The Development of the Missouri Automated Reinforcer Assessment (MARA)

Summary

The Missouri Automated Reinforcer Assessment (or MARA) is a computer program developed to determine a collection of reinforcers for use in behavior programs, activity selection, and to provide general preference information. The goal of the Missouri Automated Reinforcer Assessment is lo provide a thorough, yet efficient assessment of an individual's preferences via the computer, and to present (he obtained information in a usable manner to a teacher, mental health professional, parent, caretaker, etc. The MARA was designed for verbal individuals who are most likely to be on a reinforcer program. These individuals include persons who are developmentally delayed, young children with behavior or motivation problems, adult and child psychiatric inpalienls, and individuals who have suffered a brain trauma.

In this paper, a general discussion regarding reinforcers and reinforcer assessments will be presented, with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of an automated assessment. After this background information, the procedure used to obtain the items in the program will be presented, followed by a description of the automated program.

Key Words:

• Computerized patient testing
• behavior therapy
• mental health software
• developmental disabilities software