Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 2 | On-line ISSN: 2151-4704
ABAI Science Board
By Timothy Hackenberg
Among the most significant trends in science over the past decade is one toward translational research—work that spans the continuum from laboratory science to practical application. The translational model—sometimes also known as "bench to bedside"—seeks to build bridges across research areas and disciplines, promoting cross-fertilization of ideas. Although behavior analysts have done, and continue to do, cutting-edge translational research, such efforts are largely unknown outside our field. We need to do a better job of highlighting the good translational work of behavior analysts, as well as build bridges to other areas.
To highlight the good translational work being done within our field, the Science Board sponsored a special program track on Translational Science at the 2009 ABAI Convention. With topics ranging from delay discounting to relational learning, the goals of these sessions were to provide generally accessible overviews of specific research domains that bridge the gap between basic laboratory science and applications of that science. The sessions were well attended and provided many opportunities for constructive dialogue between basic and applied scientists.
We hope to continue offering translation-oriented sessions at upcoming conferences. In conjunction with this, however, we need to pursue opportunities to branch out to other areas, to connect behavior analysis to broader developments in science and society. Toward that end, the Science Board plans to establish a regular science conference, organized around the broad theme of behavioral research and translation. Each individual conference will focus on a specific topic (e.g., behavioral neuroscience, behavioral genetics, behavioral medicine) appropriate to the general theme of translational research. Such conferences will not only solidify relations between experimental and applied sciences within our field, but also provide opportunities for productive collaborations with other allied disciplines.
More specific aims of the Science Conference are:
- Education: to educate the audience about important developments in translational and interdisciplinary science, funding sources in these areas, and how behavior analytic-methods inform and assist such efforts.
- Collaboration: to work with other groups in building cooperative and collaborative relationships to address pressing issues and funding initiatives.
- Dissemination: to create a tangible product of the proceedings for the field. In collaboration with the Publications Board, we hope to publish the proceedings of each meeting in book form or as a special issue of The Behavior Analyst or related journal.
Behavioral Economics
The specific theme of the inaugural science conference will be behavioral economics, a cross-disciplinary approach aimed at understanding behavior in an economic context. There are two main branches of behavioral economics, arising from somewhat different traditions of research and interpretation. The one most familiar to behavior analysts has origins in operant laboratories and focuses on consumer demand theory—how the value of a commodity, or reinforcer, is influenced by economic variables (e.g., price, income, availability of substitutable reinforcers). This approach has yielded important conceptual advances over the past few decades, and has more recently been successfully applied to a wide range of health-related problem behavior, including drug abuse, gambling, and obesity, to name just a few.
The other branch of behavioral economics comes mainly from more cognitive-oriented research with human subjects and focuses on anomalies or biases in judgment—systematic departures from classical economic theory and its assumption of rational decision-making. This is the branch of behavioral economics spawned by Kahneman and Tversky's groundbreaking research in the 1970s (and for which Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in 2002), and the branch featured in media accounts and bestselling books (such as Sunstein and Thaler's Nudge and Levitt & Dubner's Freakonomics). This is also the branch of behavioral economics that has of late been used to inform public policy (e.g., www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1889153-1,00.html).
While both branches of behavioral economics are concerned broadly with behavior in an economic context, they have developed largely in parallel, with little cross-fertilization of ideas and concepts. A major aim of the conference is to constructively engage these different behavioral-economic perspectives, producing new insights into behavioral economics, including problem behavior (e.g., addictions, gambling) and public policy. We hope to attract basic and applied scientists, practitioners, and students, as well as policy makers and program officers from funding agencies.
The conference is scheduled for March 2011 in Chicago. We are aiming for a single-track two-day meeting with invited speakers, panel discussions, and a poster session and reception. Within the broad theme of behavioral economics, we are envisioning smaller clusters of interrelated presentations—researchers working on a similar problem from different angles. Each cluster would be followed by a moderator-led panel discussion with audience input, facilitating productive interchange of ideas. The goals of the conference are both to enhance the reputation of behavior analysis in translational research, and to improve cross-disciplinary relations with other allied sciences.
Please consider joining us in Chicago for the inaugural Behavioral Research and Translation Conference. And please submit ideas for future conferences along these lines. The Science Board works for its members, and we welcome your input and suggestions.