Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 1
What is SQAB?
By William M. Baum, Ph.D. and Randolph C. Grace, Ph.D.
SQAB (pronounced “squab”), the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior, meets just before the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) convention. It is devoted to presenting basic research in the whole range of fields that would interest behavior analysts—for example, choice, decision making, reinforcement processes, behavioral economics, optimal foraging, perception, behavioral neuroscience, and memory. The membership and meeting are interdisciplinary; behavior analysts and non-behavior analysts attend and present.
SQAB is a single-track conference, so you won’t miss any of the presentations. Just come a day before the ABA convention, and you can attend the SQAB meeting. It runs all day Friday and the first half of Saturday. Friday evening is the SQAB poster session. Then on Saturday afternoon, the SQAB tutorials occur. These are accessible presentations on basic research areas by eminent scholars in their fields. This year the SQAB tutorials will be on modeling. Charles Shimp will provide an overview of modeling covering their various underlying metaphors, purposes, and how they can be evaluated. Jose Burgos will discuss the use of neural network approaches to model conditioning phenomena. Chris Newland and Wendy Donlin will present modeling with a focus on the identification of mechanisms of action, while A. Charles Catania will explore the use of models to create artificial behavior.
The 2006 program features presentations by well-known researchers on a range of topics, but with a special focus on economic approaches for the analysis of behavior. We are fortunate to have two presentations by leaders in the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroeconomics, which attempts to ground economic theory in behavioral psychology and neuroscience. Paul Glimcher (New York University) will speak on neuroeconomic studies of choice and the matching law, and Michael Platt (Duke University) will discuss evidence for economic principles in the primate brain. There will also be four talks related to behavioral economics. Warren Bickel, Richard Yi, Kirsten Gatchalian, Diana Lindquist, and Ben Kowal (University of Arkansas) will examine whether temporal discounting can apply to past rewards as well as upcoming ones; Edmund Fantino, Santino Gaitan, Art Kennelly, and Stephanie Stolarz-Fantino (University of California – San Diego) will discuss how reinforcer type affects choice in economic games; Gordon Foxall (Cardiff University) will present a new approach towards understanding intentionality in consumer choice; Steven R. Hursh and Alan Silberberg (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and American University) will describe a new simplified economic demand equation that can be used to define the ‘essential value’ of a commodity; and Stephen E. G. Lea ( University of Exeter) will present an evolutionary analysis of human economic behavior.
In addition to the special focus on economic themes, there will be several presentations on some perennially popular topics for SQAB: choice and timing. Jack McDowell (Emory University) will present a new model that explains undermatching in concurrent schedules as an emergent property of selection by consequences; Tony Nevin and Anthony McLean (University of New Hampshire and University of Canterbury) will describe a model for concurrent schedules based on behavioral momentum theory; and Allen Neuringer, Greg Jensen, and Paul Piff (Reed College) will present evidence that matching by humans in concurrent schedules may be related to the perception of voluntary behavior.
Presentations on timing include Kimberly Kirkpatrick and Matthew Pizzo (University of York), who will discuss patterns of response bouts in interval timing tasks in terms of packet theory and Thomas R. Zentall, Andrea M. Friedrich, Emily D. Klein, and Rebecca A. Singer (University of Kentucky), who will search for common principles underlying ‘wrinkles’ in animal timing such as the subjective shortening effect. Jeremie Jozefowiez, Daniel T. Cerutti, and John E. R. Staddon ( Duke University) will explore the relationship between choice and timing behavior. Other speakers include Alex Kacelnik (Oxford University), who will present his recent research on tool use by New Caledonian crows and consider whether these pose a challenge for behavior analysis; Adam H. Doughty and Kennon A. Lattal (College of Charleston and West Virginia University), who will present a pigeon model of behavioral compliance; and Douglas Elliffe (University of Auckland), who will examine the broad themes of variability and constraint in quantitative models of behavior.
Membership and registration are inexpensive. Membership is $20; registration is $20 for students, $35 for post-docs, and $55 for others. Following May 1, these fees are increased by $10.
The SQAB Web site is http://sqab.psychology.org. Visit the Web site and come join us at the next meeting. If you have questions, please get in touch with our president, William M. Baum, wbaum@sbcglobal.net.