Analysis of Positional Bias Within Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement Preference Assessments

Positional bias is a pattern of responding to a specific location that can be influenced by response effort and/or prior learning history. Within the contexts of preference assessments, positional bias create additional variables that make ascertaining true preferences within a preference assessment more difficult. Prior research on positional bias within preference assessments have focused primarily on its use in paired stimulus assessments due to the complex nature of the multiple-stimulus without replacement preference assessment. The present study is a secondary analysis that utilized four different methods to measure side bias and center bias for 19 young children with autism spectrum disorders. Results indicate that participants had varying degrees of biased responding but collectively engaged in little biased responding. Present study includes discussion of general patterns of responding, an analysis of the four methodologies, and general recommendations for the application of these methodologies.