Reliability of an Automated Decision Support System for Behavioral Treatment Planning

Matthew Hile, Donna M. Campbell, Bagher B. Ghobary, Marcie N. Desrochers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Automated decision support systems can provide inexperienced individuals with expert advice. But while a computer will always arrive at the same conclusion from a given set of data, human users bring individual variability to decision making. This study, therefore, examined the reliability of the decision support component of an expert system, the Mental Retardation-Expert (MR-E), which assists clinicians who treat problem behaviors of individuals with mental retardation or developmental disabilities. Four clinicians independently used MR-E to obtain consultations on 31 separate cases abstracted from the published literature. They reached a high level of agreement on functional hypotheses regardless of clinical experience, familiarity with MR-E, use of MR-E's basic or advanced modes, or consecutive number of consultations obtained.
Original languageAmerican English
JournalComputers in Human Services
Volume10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1994

Keywords

  • Computer
  • interrater reliability
  • mental retardation
  • performance support system

Disciplines

  • Social and Behavioral Sciences

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