#5 Practical Functional Assessment (PFA) and Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA): Workbook, Planning, and Data Collection

The PFA is an analysis of the contexts associated with the presence of interfering behaviors and the context in which these behaviors occur.

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What is the Practical Functional Assessment (PFA)?

The Practical Functional Assessment (PFA) is an analysis of the contexts associated with the presence of interfering behaviors and the context in which these behaviors are unlikely to occur. It starts with an open-ended interview that is used for the Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA). The analysis confirms the association with the presence or absence of behaviors under the conditions of the evocative operation (EO) and the synthesized reinforcement (SR). Once behaviors are reliably turned on and off during the analysis, the contexts are then utilized as a part of the treatment package in Skill-Based Treatment (SBT).

Treatment conditions are designed based on an open-ended interview with caregivers or those who know the client best.

What are the goals of the open-ended interview?

The goals are to identify the synthesized reinforcers that result in the individual being Happy, Relaxed, and Engaged (HRE) and as well as to identify the synthesized evocative operations (EOs) or challenging contexts that are often associated with interfering behaviors. You want to know things like…

What does HRE look like for this learner? (Examples: Laughing, rocking, jumping, vocalizing, hyper-focused)
What are the synthesized reinforcers that lead to HRE?

Think of the combination of reinforcers the learner prefers. What do they do, who is there, where are they, what is present or absent in the environment?

Example: Client loves watching Peppa on the tablet but usually it is the cupcake episode and it is more specifically being able to watch the scene at 2x the speed over and over. The client is holding the tablet while sitting on the bean bag chair and wants an adult to share the experience without touching the tablet or talking unless it is the part where everyone laughs and then the clients wants you to laugh really big with them. Shoes are off, door is open, sibling can not be in the space, and they also sometimes have a spiky ball they roll under their feet.

What is a synthesized evocative operation (EO)?

Synthesized Evocative Operations (EOs) are contexts in which interfering behaviors have been more valuable in the moment due to a history of reinforcement. They are maintained by multiple functions of behavior.

Example: Transitioning from the motor room where the therapist is pushing them on the swing, they are scripting their favorite movie and the therapist is acting out scenes to therapy room for table work leads to interfering behavior.

Therefore, interfering behavior is multiply maintained by:

Escape from demands at table
Access to tangibles in motor room
Access to preferred attention
Access to preferred sensory stimulation

What is the Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA)?

Interview Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA)-Using the information from the interview, the clinician will design an analysis where the clinician is able to reliably and safely turn behaviors on and off by starting in reinforcement and introducing the EO gradually until the client responds with a precursor behavior (R2).

What are the key features for the PFA?

Focus is on classes of behaviors in place of topographies. Behaviors are grouped by intensity and fall on a continuum from mild to intense. The idea is that high intensity or dangerous behaviors do not happen spontaneously but occur when more subtle or less dangerous behaviors are not reinforced and people do not assign specific topographies to specific EO’s. Treatment based on the precursors has been effective in treating the more intense and dangerous behaviors that occur when the precursors are ignored. This means we can treat dangerous and intense behaviors without ever needing to see them in the analysis.

What is an “R1 behavior”?

“R1 Behaviors” are behaviors that are intense or dangerous and once a client has escalated to this level, it is difficult to de-escalate.

What is an “R2 behavior”?

R2 Behaviors are behaviors that tend to be present prior to the R1 behaviors and signal to people familiar with the client that they are uncomfortable, upset, or going to get upset if things continue in the same way. These interfering behaviors can typically be “turned off” quickly by removing the EO and reinforcing with the synthesized reinforcement context. These are also called precursor behaviors.

Workbooks for planning your PFA

Here you can find the FTF workbooks intended to assist you in planning your analysis! (Also available in… Italian!)

Interview forms and analysis tips

In research from (Coffey et al., 2019), The goal of the IISCA is to readdress some of the limitations attributed by Hanley et al. to the standard FA (e.g., timeliness, requires too many resources, potentially dangerous, generic contingencies) and to create a more efficient approach for practitioners. It is also important to note that none of the individual components of the IISCA are novel (i.e., interview informed, synthesized contingencies, single test condition, matched control).

For example, a growing number of FAs have evaluated synthesized contingencies since 1995 (see Slaton & Hanley, 2018, for a review). Where the IISCA departs from previous FA models is that it is a comprehensive collection of these components in a functional assessment package that is conducted from the onset, rather than introducing individual modifications following the failure of the standard FA.

Coffey, A. L., Shawler, L. A., Jessel, J., Nye, M. L., Bain, T. A., & Dorsey, M. F. (2019). Interview-Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA): Novel Interpretations and Future Directions. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(1), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00348-3

Always remember the 4-part mission of the interview to stay on task:

Identify and define the most severe target behavior and associated non-dangerous behaviors,
Identify EOs that are most challenging, yet convenient to replicate (list materials needed),
Identify the final behavioral expectations for the client in at least 3 relevant contexts with sufficient contextual details to ensure the goals are meaningful if target behavior was no longer a barrier.
Identify all hypothesized reinforcers and precise forms of delivery (list materials needed).

