Functional assessment

How it works

Every behavior that keeps occurring produces something for the animal. The common payoffs are attention, access to something wanted such as food, a toy or a place, escape from or avoidance of something unpleasant, and the sensation of the behavior itself. The payoff keeping a behavior going is called its functional reinforcer. An assessment can involve interviews and questionnaires, direct observation recording what happens before and after each instance, and, in clinical settings, a functional analysis, in which a professional deliberately sets up each possible payoff in turn and measures which one keeps the behavior going. Two dogs doing the same thing can be doing it for entirely different reasons, which changes what will help.

What it looks like

Two dogs bark at the front window. Records show the first dog barks, someone comes over and talks to them, and the barking repeats: the payoff is attention. The second dog barks at the mail carrier, who then walks away: the payoff is the person leaving. The first plan changes how people respond. The second blocks the view and works on how the dog feels about passersby.

Commonly confused with

Antecedent

An antecedent is what sets off a behavior. A functional assessment records the antecedent, the behavior and the consequence together, and its goal is to identify which consequence keeps the behavior going.

Related terms