Ross and Horner Bullying Prevention Study

Multiple-Baseline Design Across Participants Example

In a multiple-baseline design across participants, what is the crucial procedural feature that helps establish internal validity?

A researcher wants to evaluate a new note-taking intervention using three participants. She records each participant's exam scores during a baseline phase and then begins the intervention with all three participants during the same week. Because she measured baselines for multiple individuals, this design effectively rules out the possibility that an outside event—rather than the intervention—caused any observed improvement in exam scores.

A clinical researcher is testing a new social-skills intervention with three children. To demonstrate that the intervention is effective and rule out outside influences, the researcher plans to stagger when each child begins the treatment. Arrange the following steps in the correct chronological order to properly execute this study.

A researcher evaluates a social skills program for $3$ students using a multiple-baseline design across participants. Match each hypothetical data pattern with the appropriate analysis of its impact on the study's internal validity.

A researcher is critiquing a study that used a multiple-baseline design across four participants to test a new behavioral intervention. The researcher finds that all participants improved simultaneously on the same day, even though three of the participants were still in the baseline phase and had not yet received the treatment. In evaluating the strength of this evidence, the researcher must conclude that the study fails to demonstrate ______ validity.

In a multiple-baseline design across participants, the experience of each individual involved in the study essentially follows which basic single-subject design structure?

A researcher is conducting a multiple-baseline design across $3$ participants to evaluate a new reading intervention. Match each procedural element or concept with the statement that best describes its role in establishing the study's logic.

A clinical psychologist evaluates a new therapy for anxiety using a multiple-baseline design across three clients. She takes baseline measurements for all clients, then begins the treatment with Client A in week 2, Client B in week 4, and Client C in week 6. If each client's anxiety level decreases specifically after they begin therapy, this staggered introduction helps establish internal validity by making it unlikely that the improvements were caused by a shared external event.

Although a multiple-baseline design across participants staggers the start of treatment to establish internal validity, the basic structural phase sequence experienced by each individual participant in the study is a(n) _____ design.

Order the following experimental scenarios from the weakest demonstration of internal validity (causal evidence) to the strongest demonstration of internal validity based on the logic of a multiple-baseline design across participants.

Describe the procedural steps involved in setting up a multiple-baseline design across participants. In your description, identify the underlying single-subject design structure that each individual participant undergoes.

Explain why the staggered introduction of the therapy is crucial for this study. Based on the logic of a multiple-baseline design across participants, what alternative explanations does this staggering help the researcher rule out?

A researcher plans to evaluate a new mindfulness program for three employees using a multiple-baseline design across participants. If the researcher establishes a baseline for all three employees simultaneously and introduces the program to the first employee on Monday of week 2, how should the researcher proceed with the remaining two employees to correctly implement this design?