Association for Behavior Analysis International

The aim of this panel is provide an opportunity for commentary on and discussion of the works of Dr. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy as a follow-up to her address as the 2015 Presidential Scholar. Dr. Hrdy's scholarly works pertain to intellectual domains of considerable relevance to the behavior analytic community, including anthropology, primatology and evolutionary theory. Of particular interest to our members are her views on the nature of motherhood and its role in the evolution of the human species, including the evolutionary origins of empathy and mutual understanding. The panelists will offer behavior analytic commentary on various features of Dr. Hrdy's views as presented in her address and other works, with opportunity for discussion with the author.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, and graduate students.

Although in recent years an increasing number of single-case studies have focused on teaching language skills to children with autism using Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the majority have concentrated on establishing primary operants at the single-word level. Nevertheless, from 2 to 3 years of age, typically developing children naturally demonstrate generalized and multiply controlled verbal behavior, including autoclitics: They are, for example, able to provide full-sentence answers to novel questions about ongoing and past events, to describe their own experiences, and to respond to a diversity of novel instructions. One of the greatest challenges currently facing applied behavior analysts remains, therefore, how to teach such complex verbal behavior to children with autism. This presentation will propose that contemporary analyses of multiple control (Lowenkron, 1998; Michael, Palmer, & Sundberg, 2011) offer a conceptually coherent practical basis for the development and curricular organization of procedures to meet this challenge. A program of instruction will be presented in which language objectives are organized along a continuum of increasingly complex stimulus control, and discussion thereby provided of how best to move from establishment of basic vocabulary in primary operants to mastery of complex verbal conditional discriminations across both primary and secondary operants. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of autoclitic frames and intraverbal control in teaching generalized question answering at the tact and intraverbal level and as means of avoiding the discrimination errors that commonly result from teaching specific individual responses to specific individual questions.

Ensuring that the behavioral sciences produce the improvements in human well-being that we all hope for requires that many more people understand and appreciate the knowledge about human behavior and society that have accumulated in the past 50 years. In The Nurture Effect, Dr. Anthony Biglan has tried to communicate to a broad audience of scientists and nonscientists how the behavioral sciences have accumulated programs, policies, and practices that can have great benefit in improving well-being. Taking an evolutionary approach, he will describe the development during the past 50 or so years of our understanding of operant learning and symbolic processes, as well as the principles involved in the recent evolution of capitalism. In the first section of the book, he describes the contextual principles that are, in his view, the foundation for the progress that has been made. In the second section, he describes family, school, peer, and clinical interventions that have solid evidence of benefit in the prevention and treatment of virtually all of the most common and costly problems of human behavior. But our progress in improving well-being will be limited if we fail to change the trajectory of modern capitalism so that its practices benefit everyone. In the third section, he describes the current problems with our system in terms of the contexts that have selected harmful business practices and economic policies. In the fourth section, he describes what can be done to ignite a movement that influences our societies to adopt the programs, policies, and practices that make all of our environments more nurturing.

Many studies have shown that greater delay discounting of money is associated with drug-use disorders. The Sexual Discounting Task was developed to determine the effect of delay on decisions to use condoms in casual sex contexts. Findings show that sexual discounting is typically hyperbolic, consistent with discounting results across species and outcomes. Data show sexual discounting to be: sensitivity to sexual partner desirability and likelihood of having a sexually transmitted infection (STI); related to self-reported recent sexual risk (contrasting with money discounting); greater in drug-dependent vs. nondependent individuals; and reliable at a one-week interval. Recently examined were the acute effects of drugs associated with sexual risk on the Sexual Discounting Task, including a novel probability discounting variation assessing the effects of uncertainty of STI contraction on condom use. Results suggest that cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol increase both delay and probability discounting of condom use. For methamphetamine, this increase was observed only for those individuals for whom methamphetamine increased sexual arousal ratings. These drugs showed no effect in changing money discounting. Collectively, these data suggest that delay and probability discounting are processes contributing to HIV risk behavior. The results also highlight the limitations of assessing discounting with only monetary outcomes.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, and graduate students.