Open-Ended Functional Assessment Interview

Form for Designing the IISCA

Bonus… it comes in Italian too!

Tips for Conducting an IISCA (from FTF)

Create clear SR and EO locations through materials placement, use of tables, matts, and chairs. Provide all suspected reinforcers non-contingently and continuously at first (i.e., there should be no relevant establishing operations for any of the suspected reinforcers in the control sessions).
Have child/client experience the SR context immediately upon arrival. Also, relax. Do not begin data collection until child is happy, relaxed, & engaged.
Have parent or staff who understands the child/client present for analysis; ask about HRE, inquire about their understanding and comfort.
Rely on an “open-door analysis” to prevent escalation of problem behavior. Consider the policy that all have authority to terminate the analysis at any time.
Video record all sessions. Have a person different from the implementor collect data live in the analysis but be sure to videotape all IISCA sessions in case the observational code changes during the analysis. Record dangerous & non-dangerous PB (that co-occur), whether in SR or EO, and engagement during SR. (Consider IISCA app for data collection). Use the back of the sheet for qualitative data collection.
Present the EO after the child has been HRE for at least 5 minutes and be sure to progressively implement the EO each time it is presented; know this foreshadows the same actions you will take as you extend the CAB chains in treatment.
Provide all suspected reinforcers immediately following the first response suspected as being part of the response class. Be sure to clearly signal the delivery of the reinforcer with visual and audio cue.
Implement the next EO after child/client has been HRE for at least 30 s (do not implement EOs every 30 s).
Terminate the analysis when PB has been turned on and immediately turned off, and the child has returned to HRE, for 3 to 5 consecutive trials.
By using the back of the data collection sheet, be sure to (a) reflect on the success of the analysis, (b) discuss things learned during the analysis about the child’s preferences, abilities, and tolerances, and (c) provide summary statement about the controlling variables for HRE and PB.

PFA data collection

There are a couple different ways to take data during your analysis. If you prefer an electronic option, the Garage 94 IISCA app is a great option! If you prefer paper data, you can find the data sheet below, in addition to YouTube videos on how to use it.

Mock PFA Data #1 Video

Mock PFA Data #2 Video

IISCA Data Sheet (Performance-Based Criteria)

Video examples of the PFA

Here are some video models of what the analysis looks like!

Mock PFA #1

Mock PFA #2

Mock PFA #3

Additional discussion about PFA and IISCA

Check out these additional threads on our FaceBook page!

Do you add more questions to your interview process that aren’t on the IISCA form?

I’ve found that unless I know the client well I need an observation prior to the PFA. With kids I’ve never seen I like to observe just a little bit of time when problem behaviors are occurring and when they’re generally the most successful. I find this really helps me understand the attention component for SR.
-Hillary Laney

I steal Dr Hanley’s question, roughly “if you could get a million dollars to get her to act up/calm down fast/within a minute, what would you do?” ( I also use it a lot on staff when we’re designing an IISCA: “ok, Matteo is counting on that million to buy a house, are we gonna bet his house on what we’ve written here?”)
-Denise Smith

How do you conduct the open-ended interview part of the IISCA in a residential setting where there are many staff and no single primary caregiver?

It’s ok if you’re getting different info from different people— usually that just points to the fact that reinforcer function is contextual and different staff probably see the individual in different contexts. Staff who work the bedtime and evening shift may report something different than staff who work during the day, not because one is “wrong” and one is “right” but because they genuinely are observing the behavior in very different contexts, all of which can be valid.

I look for clear answers about what seems to turn the behavior on/off and then assess the quality of any differences that people report. For example, if one staff reports that the problem occurs when the person is told to turn off the TV and get ready for bed, and another staff reports that it occurs when the person is told to stop playing outside and come help with the dishes, both people are really reporting issues with interrupting an ongoing preferred activity to present demands. The specific demands and preferred activities I put in the IISCA would depend on practical factors, but I wouldn’t be concerned that I got different details from different staff.

However, if the differences across staff seem to really be wholly different contingencies, I may design and conduct two IISCAs. For example I had a student for whom the interview suggested escape to preferred activities, but also this other thing where he seemed to engage in problem behavior related to items that were impossible to deliver (e.g., changing the weather, putting a smashed item back together) but would calm down when provided with information about the issue (e.g., when told that the forecast is rain for the next 3 days). So we did an IISCA with escape to preferred activities, and another IISCA with a totally different EO and with access to information as the reinforcer.
-Jessica Slaton

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