Behavior analysts have developed an extensive technology of assessing preferences, but little research has evaluated the extent to which preferences change over time. In this study, monthly paired‐stimulus edible, leisure, and social preference assessments and bimonthly reinforcer assessments were conducted over a 1‐year period with 4 individuals with developmental disabilities. Across participants, short‐term (i.e., month to month) preference was most stable for edible items (average Spearman rank‐order correlation coefficient = 0.79) and less stable for leisure items (average = 0.66) and social stimuli (average = 0.50). Long‐term stability of preference was evaluated by comparing the first preference assessment to the final assessment, 12 months later. Across participants, average Spearman rank‐order correlation coefficients were 0.63 for edible items, 0.33 for social stimuli, and 0.19 for leisure items. For all participants, edible items were associated with the highest response rates during reinforcer assessments. Suggestions for determining the frequency of conducting preference and reinforcer assessments are discussed.

中文翻译：

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偏好的稳定性和食用、休闲和社会注意力刺激的增强功效

行为分析师开发了一种广泛的偏好评估技术，但很少有研究评估偏好随时间变化的程度。在这项研究中，对 4 名发育障碍者进行了为期 1 年的每月配对刺激食物、休闲和社会偏好评估以及每两个月一次的强化剂评估。在参与者中，短期（即每月）对可食用物品的偏好最稳定（平均 Spearman 等级顺序相关系数 = 0.79），而对休闲物品（平均 = 0.66）和社交刺激（平均 = 0.50）则不太稳定. 通过将第一次偏好评估与 12 个月后的最终评估进行比较来评估偏好的长期稳定性。在所有参与者中，平均斯皮尔曼等级相关系数为 0。可食用物品为 63，社交刺激为 0.33，休闲物品为 0.19。对于所有参与者来说，在强化物评估期间，可食用的物品与最高的反应率相关。讨论了确定进行偏好和强化物评估频率的建议。