Adaptive Intervention Designs for Studies of Human Development

Observational and experimental designs for the study of human development almost always follow a single common pattern: Data analysis begins only after data collection has been completed. Deviations from this pattern are extremely rare. Yet a number of options exist to enable active adaptation of study design, using insights from the data to adapt the design of the study while data collection is still active. These approaches can increase power, lower costs, and enable completely new capabilities. Although such methods often require careful planning and more advanced statistics, the increasing availability of software and technology has made them more and more accessible to modern scientists. This chapter provides a high-level overview of adaptive design strategies, including the history, challenges, and promise of these approaches, with a specific focus on those methods that are most applicable to the types of longitudinal studies common in the field of human development.