Abstract

Adaptation in the Social, Behavioral and Education Sciences: Implications for Measurement, Evaluation and Intervention

Adaptive methodologies have a long, often unfamiliar history. This presentation will introduce three broad categories of adaptive methodologies that have been, are becoming, or should become familiar to researchers in the social, behavioral and education sciences.

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is a familiar application of adaptive methodology applied to measurement and psychometric contexts that can significantly reduce the amount of data required for reliable, valid assessments through planned adaptability.

Adaptive interventions such as sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials (SMARTs) utilize planned adaptability to determine how a treatment may change to better adjust to participants’ needs.

Sequentially designed evaluations have been prevalent in medical contexts for decades, and have been shown to save considerable time and money while addressing numerous practical and ethical considerations. Whereas a CAT adapts the assessment tool to refine measurement, and adaptive interventions adapt the intervention itself to refine the treatment, sequentially designed evaluations adapt the evaluation context of an existing intervention to refine the resources necessary to make a valid inference.