Association for Behavior Analysis International

Come join us for what has become an annual tradition at ABAI. This Pilates/Yoga session is led by certified instructors and is designed for every level and participant. Wear comfortable clothing. Participants may wish to bring a towel to use while in class. Relax, refresh and recharge!

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We evolved to eat berries rather than bagels, to live in mud huts rather than condos, to sprint barefoot rather than play football—or did we? Are our bodies and brains truly at odds with modern life? Everyone is fond of paleofantasies, stories about how humans lived eons ago, and we use them to explain why many elements of our lives, from the food we eat to the way we raise our children, seem very distant from what nature intended. Many diets and self-help books are predicated on the notion that our behavior and bodies evolved under a certain set of circumstances, from which we deviate to our peril. Implicit in that idea is the assumption that humans in a modern society aren’t evolving any more, that we have somehow freed ourselves from evolution, or at the very least, that evolution always requires so long to act that we can’t expect to have adapted to our current circumstances. But popular theories about how our ancestors lived—and why we should emulate them—are often based on speculation, not scientific evidence, and they reflect a basic misunderstanding about how evolution works. There was never a time when everything about us—our bodies, our minds, and our behavior—was perfectly in synch with the environment. Evolution is continuous, and all organisms alive today, whether chimpanzees, modern-day hunter-gatherers, or bacteria, are all equally evolved. What really matters is the rate of evolution, which is sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Instead of trying to live like cavemen, we need to understand that process.

IGNITE is a worldwide phenomenon promoting exciting presentations that are only five minutes long. Each speaker submits a slideshow with 20-slides preprogrammed to advance every 15-seconds. The Chair collects the slideshows and organizes them on one laptop so there is no equipment change between speakers. The presentations are intended to IGNITE the interest of audience members and to stimulate conversation and encourage further exploration of topics. Come enjoy a series of fast-paced, explosive presentations aimed to inform and educate. Come get your passion for behavior analysis ignited!