Prevalence of Error Types of Synthesized Contingency Assessments

The comparability of synthesized contingency assessments to isolated functional analyses has been questioned because it is assumed that synthesized contingency assessments alone can identify interactive effects. Interactive effects occur when individual contingencies combine to produce a reinforcing effect greater than the sum of their individual effects. McCabe et al. (2025) investigated these effects by comparing within-participant responding during and after synthesized contingency assessments. They found that interactive effects are rare, suggesting that synthesized contingency assessments and isolated functional analyses are comparable in most cases. Therefore, we used binary receiver-operating-characteristic plots to quantify true- and false-positive rates of synthesized contingency assessments relative to functional analyses. Implications for assessment and treatment practices are discussed.