Association for Behavior Analysis International

It has been widely accepted that demonstrating the effectiveness of behavior analysis with respect to real-world problems is one key to dissemination of our science. Additionally, the effectiveness must be presented in a way that is obviously relevant and communicated in a way that is easily understood by the general population. One emerging movement that has been successful to this end is within the domain of applied animal behavior. Leaders of this movement will not only discuss the barriers they have faced along the way to successfully disseminating behavior analysis while highlighting their efforts within zoos and towards pet owners, but provide recommendations for addressing potential challenges likely to present during dissemination efforts. Suggestions for extending our reach to new populations, and discussion of techniques for doing so, will be provided. While presented in the context of applied animal behavior, invaluable information will be provided for anyone interested in sharing the science of behavior.

The application of behavior analysis and basic training for animals in the zoo has largely been misunderstood and under-utilized. However, in the last 20 years the focus on applied behavior analysis in the modern zoo has grown quickly. Much of the early resistance to this trend was based on a misunderstanding and lack of recognition of the benefits that a behavior program can bring to the animals living in the zoological environment. The modern zoo has come to recognize that behavior management is a key component to good animal care and in fact is a primary method of increasing welfare for animals in human care. This presentation will demonstrate how behavior management programs aid in providing exercise, mental stimulation, and increasing animal participation in their own care. Examples of both husbandry programs in the zoo and conservation programs in the wild will illustrate various examples of these benefits in action.

The long-standing issue of communication between behavior analysts and those not necessarily familiar with our technical language will be discussed in relation to a new population: pet owners. Communication has many facets, verbal and otherwise, and these are manifest at all stages of the treatment program. The initial communication comes through the intake interview, which offers not only the opportunity to collect verbal reports of the issues, but also the opportunity to observe how the owner and pet interact with one another. The latter is an especially rich source of communication about different facets of the problem. Developing and implementing treatment programs also offer new opportunities to communicate with owners, both about their techniques in implementing programs, but also about more general behavioral principles and how they might be used with both presenting problem and other behavior also in need of adjustment. Follow-up visits after treatment is terminated can be especially useful to owners with respect to communicating about methods for maintaining treatment gains and developing new programs for other behavior. Two themes that are common to each phase of the treatment process are those of communicating at the appropriate level of precision by being neither condescending by oversimplification or obfuscation by being overly technical and staying true to a behavior-analytic world view. The talk will conclude with a discussion of these themes.