Program Areas
AAB: The Applied Animal Behavior (AAB) program includes the dimensions of applied behavior analysis as they pertain to matters of importance for non-human animals. Topic areas may include (but are not limited to) issues related to enrichment, welfare and management, conservation, training, and treatment of problem behavior. Theoretical discussions related to these topics are also included.
AUT: The Autism (AUT) program includes work specifically related to the assessment and treatment of learning and behavioral characteristics of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and related symptomatology. This work may be analytical in nature (research incorporating experimental controls), or it may illustrate practice or ethical issues specific to treatment of individuals with ASDs.
BPN: The Behavioral Pharmacology and Neuroscience (BPN) program includes research on the behavioral effects of drugs and other neurobiological manipulations as well as research on the neurobiological substrates of behavior.
CBM: The Clinical/Family/Behavioral Medicine (CBM) program includes the integration of behavior analytic strategies, methods, and theory into areas traditionally encompassed by clinical psychology, family therapy, and behavioral medicine. Content relevant to the area includes the application of behavioral principles and behavior-analytic basic research relevant to these domains.
CSS: The Community, Social, and Sustainability Issues (CSS) program area includes conceptual analyses, empirical research, and service-delivery projects related to larger-scale community, sociocultural and sustainability issues, including work supporting social and environmental justice.
DDA: The Developmental Disabilities (DDA) program includes research and activities in the care of persons with neurodevelopmental, intellectual, and related disabilities other than those presentations fitting within the autism program area. These reported activities include basic research, applied research, service delivery, and theory/conceptual topics.
DEV: The Behavioral Development (DEV) program includes research and theory designed to identify environmental variables that establish and interact with behavioral development, and show how these variables relate to behavioral principles and instructional procedures in other areas, and how they can be manipulated to promote desirable developmental outcomes.
EAB: The Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB) program includes experimental analyses of human and animal behavior in laboratory and field settings. EAB research involves experimentally manipulated independent variables and addresses questions related to the fundamental nature of behavior-environment relations.
EDC: The Education (EDC) program includes presentations addressing variables that impact students’ learning of academic content, management of student behavior within a variety of educational settings, and the practices of educators.
OBM: The Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) program includes workplace applications derived from behavior analytic principles. The focus is typically on direct interventions to improve employee performance through behavior change, as well as large-scale systemic analyses and interventions to address work processes and other environmental and social factors that may influence organizational behavior.
PCH: The Philosophical, Conceptual, and Historical Issues (PCH) program includes topics on the foundations—past, present, and future—of behavior analysis as a system, science, and practice, as well as comparisons and contrasts with the natural and historical sciences and humanities.
TBA: The Teaching Behavior Analysis (TBA) program includes theoretical/conceptual, applied research, and service delivery presentations related to teaching the science and practice of behavior analysis, including to individuals, academic/university faculty, clinical staff, parents, other professionals, and the broader community.
VRB: The Verbal Behavior (VRB) program includes conceptual, experimental, and applied presentations with roots in Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior. Topics may include mands, tacts, intraverbals, echoics, textual, listener behavior, autoclitics, multiple control, self-editing, and problem solving/thinking. VRB presentations emphasize analysis of controlling variables for verbal responses of humans and nonhumans.