Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
Sociedad Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta (Mexican Society of Behavior Analysis)
By Carlos Flores, Óscar García, and Nora Rangel
The Mexican Society of Behavior Analysis (MSBA) publishes the Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis (MJBA) and organizes the Mexican Congress of Behavior Analysis, which seeks to disseminate behavior analysis in Mexico. The 19th installment of the congress took place on March 23–25, 2009, in Aguascalientes. The convention gathered about 500 attendees from 18 states of the country, representing 48 different public and private universities. The program included 279 presentations given by faculty, students, and professional psychologists. There were also 22 invited national conferences (E. Ribes, J. Burgos, V. Alcaraz, C. Bruner, J. Nieto, C. Ibáñez, L. Acuña, S. Cruz, J. Irigoyen, G. Bachá, R. Ávila, A. Torres, C. Santoyo, R. Cabrera, J. Vila, P. Arriaga, A. López-Espinoza, A. Bazán, K. Martínez, R. Hernández-Pozo, A. Zárate, and V. Corral), and five international keynote addresses (C. Saldaña, R. Pellón, T. Peña, W. López, and, C. Miguez). Additionally, the program featured 15 symposia with 64 speakers; 17 paper sessions with 77 presenters; 100 posters; three tutorials on philosophy; and six workshops on reading skills, learning models, assessment in elementary school, and guidelines for writing research reports.
The following graph (Figure 1) shows a comparison between the 19th and the 18th congress, held in November 2007 in Xalapa.
Figure 1. comparison between the 19th and the 18th congress.
The 19th congress attracted about the same number of attendees and presentations. However, the 19th congress surpassed the previous one in other respects. State representation increased from 16 to 18 states, university representation from 35 to 48 universities, the number of authors and coauthors from 384 to 412, the number of invited conferences from nine to 22, and we enjoyed the participation of five international speakers. Although symposia and its respective speakers increased from 13 (with 52 presenters) to 15 (with 64 presenters), paper sessions decreased from 27 (with 102 presenters) to 17 (with 77 speakers). Most notably, posters increased from 50 to 100. While the tutorials decreased from six to three, the workshops remained the same (six).
With regard to the balance of papers on applied and basic behavior analysis and theory, the former clearly exceeded the latter, replicating the same balance of our 2007 convention. With regard to the type of subject used for research, the papers (symposia and paper sessions) were 57 with animals and 175 with humans.
The graphic shows not only that the 19th congress was a success, but also that behavior analysis in Mexico remains very active. This result supports Carlos Bruner’s (Past-president of MSBA) claim in previous articles of the ABA Newsletter (Bruner, 2006, 2008) that that Mexican behavior analysts are well-versed on a variety of themes, both in the breadth and depth of their knowledge and in their coverage of topics, both traditional and in vogue. In addition, such coverage is wide enough to contribute significantly to the development of our discipline, both in Mexico and internationally. The presence of members of the international community at the convention shows this kind of international collaboration.