Association for Behavior Analysis International

Although the health benefits of consuming a diet rich in fruits and vegetables are well documented, few Americans consume the recommended amounts of these foods. The results of these food choices are many and varied (e.g., increased costs of health care resulting from higher rates of cancers and obesity). A preventative approach targets elementary school children because food-choice patterns in childhood are predictive of these patterns in adulthood. The Food Dudes program was developed by behavioral psychologists Fergus Lowe and Pauline Horne at Bangor University in Wales. The program targets food choices made in primary schools and iterations of it have been successfully implemented for some time in the United Kingdom. These successes will be summarized and data will be shown illustrating the effects of three different versions of the Food Dudes program that have been tested in the United States. These different versions were designed to adapt to the unique characteristics of U.S. schools

Clinical behavior analysts have been working as licensed psychologists and certified mental health professionals for decades. Applied behavior analysis training programs outside of clinical and counseling psychology are currently facing pressures to produce students who are credentialed, and eligible for third-party payment. While training leading to eligibility for BCBA certification is one path that a program can take, there are other credentialing options that have existing training infrastructures and credentialing bodies. Members of this panel will discuss their experiences exploring these other credentialing options: the challenges, opportunities, and potential long-term implications for their programs, staff, and students.

This event specifically targets doctoral level academics who serve as administrators or instructional faculty for behavioral analysis training programs.

This moderated panel discussion considers cross-science collaboration on issues in environmentalism, human behavior, and sustainable communities within the boundaries of a resilient planet. Mobilizing action for large-scale behavior change might be accomplished by forging linkages across scientific, community, business, and community organizations. Our panelists will provide unique perspectives on this opportunity.

In this presentation, the author will describe two projects that have successfully transferred functional analysis procedures to community settings. The first example is a 4-year project in which the Iowa Department of Education teamed with the University of Iowa Center for Disabilities and Development (CDD) to train educational teams to conduct and interpret functional analyses in local schools. The second example summarizes National Institutes of Health- and Maternal and Child Health-funded projects that have shown how functional analyses can be conducted by parents in local outpatient clinics and in their homes. Behavior analysts at the CDD teleconsultation center remotely guided the parents as they conducted the functional analyses. For both projects, functional analyses were conducted within multielement designs, and IOA was conducted for approximately 25% of all sessions and averaged more than 80%. Following the summary of the projects, the author will discuss the results in terms of why it is critical for applied behavior analysts to continue to share their procedures with local staff and parents and how this practice of sharing sets us apart from most other professional groups.

Classroom management consists of instructional classroom procedures and routines implemented by teachers for the purposes of increasing students' positive behaviors and minimizing problematic behavior. Social ShapeUp (SSU: Singletary, 2009) was initially developed in 1997 as an intervention for students engaging in high frequency and challenging behaviors. The components of SSU are based upon the research that demonstrates the efficacy of behavioral principles and child behavior change. SSU recently evolved into a complete system that includes a web application to facilitate data collection, progress monitoring and reporting. The preliminary data showed student achievement gains were higher compared to the previous year without SSU implementation.

Effective practice of applied behavior analysis requires carefully targeted and efficient intervention procedures which lead to meaningful and generalized behavior change outcomes across circumstances and time. Informed by evidence-based research, the ABA practitioner in the field is presented with pressures to deliver services effectively within the fee-for-service business environment, while being responsive to consumers and to the constraints of insurance and payment plan competitive forces. Practice requires acumen in the behavior analyst's ability to analyze and assess functional variables quickly and implement procedures that require practical data systems, while avoiding complicated intervention variables and implementation strategies for therapists, teachers, and parents. The strong practice movement toward interprofessional collaboration and communication among professionals across multiple disciplines also may be a perplexing challenge. These issues will be presented within the context of case examples focusing on outcome assessment and data-based planning and adjustment in procedures as treatment continues from initial focused changes to generalized outcomes. Case examples will include oppositional defiance related to sensory defensiveness, leukemia with excessive hospital visits resulting from pain, interpersonal-focused interventions based on teacher and parent-child interaction therapy protocols, sibling interaction for children with autism, and interprofessional treatment merge in coordination of services for children with autism.

Operant principles apply everywhere from simple invertebrates to Wall Street. On the occasion of the 100th birthday of behavioral psychology, it's reassuring to observe how scientists and practitioners in related fields are increasingly discovering "our" operant principles and applications--with or without discovering our field of behavior analysis and its established terminology, methodology, and practices. Like other sciences, ours has always been part of a larger interdisciplinary effort. John B. Watson performed original work in a variety of disciplines, and, while the days of the generalist may be gone, interdisciplinary work is arguably more important than ever: We now know how fully operant principles interact with others in the large and complex nature-and-nurture system, for example. This talk will take stock of our field's current interdisciplinary extensions, with boundless opportunities. Our biological context includes significant advances in operant-related genetics and epigenetics as well as sophisticated neuroscience. When it comes to higher-order skills, the functional linguists are among many fellow travelers. In application, ever more randomized controlled trials are expanding our reach in the mainstream, even as our small-n designs are increasingly accepted (and adopted). The presentation will summarize selected advances in all of these areas, and discuss what behavior analysts can learn and how we can contribute. While interdisciplinary work entails some barriers to be surmounted, the benefits can be considerable, and they flow in both directions.

