The Efficacy of Variations of Observation and Data Recording on Trainee Performance

ABSTRACT

The observer effect refers to an increase in a trainee’s performance following an observation in which the trainee records data on the behavior of another individual performing that skill. We examined three variations of observation and data recording to teach guided compliance implementation. Experiment 1 investigated the effects of data recording during video observation. Experiment 2 examined whether recording the performance of a peer and providing feedback improved performance. Experiment 3 required participants to accurately collect data during video demonstrations. Across all experiments, we observed performance improvements for some but not all participants. Experimenter feedback was necessary for most participants to meet criterion levels. Hence, the observer effect was not consistently found. We discuss implications of these findings as they relate to previous research and apply to staff training.

KEYWORDS:

• Observer effect
• observation
• data recording
• staff training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The university approval covered all three experiments described in this manuscript.

2. Due to experimenter error, a generalization probe for Sarah was conducted in the observation phase rather than the baseline phase.

3. If participants correctly identified the error in their first attempt for all videos, they would have watched eight videos total (10 trials). If participants correctly identified the error on the third attempt or not at all for all videos, they would have watched 24 videos (30 trials).