The 2015 Guidelines for the Accreditation of Graduate Programs in Behavior Analysis put forth by the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) includes the addition of coursework in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB). These new additions (one EAB course for master's programs;two EAB courses for coctoral programs) constitute a substantial push to increase the relevance and rigor of training in basic behavior analysis in ABAI-accredited programs. However, the addition of EAB courses may prove difficult for applied training programs that must already maintain approved course sequences through the Behavior Analysis Certification Board, or accreditation from other organizations (e.g., American Psychological Association, National Association of School Psychologists). The 2015 ABAI accreditation guidelines may thereby put graduate training directors in a difficult position to choose whether ABAI accreditation is worth curricular changes or additional hiring of EAB faculty. This panel discussion will begin with brief comments from experts in the field who have a vested interest in integrating basic behavior analysis into applied training programs. Discussants will describe the importance of EAB in applied training programs, in addition to providing tips and strategies for meeting ABAI's accreditation guidelines. The floor will then be opened to discussion from attendees.

For more than a decade, the BACB has operated an Approved Course Sequence system through which a university's defined behavior-analytic coursework can be formally identified as meeting course-content requirements for BACB certification. There are currently more than 500 Approved Course Sequences (ACSs) at over 500 institutions around the world. Dr. James E. Carr will present data on the growth of ACSs over time, as well as the core coursework and instructor requirements to become an ACS. Chief among these requirements is course content (currently 45 hours) in basic behavior-analytic concepts and principles, which all applicants for BACB certification must successfully complete. Questions on BACB certification examinations are all based on the BACB Fourth Edition Task List, which is a content validated list of job competencies of behavior-analytic practitioners. A portion of the task list document (Foundational Knowledge) is devoted to basic concepts and principles. Dr. Carr will describe the roles these basic underpinnings play in BACB coursework requirements and examinations and how they might be expanded or further highlighted in the BACB Fifth Edition Task List.

Dr. Christopher A. Podlesnik is a basic researcher with interests in understanding how fundamental learning and behavioral processes influence the effectiveness of behavioral treatments. Although interested in translational research for some time, he is currently receiving his first real clinical training in Applied Behavior Analysis in severe-behavior and early-intervention clinics. This experience taught him the value of understanding fundamental learning and behavioral processes, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual systems of behavior for guiding treatment decisions. Assessments, analyses, and treatments in Applied Behavior Analysis are powerful tools for addressing behavioral deficits and excesses. However, these methods are applied in so many different circumstances, the particulars of these methods must always change. Understanding fundamental processes provides behavioral clinicians with yet another, more general, tool for better aligning features of clinical tools with a given case and to anticipate avenues to exploit for improving those tools. His ongoing struggle is with how to convey the importance and usefulness of investing the extensive time it takes to understand complex literatures and theoretical frameworks to the point it can be applied by busy students primarily interested in practical issues of behavior change.

University of Houston-Clear Lake's current master's program in behavior analysis is the result of evolving changes and improvements to the curriculum since 2004. Many of these improvements were possible because of changes in the requirements for accreditation and certification. In this presentation, Dr. Dorothea C. Lerman will describe strategies used to meet changes in these requirements and to integrate more basic behavior analysis into the UH-CL curriculum. Suggestions will be given for faculty and program directors who are training practitioners and have a limited number of faculty lines.

Is there a home for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB) in applied-training programs? There has to be because EAB is the foundation of the behavior-analytic home. What has made behavior analysis such a strong discipline is that our practice is never really separated from our science and philosophy. Without training in and knowledge of the basic principles of behavior, an applied behavior analyst is at a severe disadvantage as a practitioner. Dr. Christine E. Hughes will discuss the program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington as an example of a successful and strong program in both basic and applied behavior analysis, while having to meet separate state requirements for practicing psychology.

Behavior analysis is a powerful tool that could ameliorate many of society's problems. One of the first problems that was seriously addressed with a behavior analytic approach was the treatment of autism. Although a behavioral approach yielded promising results from the start, it took many years before the behavioral approach was accepted as the treatment of choice for autism. Although promising data also have been obtained from applications of behavioral technology to many other social problems, these applications have not yet been widely accepted or disseminated. Skinner envisioned behavior analysis as a technology that would address a wide variety of societal challenges. Initially behavior analysts were highly enthusiastic about society adopting our approach in areas such as education, but many people already working in these fields were resistant to a behavioral approach. This paper will examine a number of areas where behavior analysis could make a difference, and explore ways to overcome obstacles and accelerate the acceptance of our approach.