Association for Behavior Analysis International

In his tutorial, Dr. Newland will describe some basic principles of, and approaches to, framing a behavioral evaluation of environmental contaminants. He will show how behaviorally-trained scientists have had significant impact on the characterization and removal of toxic substances such as lead from our environment. As we have learned about very specific neural and behavioral consequences of exposures, we can apply this knowledge to understand behavioral processes, like development, more fully. The potential for behavioral toxicology to contribute to an understanding of developmental disabilities will be discussed.

In the technical vocabulary of behavior analysis, we discuss discrimination in the context of specifying conditions under which organisms come to behave one way given some stimuli and a different way given others. But in everyday talk, we more often discuss discrimination in the context of concerns about how people treat each other, as when we ask whether individuals are discriminated against on the basis of race or ethnicity or gender. Have we missed some political and social implications of our technical vocabulary? The varied usages have an underlying commonality. Whether pigeons respond differently to green and red keys or law enforcement officers to members of the public depending on their looks, the issue is how discriminated responding is brought about by contingencies and what can be done when those contingencies produce problematic behavior. If a member of some racial or ethnic group is mistreated by members of another group, that individual will come to discriminate on the basis of group membership as surely as a rat between a stimulus during which lever pressing produces shock and one during which it does not. However much we may wish it otherwise, contingencies maintain discriminations involving neighborhoods in which people travel and individuals with whom they interact. Existing social and political environments make such discriminations sometimes inevitable, but we know some things about behavior that may help us to cope with them constructively. This presentation therefore addresses these issues in terms of such behavior analytic categories as differential attention to stimuli, formation and abolition of discriminations, and conditional discrimination.

Scott Geller coined the term behavior-based safety (BBS) in 1979 when consulting with Ford Motor Company on applications of behavior analysis to increase the use of vehicle safety belts. He subsequently taught BBS principles and relevant intervention strategies for on-the-job safety, first at several Ford manufacturing plants and then at various other companies nationwide. Over the next decade, BBS gained substantial popularity as the leading-edge approach to addressing the human dynamics of industrial safety. Annual conferences have been dedicated to BBS, and consulting firms purporting to implement BBS continue to spring up worldwide. Indeed, BBS likely represents the largest-scale application of behavior analysis beyond educational and rehabilitation institutions. The presenter has authored several books and training programs on BBS, including participant workbooks, audiotapes, videotapes, CDs and DVDs. However, Gellers most recent books and training materials (e.g., People-Based Safety and The Anatomy of Medical Error) advocate people-based safety (PBS) over BBS. This presentation will explain the evolution of PBS from BBS, with particular reference to applications in industrial and hospital settings. Learn the principles of BBS and PBS as presented to industries worldwide and most recently to healthcare workers, as well as distinctions between BBS and PBS.

This tutorial will focus on trichotillomania and other repetitive behavior disorders in children and adults with an emphasis on functional assessment and intervention strategies. Following a discussion of the different repetitive behaviors, functional characteristics, and diagnostic categories, the tutorial will discuss assessment procedures, describe functional analysis research with these behaviors, and present recent research on habit reversal and other treatment of these disorders.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has contributed greatly to the treatment of behaviors related to a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) since the inception of the field. Early ABA studies still provide the foundation for now routine recommendations such as the token economy and behavioral parent training. However, recently these early treatments have become much more refined and systematized. The application of functional analysis principles and procedures as well as the development of sophisticated concurrent operant assessment procedures have also led to new and innovative behavioral treatments for ADHD. The purpose of this presentation is to present recent functional analysis and concurrent operant assessment research related to the treatment of ADHD in the context of the past, the present, and our future.

There is a wide gulf between the practices that have received extensive research support and the practices that are carried out in education and human services. Even when legislation and policy exhorts and mandates educators to implement evidence-based practices, the reality on the ground is far from high quality implementation of practices that have research support. Three levels of problems can be identified: (1) What is known is not what is adopted, (2) what is adopted is not used with fidelity, and (3) what is implemented disappears with time and turnover. In order to improve outcomes, we need both (1) effective practices and (2) effective implementation. Implementation is not an event, but a mission-oriented process involving multiple decisions, actions, and corrections. Effective implementation requires an active purveyor that can change the behavior of adult human service professions. This requires simultaneous, multi-level interventions in systems that are constantly in processes of change. These interventions must (1) help faculty/staff acquire the knowledge, skills, and ability to effectively provide the innovations to students, (2) help schools and districts change to more effectively support the work of faculty/staff, and (3) transform education systems to effectively facilitate and sustain the use of innovations statewide.