Newsletter
Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 1
2005 SABA Fellowship Awardees
2005 SABA Experimental Analysis of Behavior Fellowship Awardee: Christopher A. Podlesnik (Utah State University)
Christopher A. Podlesnik
Originally from Latrobe, PA, Christopher A. Podlesnik received a B.A. in psychology and a minor in philosophy from West Virginia University. Chris currently is a graduate student and has his M.A. in the experimental analysis of behavior at Utah State University and is working with his supervisor, Timothy A. Shahan.
Chris became interested in the study of behavior while working with Philip N. Chase at West Virginia University. His undergraduate honors thesis examined the effects of instructions on the persistence of behavior. This was the first time the effects of instructions on behavior had been examined using disruption techniques borrowed from the literature on behavioral momentum theory. The results from this study have been accepted for publication in The Psychological Record.
After time off from school working at a psychiatric
hospital, Chris continued pursuing his interests
in underlying behavioral processes at Utah State
University. His main interests involve testing
the boundaries of behavioral momentum theory
and the matching law. Chris is currently collaborating
on projects that examine how primary reinforcement
variables affect response recovery, attending
to stimuli, and the allocation and persistence
of behavior maintained by conditioned reinforcement.
Currently, Chris’s main interests involve
how different response-reinforcer contingencies
affect the persistence of behavior independently
of differences in reinforcement variables.
Similar methods are used to assess behavioral
momentum theory in the experimental analysis
of behavior and to assess underlying associations
between environmental events by researchers
in other experimental psychologies. Such similarities
recently have led Chris to begin examining those
similarities at conceptual, theoretical, and
empirical levels. Chris hopes to continue exploring
his interests in basic behavioral processes
throughout his time at USU and to ultimately
land a career teaching and conducting research
within academia.
2005 Sidney W. and Janet R. Bijou Fellowship Awardee: Claire St. Peter (University of Florida)
Claire St. Peter
Claire St. Peter has been interested in behavior analysis since taking undergraduate coursework with Hank Pennypacker. She began her graduate studies in behavior analysis at the University of Florida in 2001, under the supervision of Timothy Vollmer.
Claire’s research interests center around the development and implementation of interventions for children who exhibit problem behavior or who have fallen behind academically. Claire is specifically interested in the effects of reinforcement history on current responding, the effects of treatment integrity failures on common behavioral treatments, and the use of laboratory settings to inform applied research.
During her graduate school career, Claire has conducted research using both laboratory and school settings. In 2002, she developed a human operant laboratory to study the effects of treatment integrity failures on behavioral treatments such as DRO and DRA, and is currently extending the findings of that research into applied settings. She is also currently studying the effects of reinforcement history and development on behavioral interventions.
Claire will seek an academic position following her graduation. Ultimately, she would like to contribute to the field of behavior analysis through both research and teaching. She would like to continue her line of programmatic research focusing on treatment integrity and behavioral history, including the influence of developmental (historical) factors on children’s current responding.
2005 Sidney W. and Janet R. Bijou Fellowship Awardee: Jason Stricker (University of Iowa)
Jason Stricker
Jason Stricker received his Bachelors of Arts in psychology from California State University, Fresno (CSUF). While completing his undergraduate degree, he managed a residential home for adolescents with developmental disabilities and behavior disorders. That experience led him to seek further training in behavior analysis. Upon graduating from CSUF, Jason moved to Fargo, ND to work with Dr. Raymond Miltenberger at North Dakota State University (NDSU). Under Dr. Miltenberger’s supervision, Jason was involved in research projects examining hand-to-mouth habit behaviors in typically developing children and sexual abuse prevention training for women diagnosed with mental retardation. Jason also worked as an intensive intervention trainer in home and school settings, as well as supervised programming for three children with Autism under the supervision of Dr. Eric Larsson and Dr. Miltenberger. During his graduate training at NDSU Jason was involved in research projects that were published in The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, Education and Treatment of Children, and Behavior Modification.
After completing his Masters of Science in Clinical Psychology at NDSU, Jason joined The Columbus Organization and worked as a behavior analyst at Arlington Developmental Center under the supervision of Dr. Bridget Shore and had monthly case consultation with Dr. Brian Iwata. As a behavior analyst, Jason specialized in functional analysis and treatment of automatically maintained behaviors, preference assessment methodology, and food refusal in adults with mental retardation. In 2001, Jason became Assistant Chief Behavior Analyst at Arlington and oversaw all skill acquisition programming with monthly consultation from Dr. Dennis Reid for his remaining two years at Arlington. During this time, Jason also became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and worked as a quality assurance and crisis intervention specialist for The Columbus Organization for individuals living in the community in western Tennessee.
Currently, Jason is in his second year of doctoral training in School Psychology at the University of Iowa. Jason’s area of interest continues to be analysis and treatment of automatically maintained behaviors. Jason is currently a research assistant on a National Institutes of Health grant studying automatic reinforcement under the supervision of Wendy Berg and Dr. David Wacker. Jason is interested in classifying patterns of automatic reinforcement and studying automatically maintained behaviors from a behavioral economic perspective. Jason also participates in research with students diagnosed with ADHD and behavior disorders under the supervision of his advisor, Dr. John Northup. Current research consists of the study of recruiting reinforcement, tolerance to delay, and correspondence training in classroom settings. Jason, his wife Michelle, four-year-old son Zackariah, and seven-month-old daughter Mattlyn deeply thank the Bijou family and SABA for this fellowship award.