at fast-forward

Abstract

Fast-forwarding is a timely topic given recent advancements in technology. Fast-forwarding means to move forward by speeding up a recording. Previous literature has shown that fastforwarding may increase the efficiency of behavioural observations while maintaining accuracy. This study aimed to evaluate whether behavioural skills training could be used to train observers to measure behaviours accurately with fast forwarded video samples. This study was conducted online due to Covid-19. During pre-training and post-training, the participants attempted to score both high and low-rate occurrence of children’s food acceptance behaviours at normal, x2, and x4 play speed. During training, the participants were trained to measure food acceptance behaviours at different speeds using behavioural skills training. Accuracy was measured in terms of the total percentage accuracy, and omission and commission errors. Efficiency was measured by the total duration of complete training sessions. Following the training, the results suggested that training observers to score behaviour at x2 speed on naturalistic observation videos produced high accuracy. The results extend previous studies on the efficiency of fast-forwarding and the importance of observer training.