| The purposes of the current study were (1) to evaluate the utility of an indirect assessment for identifying tasks for use in demand assessments, (2) to assess the reliability of demand assessments, and (3) to assess the validity of the identified demands in a functional analysis and a negative reinforcer assessment. A 16-year-old individual with an autism spectrum disorder, who exhibited self-injury maintained by escape from demands, participated. The study included four phases: an indirect assessment, two different demand assessments, a functional analysis, and a negative reinforcer assessment. Both demand assessments yielded consistent outcomes and identified the same low-preference (LP) and high-preference (HP) demands. However, the LP demand identified from the demand assessments was not consistent with that identified in the indirect assessment. The functional analysis and negative reinforcer assessment demonstrated that the LP demand identified from the demand assessments was a more potent negative reinforcer than the LP demand identified from the indirect assessment. |
