DRAGEN Academy · Free lesson · Parents, teachers, technicians · 8 minutes
How to take 4-term contingency data.
What it is. Every time a behavior happens, you write four things: the motivating operation (MO), what made the payoff worth more right then; the discriminative stimulus (SD), the signal that the behavior would pay off here; the behavior itself; and the consequence, what happened right after. That is the 4-term contingency: MO, SD, B, C.
Why it matters. You cannot change a behavior you cannot describe. A sheet that puts everything before the behavior in one box hides the two things you most need to know: when the payoff is worth the most (the MO) and who or what signals it is available (the SD). Split them and you have two levers instead of one. Ten honest lines beat a month of “he has been having a hard time.”
The method
How to do it yourself: eight steps, one sheet.
- Pick one behavior and define it so a stranger could spot it. Not “aggression” — “open- or closed-hand contact with another person, hard enough to hear.” Not “meltdown” — “drops to the floor and screams for longer than ten seconds.” Write the definition at the top of the sheet.
- Set the sheet up before the day starts. Date, time, where, then MO, SD, B, C, and a box for how long or how many. Print the one at the bottom of this page.
- When it happens, handle the moment first and write second. Within five minutes, while it is fresh. Tomorrow’s memory is a story, not data.
- MO: what made the payoff worth more right then. How long since they ate, slept, had attention, had the thing. What was about to end or be asked of them. Facts only. “Up since 5:50, tablet on” is a fact. “She was cranky” is a guess.
- SD: the signal that the behavior would pay off here. Who was there, what they said, where it was. The person who gave in last time is a signal. So is the instruction. “Mom, who dressed her yesterday, said ‘shoes on’” is the SD.
- Behavior is what you saw and heard. Count it or time it. “Screamed, about two minutes.” “Hit three times.”
- Consequence is what happened in the thirty seconds after — especially what people did. “I said ‘no hitting’ and picked him up” counts. “Nothing” is almost never true; write what actually happened, even if it was you giving in.
- Collect ten instances, or five days, then read down the columns. A repeating MO tells you when to act before it starts. A repeating SD tells you who and where. A repeating consequence tells you what the behavior is for — the next lesson, on function, takes it from there.
Worked example
Mia, age six, and the floor.
Behavior, defined: drops to the floor and screams for longer than ten seconds. Five entries from one week:
| When, where | MO — payoff worth more because | SD — the signal | B — what happened | C — what happened next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 7:40, hallway | Up since 5:50; tablet on; shoes end it | Mom: “Shoes on, we’re leaving.” | Floor, screamed ~2 min | Mom put her shoes on for her |
| Mon 5:30, kitchen | Mid-show; bath ends it | Dad: “Bath time.” | Floor, screamed ~4 min | Dad: “Fine, five more minutes.” Bath was later |
| Tue 7:35, hallway | Tablet on; shoes end it | Mom: “Shoes.” | Floor, screamed ~1 min | Mom put her shoes on for her |
| Wed 12:10, kitchen | Mid-game; lunch ends it | Grandma: “Come sit at the table.” | Floor, screamed ~3 min | Lunch brought to the couch |
| Wed 7:00, bedroom | Bed at 10 the night before | Dad: “Pajamas.” | Floor, screamed ~2 min | Dad dressed her on the floor |
Mistakes to avoid
Where good sheets go wrong.
- Writing feelings instead of facts (“he was being defiant”). Write what was said and done.
- Putting the instruction in the MO column. The instruction is the signal (SD). What made escaping it worth so much — tired, a show ending — is the MO.
- Logging only the bad days. The quiet days tell you what was different.
- Stopping after three entries because a pattern “seems obvious.”
- Defining the behavior as a label (“meltdown,” “attitude”) so two adults log two different things.
- Changing what you do mid-week without writing that down too. Change is fine; unrecorded change wrecks the sheet.
Try it
One question, then the answer.
Which of these belongs in the MO column? (a) “Mom said ‘shoes on.’” (b) “Up since 5:50, and the tablet was on.” (c) “She was being difficult.”
Show the answer, and why
(b). It is a condition that made getting out of the task worth more right then. (a) is the SD: the signal that the floor could pay off. (c) is a label, not data. Write (b) and (a) in their own columns and you know both when and who.
Something to keep
The 4-term data sheet.
One page. Define the behavior at the top, then one line per instance. Ten lines or five days before you read it.
DRAGEN Academy · 4-term data sheet · dragen.cloud
| Behavior, defined so a stranger could spot it: | |
|---|---|
| Date, time, where | MO — payoff worth more because (sleep, food, what was ending) | SD — the signal (who, what was said) | B — what I saw and heard (how long / how many) | C — the 30 seconds after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Print shows only the sheet, in black on white. Nothing you write on it is sent anywhere.
Where DRAGEN helps
Log it in one tap, see the graph.
The DRAGENfamily hub records what you see at home as it happens and draws the last two weeks as a graph. The paper sheet above works without it — the hub just means the sheet is never in the wrong bag.
Free on this page, and yours to keep: the lesson and its printable sheet. No email, no login.
For families today: a free estimate of the journey to Reflection Island →
Source
Where this comes from.
Skinner described the contingency of stimulus, response and consequence (Science and Human Behavior, 1953). Michael (1982, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior) separated the motivating function of a stimulus from its discriminative function, which is why this sheet has four terms. Laraway, Snycerski, Michael & Poling (2003, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis) set out the motivating operation as used today. The method as taught: Cooper, Heron & Heward, Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd ed., 2020).
Examples on this page are made up. They contain no client, student or family information. This lesson teaches a method; it does not replace your child’s care team, your BCBA, or your payer’s written rules.