Running Head: PREFERENCE ASSESSMENT 1

Preference Assessment
Jessica Marter
EDU 348
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Preference Assessment
Participant Background

The participant for this assessment was a three-year-old Caucasian girl named Sarah who

does not have any diagnosed disabilities. Sarah is an only child who lives at home with her

biological parents and attends a Montessori school. The results of this assessment will help

Sarah’s parents to know what to use to positively reinforce good behavior. Target behaviors for

Sarah include, doing what she is told, cleaning up her toys, and using the toilet. Sarah frequently

receives chocolate for performing these good behaviors.

The assessment was conducted at Sarah’s home over the course of several hours with

sufficient play time between each session to keep the participant interested. The materials used

were common snack foods bought at the local grocery store. The snacks chosen for this

assessment were typical favorites of young children and foods that would be common in a home.

Precautions were taken beforehand to ensure safety and find out if Sarah had any allergies, which

she did not. The snacks chosen for the assessment were cheese crackers, M&Ms, fruit snacks,

Goldfish crackers, and carrots. Sarah was very easy to work with and was excited to perform the

assessment and snack on the foods she was given to choose from.

Results

This assessment was conducted over the span of four hours with approximately twenty

minutes between sessions. There was a total of five sessions performed with five items for Sarah

to choose from per session. As I prepared the options for Sarah, I told her I was going to give her

some snacks to choose from and she should pick her favorite. I arranged one of each snack on a

paper towel and used a notebook to shield the snacks from view. When I lifted the notebook, I

told Sarah to pick one of the options. Once she selected a snack, I put the notebook back down

between her and the snacks and rearranged the options. I waited for Sarah to finish chewing and
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had her open her mouth for me to show me when she was done chewing so she could select the

next item. I continued this process until there was only one item left, which in each session

resulted in the carrot being last. Once the session was complete, I let Sarah play for a while to

reinforce her good behavior and so she would not become too full from the snacks.

Session 1 Date: November 17

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Cheese Cracker N N Y - 3
M&M Y - - - 1
Fruit Snack N Y - - 2
Goldfish N N N Y 4
Carrot N N N N 0
During the sessions, Sarah showed the greatest preference for the fruit snack and chose it

56% of the time, which was at a higher frequency than any other selection. The M&M and

Cheese Cracker were chosen 38% of the time, resulting in a tie between her second and third

most frequently chosen snacks. Sarah frequently receives chocolate as a reward and thus it is

understandable why the M&M was a high reinforcer for her. Next was the Goldfish cracker

which Sarah chose 33% of the time and was her fourth most chosen snack. Although this snack

was chosen less than the others it is not far behind her preferences for the second and third

options, showing that these three snacks have very similar motivational incentive for Sarah. Last

of all was the carrot which Sarah chose 0% of the time, as it was not chosen during any of the

sessions during the assessment. These percentages were calculated by dividing the amount of

times Sarah chose an item by the number of total presentations of the item.
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Session 2 Date: November 17

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Cheese Cracker N Y - - 2
M&M N N Y - 3
Fruit Snack Y - - - 1
Goldfish N N N Y 4
Carrot N N N N 0

Session 3 Date: November 17

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Cheese Cracker N Y - - 2
M&M N N N Y 4
Fruit Snack Y - - - 1
Goldfish N N Y - 3
Carrot N N N N 0

Session 4 Date: November 17

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Cheese Cracker N N N Y 4
M&M Y - - - 1
Fruit Snack N Y - - 2
Goldfish N N Y - 3
Carrot N N N N 0
Session 5 Date: November 17

Item Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 TOTAL

Cheese Cracker N Y - - 2
M&M N N N Y 4
Fruit Snack N N Y - 3
Goldfish Y - - - 1
Carrot N N N N 0
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Hierarchy Item Chosen/Presented Percentage

#1 Fruit Snack 5/9 56%
#2-#3 Tie M&M 5/13 38%
#2-#3 Tie Cheese Cracker 5/13 38%
#4 Goldfish 5/15 33%
#5 Carrot 0/20 0%

The results from this assessment can be used by Sarah’s parents in reinforcing her target

behaviors. Fruit snacks could be used to reinforce using the toilet as that is the behavior she is

currently learning. The next three items, M&M, Cheese Cracker, and Goldfish cracker could be

used to reinforce other behaviors such as cleaning up her toys and doing as she is told. Although

there is a slight hierarchy between these three items, it is so small these snacks could be used at

the same level. However, the carrot should not be used as a reinforcer as Sarah never chose this

reinforcement out of the twenty times it was presented to her.

Reflection

Completing this assessment with Sarah was an enjoyable experience and I was pleased

with how well Sarah completed the sessions. One problem I came across was getting Sarah to

put down her toys once it was time to perform another session. However, once the assessment

started, Sarah was engaged and performed well. One interesting aspect of working with Sarah

was her choice making during the sessions. During the first session Sarah seemed to know what

she wanted and went straight for it. However, in subsequent sessions she was more and more

hesitant about choosing snacks and hovered over other snacks before choosing the one she

wanted. In doing this she seemed to be picking snacks at random. One reason for this could be

Sarah was not as hungry after the first session or simply because she did not have a decisive

preference over some of the snacks as was seen in the results.

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If I were to change anything about this process, I might have first asked the parents what

snacks Sarah typically ate at home in order to use snacks which I could be entirely sure that

Sarah was familiar with and which the parents had available. I also might perform an assessment

using Sarah’s favorite toys as playing with toys I found to be a great reinforcer for her. I also

would like to perform an assessment on a student with disabilities in the future to see how the

assessment might be different depending on the student. Overall, this process taught me how to

perform a preference assessment and analyze the results. I also learned how a preference

assessment could be used by a teacher or a parent to find what motivates a student and can be

used as a reward for target behaviors. In conclusion, completing these sessions with Sarah taught

me about the value and usefulness of using a preference assessment to find reinforcers for a

student.