Question

Mrs. Smith's husband suffered a stroke, one result being that he very rarely spoke. Mrs. Smith consulted a behavior therapist and together they designed a reinforcement program. First, for one week, she was to act normally and place a tick mark in a specified column on a data sheet every time her husband spontaneously vocalized to her (Baseline). The next week she was to continue to keep count, but she was also to touch, praise, and smile at her husband following each of his spontaneous vocalizations (Treatment). At the beginning of the program, she sometimes got confused and placed a tick mark in the wrong column, but eventually she got it right. We can conclude that the forcement program was responsible for improving Mr. Smith's spontaneous vocalizations.
Is a threat present (Yes/No)?

Answer 1

Answer:

Yes

Explanation:

Yes, there is the presence of a threat.

This threat is known as instrumentation. There is an Instrumentation threat when changes are made in the instrument, or the changes are made in the researcher, or the scorer when the research is being carried out.

In this question, mrs smith is the one who is the researcher, the program of reinforcement can be called the instrument. She made errors during the first few week but started getting it right in the second week. So there is a slight change in these two weeks. Causing instrumentation threat to how valid the program is.