An analysis of U-Value as a measure of variability

Kong, Xiuyuan; McEwan, James S.A.; Bizo, Lewis A.; Foster, T. Mary

An analysis of U-Value as a measure of variability

dc.contributor.author	Kong, Xiuyuan	en_NZ
dc.contributor.author	McEwan, James S.A.	en_NZ
dc.contributor.author	Bizo, Lewis A.	en_NZ
dc.contributor.author	Foster, T. Mary	en_NZ
dc.date.accessioned	2017-04-21T02:12:07Z
dc.date.available	2017	en_NZ
dc.date.available	2017-04-21T02:12:07Z
dc.date.issued	2017	en_NZ
dc.description.abstract	The variability in behavior has frequently been assessed using a measure known as the U-value. Of concern in this article were the limits and constraints on U-value as a measure of variability. The relation between the U-value and aspects of variability was examined using three sets of simulated data. Our analysis demonstrates that the U-value as a measure of variability on its own fails to capture repetitive patterns in the sequence of responding. The U-value was shown to reflect the evenness of the distributions of responses across the categories/options used; however, when the number of categories actually used by the participant differed from the total number available, the relation between U-values and the number of categories allocated with responses was shown to be nonlinear. It was also shown that the same value of U can represent different levels of evenness in response distributions over categories, depending on the number of categories/options actually used. These constraints and limitations are discussed in relation to how researchers might report on behavioral variability.
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dc.identifier.citation	Kong, X., McEwan, J. S. A., Bizo, L. A., & Foster, T. M. (2017). An analysis of U-Value as a measure of variability. The Psychological Record, -online, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-017-0219-2	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1007/s40732-017-0219-2	en_NZ
dc.identifier.eissn	2163-3452	en_NZ
dc.identifier.issn	0033-2933	en_NZ
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10289/11009
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI)	en_NZ
dc.relation.isPartOf	The Psychological Record	en_NZ
dc.rights	© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2017. This is the author's accepted version. The final publication is available at Springer via dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40732-017-0219-2
dc.subject	Behavioral variability
dc.subject	Measure of variability
dc.subject	Stereotypy
dc.subject	U-value
dc.title	An analysis of U-Value as a measure of variability	en_NZ
dc.type	Journal Article
pubs.begin-page	1
pubs.elements-id	192053
pubs.end-page	6
pubs.organisational-group	/Waikato
pubs.organisational-group	/Waikato/FASS
pubs.organisational-group	/Waikato/FASS/School of Psychology
pubs.organisational-group	/Waikato/Staff
pubs.publication-status	Published online	en_NZ
pubs.volume	-online	en_NZ
uow.verification.status	verified