Newsletter
Volume 30| 2007| Number 2
The Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group (EABG) -- UK and Europe 2007
By Dr. J. Carl Hughes
The Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group (EABG) held its biennial meeting in University College London on 2nd – 4th April, 2007. The meeting was a great success with over 160 delegates in attendance across the 3 days; academics, postgraduate students, and applied researchers came from across Europe, North America, and further afield. Reassuringly for the future of behaviour analysis in Europe, there were significant increases in the numbers of student presenters, and, an increase in the number of delegates who are not employed in an academic setting, but work in the field as applied behaviour analysts. Both of these signal a bright future.
The 2007 Programme
We had a number of very distinguished invited addresses at the conference. It was our pleasure to welcome back two long-standing supporters of the EABG conference and the development of behaviour analysis in Europe—Professor Lanny Fields from Queens College of the City University of New York, and Dr. Doug Greer from Columbia University and founder of CABAS. Professor Fields gave a wonderful talk on stimulus equivalence and the interaction effects of nodality and contingency. Dr. Greer gave an authoritative talk on verbal behaviour and more specifically on the intercept between the listener and speaker capabilities and the effects on complex human repertoires. We were pleased to welcome two of the major contributors to British behaviour analysis, Professor Bob Remington and Professor Richard Hastings, to talk about the Southampton Childhood Autism Programme (SCAmP), and the recent important contribution to the evidence for early intensive interventions reporting results from a field effectiveness study of ABA for children with autism in the UK education system. It was also our great pleasure to welcome David C. Palmer to give our EABG 2007 keynote address. On the 50th anniversary of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, Dr. Palmer talked about structure and function within verbal behaviour and argued that an important goal of the next 50 years is to show how structural phenomena in verbal behaviour are subsumed by a functional account.
We also welcomed Dr. Jerry Shook to his first EABG (and first trip to London!). Dr. Shook is Chief Executive Officer of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc.â; the BACBâ continues to be a major catalyst in the development of training programmes and certification of behaviour analysts internationally. During his visit, Dr. Shook made some significant contributions to our goal of increasing training initiatives and expanding the move towards certification of those working as behaviour analysts in Europe. In addition to our invited speakers, we hosted 60 other high quality talks and posters on both applied and basic issues. We were also pleased to hold another one-day workshop providing an introduction to the principles and practice of Precision Teaching; 30 academics, students, and parents interested in methods of ensuring effective educational practice attended the workshop.
Another noticeable difference to the event this year was the number of BCBA and BCABA delegates looking to gain their Continuing Education Units (CEUs) at the conference. We had twelve events, consisting of symposia, invited addresses, panel discussions, and workshops, offering a total of 19 CEUs. For the first time, we piloted the inclusion of the cost of obtaining CEUs in the registration payment for the conference. Our aim was to remove one of the barriers to obtaining those much needed CEUs: the feedback from the delegates, especially those who do not have financial backing to attend such events, was that this was a very positive move, and for many, made the difference as to whether they could fund attendance at the conference. We are now in the situation in the UK and Europe where we are able to provide many of the CEUs for certified behaviour analysts; this is a crucial development in the expansion of behaviour analysis in Europe.
Please visit the EABG Web page to view the programme of events and for information on other events offering CEUs throughout the year (http://eabg.bangor.ac.uk).
We are pleased to announce that the European Journal of Behaviour Analysis (EJOBA) will be printing a Special EABG edition of the journal to be published in December 2007. The special edition will include papers submitted by the EABG keynote and invited speakers, and other delegates, plus the entire conference proceedings. We hope that this precedence starts a trend in the alliance between EJOBA and the European meetings. For more information visit the EJOBA Web page (www.ejoba.org) or contact the EJOBA editor Erik Arntzen (erik.arntzen@equivalence.net).
This is an exciting time for behaviour analysis in Europe. In the past
few years, we have witnessed a huge increase in the number of European behaviour
analysts gaining BCBA / BCABA certification. Things have also improved markedly
in the last few years in the training provisions available to behaviour
analysts and those wishing to develop their knowledge of the area; there
now exist 14 BACB / BCABA course sequences approved across several universities
in Europe—Wales, Norway, Ireland, England, Sweden, Spain, and most
recently, Italy.
Please also make a note that the Fourth meeting of the European Association For Behaviour Analysis (EABA IV) will be held in Madrid, September 9th – 12th, 2008 (abstract submission deadline: 30th April, 2008). If you have not previously attended or given a paper at a European meeting, now is the time to consider spending time next year in discussion with European colleagues in this wonderful Spanish city. If you would like further information about the EABA IV meeting visit the official EABA Web site (http://eaba.bangor.ac.uk).
During the past year, the EABG organisation has maintained its commitment to continued education of the European public and professionals about behaviour analysis. Our aims for the following year are to continue our support for EABA and the Madrid meeting and to continue to support behaviour analysis through BCBA and BCABA training and promotional events. In this regard, EABG has recently organized, in collaboration with the Wales Centre for Behaviour Analysis (http://wcba.bangor.ac.uk), several CEU events in the UK. We hope to establish a number of such events across the UK over the next year.
EABG wishes to thank all the delegates and presenters who attended the 2007 conference and to our invited speakers who gave some wonderful and authoritative talks in their area of expertise. Special thanks to Mike Beverley, the EABG conference coordinator, and to the behaviour analysis students from the University of Wales, Bangor: Marleen Adema, Nicol Hruskova, Lauren Williamson, Raych Clayton, Anna White, Gillian Carter, Krys Sanderson, and Helen Steventon, for their hard work in helping at the conference.
In brief, the evidence from the EABG 2007 meeting suggests that behaviour analysis in the UK and Europe is vibrant. The EABG continues to provide a forum for the dissemination and discussion of high quality behaviour analytic research and training. The European Association for Behaviour Analysis, and the European Journal of Behaviour Analysis, mark exciting endeavours in the continuing development of behaviour analysis across Europe. The next meeting of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group is scheduled for Easter 2009. Before then, please join us in Madrid, September, 2008.