Parametric v. Nonparametric Analysis

Parametric analysis
Parametric analysis refers to evaluation the intervention (treatment ) or independent variable in an applied behavior analysis (ABA) study or experimental design
There are two ways to describe the independent variable: parametric and nonparametric.
If an independent variable is nonparametric- it is either on or off. The easiest way to think of this is a light switch. The lights are either on or off. If an independent variable is parametric it can have ranges or gradients of value such as a dimmer switch.
When the independent variable is nonparametric, the goal of the experiment is to determine if an intervention is working. When an independent variable is nonparametric, the goal is to determine how much of the independent variable is most effective.
Another everyday life example would be medication. If a person is diagnosed with strep throat they may take antibiotics for 10 days. This is a nonparametric independent variable. They are either taking the antibiotic or they are not taking the antibiotic. In contrast, if a person is on Adderall for ADHD, the doctor may test different dosages to see which is the most effective for that individual. In this case, Adderall is a parametric independent variable.
As you can see in a real situation, this is a really easy concept to understand but applying it to clinical examples can be more confusing. Here are three examples of each:
Case Study 1
Nicholas is a four year old boy diagnosed with Autism. He presents with eloping and non compliance. He will often leave the instruction area during sessions and refuse to come back to the table after his breaks.
Parametric
The BCBA instructs his therapist to use a token board with 5 tokens and a choice board to promote compliance during the session. The BCBA wants to test how many tokens works best for Nicholas so the therapist is instructed to vary the number of tokens from 3-10 and collect data on which is most effective. The BCBA then uses this data to determine how many tokens are best for Nicholas.
Nonparametric
The BCBA instructs his therapist to use a token board with 5 tokens and a choice board to promote compliance during the session. Every time Nicholas gets 5 tokens he is permitted to choose an item from his choice board. The BCBA instructs the therapist to remove the intervention after three sessions occur during which eloping occurs at a rate of less than 1 time per hour. The therapists are instructed to collect baseline line data without the intervention in order to validate whether or not the intervention works. After a stable baseline, the therapists reintroduce the intervention to replicate the treatment effects.
This is an example of a single subject reversal ABA design using a nonparametric independent variable.
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd Edition). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.

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so baseline can be the off part of non-parametric analysis?

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