General

The year 2013 marks two notable occasions. First, it is the 100^th anniversary of the 1913 founding of behaviorism by John B. Watson -- his classical behaviorism. Behavior analysis is a variant of behaviorism. Second, the year 2013 is behaviorism’s 100^th birthday. Behavior analysis is its latest variant. This symposium commemorates both occasions by looking backward at classical behaviorism and forward to behavior analysis in three presentations and discussant comments. The presentations address the evolution of behaviorism’s basic research, conceptual foundations, and applied research. Basic research is addressed in the context of Skinner’s early research (i.e., from reflexes to operant behavior to stimulus control). Conceptual foundations are examined through the lens of contemporary issues (e.g., behavior as subject matter in its own right, private events, pragmatism, verbal behavior). Applied research is reviewed in several significant domains (e.g., experimental analyses of human behavior, the dimensions of applied behavior analysis, institutional foundings, professionalization). Basic and applied research and conceptual foundation are not, of course, independent of each other nor of the social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences -- and they have a future. These points are also considered in the presentations and discussant comments.

The main theme of Skinner's early research in the 1930s was an empirical and methodological separation between what is now known as respondent conditioning and operant conditioning. Skinner acknowledged and respected Pavlov's respondent conditioning, but argued that there was an additional form of conditioning that did not need an eliciting stimulus preceding conditioned behavior. In the new form of conditioning, behavior is controlled by the stimulus that follows the behavior, that is, by consequences. In 1937, Skinner used the term "operant" conditioning for this second type of conditioning and separated it from respondent conditioning. But Skinner's early experiments also showed that operant behavior could be brought under control by stimuli that preceded it. Incredibly, Skinner first demonstrated that an eliciting stimulus is not needed in operant conditioning, only then shortly thereafter to show that a stimulus preceding a reinforced operant response can control that response just like a conditioned stimulus in respondent conditioning controls a response. This discovery of the discriminated operant brought about a whole new area of research--stimulus control of voluntary behavior. The presentation will mix methods and facts from Skinner's early research with autobiographical accounts of this research.

The presentation will examine the relation between Watson's classical behaviorism and nine conceptual issues from contemporary behavior analysis: (a) Behavior as subject matter in its own right; (b) Selection by consequences; (c) A distinction between elicited and emitted behavior; (d) Private behavioral events; (e) Anti-mentalism; (f) Pragmatism; (g) Generic and functional nature of analytic and explanatory concepts; (h) The importance of verbal behavior; and (i) Social activism. We conclude that Watson anticipated many but not all conceptual issues that are important in contemporary behavior analysis, perhaps because of Watson's early influence on Skinner.

The presentation will describe the significant developments in the history of applied behavior analysis since Watson's declaration of behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology and his demonstration of learning principles in humans. It focuses on eight activity domains that have culminated in the applied behavior analysis of today. These include the development of radical behaviorism, early efforts to transport the experimental analysis of behavior to humans, the codification of applied behavior analysis (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968), the development of key scientific journals and textbooks, the influences of major graduate-training programs, the breadth of successful behavior-analytic applications, the emergence of a practitioner base, and professional credentialing and legislation.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) involve social and language impairments and repetitive behavior. Prevalence rates have grown 20-fold, and ASD now affects about 1 in 91 children. Without effective treatment, long-term outcomes for individuals with ASD remain bleak; few maintain friends, jobs, or independent living. A principal barrier to successful community life for this group is the presence of destructive behavior (e.g., aggression). The greatest recent advancement in the treatment of destructive behavior has been the development of functional analysis (FA), which is used to prescribe effective treatments. One such treatment, functional communication training (FCT), is often prescribed when an FA implicates social reinforcers (e.g., attention) for destructive behavior. With FCT, the consequence that heretofore reinforced destructive behavior is delivered contingent on an appropriate communication response and problem behavior is placed on extinction. Although this straightforward approach to the treatment of destructive behavior can be highly effective, many pitfalls and practical challenges arise when this treatment is implemented by caregivers in natural community settings. The presentation will feature data and describe a line of research aimed at increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, and practicality of FCT for individuals with ASD who display destructive behavior in typical community settings.

The target audience for this presentation is graduate students, practitioners, and researchers interested in the study and treatment of individuals with autism and related disorders who display severe destructive behavior.

Sorting through the wide variety of interventions available for students experiencing academic difficulties can be difficult. The challenge is to identify not just any empirically supported intervention, but the right intervention that works for a particular child. The purpose of this presentation is to present a practical model for selecting supplemental academic interventions based on the four-term contingency. A variety of intervention strategies will be examined according to functional properties and presented to illustrate how to adapt instruction to the learner's level of skill proficiency. The intervention model will emphasize both efficiency (i.e., ease of use) and level of skill proficiency as guiding principles for selecting supplemental interventions. Interventions for behavior problems related to skill deficits also will be addressed. Attendees will learn how to prioritize a variety of supplemental interventions and how to use them.