Newsletter
Volume 31 | 2008 | Number 1
2008 SABA Fellowship Awardees
2007 International Development Grant
The Board of the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis is very pleased to announce the winner of the 2007 International Development Grant who will implement a project in South Africa:
Dr. Joanne Robbins ( Morningside Academy)
Project description: South Africa celebrates fourteen years of democracy in April 2008. This new nation continues to suffer deeply from its history of apartheid. The combination of post-apartheid segregation, its ensuing extreme poverty in the townships, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic creates a devastating effect on every aspect of life. Nelson Mandela cautioned that while the overthrow of the apartheid system was difficult, the most difficult challenge still lies ahead in the education of the disenfranchised so that full democratic participation can be a reality. This is the daunting task that lies before South Africa.
P.E.E.R. (Partnerships for Educational Excellence and Research) is a consortium of behavior analysts from the U.S. and the Active School Coalition from Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Active Schools is a group of dedicated South African educators and psychologists driven to improve the quality of life for students and their families living in impoverished township communities where unemployment and illiteracy rates typically exceed eighty percent.
For the past five years, P.E.E.R. International has focused on bringing effective, evidence-based educational practices based upon the experimental and applied analysis of behavior to the education system of South Africa. P.E.E.R. is currently sharing effective, behavior analytic teaching and learning practices with the faculty of several township schools in the Eastern Cape of South Africa with plans to spread those successes throughout South Africa.
The first meeting was at Morningside Academy in Seattle, Washington and was followed shortly thereafter by a week-long series of interviews in Port Elizabeth. Utilizing Israel Goldiamond’s Constructional Questionnaire, P.E.E.R. was able to ascertain achievable goals and identify important individual and societal consequences needed for program success. It was clear from the interviews that the strengths and passion of the South African educators would enable as much growth as the coaching and training team could foster.
This project intends to affect the quality of primary and secondary education available to disadvantaged students by applying behavior analytic principles to teacher training, student learning, and the development of instructional materials. Educators in the new South Africa are in need of inexpensive, radically effective and efficient procedures that will prepare their township students to become successful citizens and future leaders of their free and changing society. P.E.E.R.’s goal from the outset has been to move from training-the-teacher to training-the-trainer in order to promote self-sufficiency and maximize growth of behavioral methodologies in the city’s township schools and then throughout the nation. The analysis, design and evaluation of classroom instruction, classroom management, and school performance management offered by behavior analysis provide great promise to these school communities and hopefully, one day, to the nation as a whole. Motivated by the dedication, hard work, and inspiration of its South African partners, P.E.E.R. is moving rapidly from promise to practice.
All behavior analysts or interested persons who believe they can contribute to these efforts are welcome to contact Joanne Robbins at joanne@peerinternational.org or Amy Weisenburgh at amy@peerinternational.org. For more information about P.E.E.R go to www.peerinternational.org.
2008 Fellowship Awardees
2008 SABA Experimental Analysis of Behavior Fellowship Awardee: Carla Lagorio (University of Florida)
Carla Lagorio
Originally from Wisconsin, Carla Lagorio received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a major in Psychology and an emphasis in Behavior Analysis. While in Eau Claire, Carla worked closely with Dr. Gregory Madden where they pursued empirical questions involving self-control, risky choice, and temporal discounting. These studies were conducted with humans, pigeons, and rats, providing Carla with exposure to differing research environments, bodies of literature, research questions, and experimental and quantitative techniques.
One of Carla’s primary research interests has been examining behavior in a comparative context, assessing similarities and differences across humans and other animals. This interest has been developed further in Dr. Timothy Hackenberg’s laboratory at the University of Florida, where Carla is completing her graduate work. In her first experiment along these lines, they studied risky choice – choices between fixed (certain) and variable (uncertain) delays to reinforcer delivery – in both humans and pigeons under closely analogous experimental conditions. The aim was to better align the methodologies used with different species to enable them to distinguish genuine species differences from differences in procedure. To that end, a token-reinforcement system was used with both species, in which arbitrary stimuli were earned and later exchanged for consumable-type reinforcers: food for pigeons and video segments from favorite TV programs for humans. Results were roughly similar across species and indicated that when procedural differences were minimized, performances across species were brought into greater accord. These data, and this type of comparative analysis in general, provide important information about the continuity of choice patterns across species, and on the degree to which principles discovered in the animal laboratory can be extended to more complex human activity.
A related line of research that Carla hopes to pursue during her graduate career involves what is termed prospect theory: examining behavior when choices are made between gains and losses of differing probabilities. Carla is also currently exploring risky choice in a token-reinforcement context as an experimental analogue of gambling. Conceptualizing gambling as choice behavior has many advantages, including precise measurement of behavior in relation to known reinforcement variables, and quantification of behavior in relation to well-established models (such as unit price, matching, and optimization). Upon completion of her Ph.D., Carla hopes to pursue a faculty position where she can continue conducting research in behavior analysis.
2008 SABA Experimental Analysis of Behavior Fellowship Awardee: Amanda Calvert (Washington University)
Amanda Calvert
Amanda Calvert was first exposed to behavior analysis as an undergraduate majoring in music performance at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. In an effort to become a better musician and pedagogue by broadening her understanding of “learning” processes, she enrolled in the Learning course taught by Dr. Eric Jacobs. Much to her surprise, the course centered on non-human research, but the principles of learning taught in the course mirrored the most effective teaching methods that her teachers had been applying for years. The immediate application from textbook to real life inspired her to become more involved in basic research in behavior analysis. Under Dr. Jacobs’ tutelage, she worked on choice research in both humans and non-human animals. After graduating with her bachelor’s in music performance and psychology, Amanda entered the doctoral program at Washington University in St. Louis under the supervision of Dr. Leonard Green.
Broadly, Amanda’s research interests lie in the analysis of basic processes of choice and behavioral economics. In collaboration with Dr. Green and Dr. Joel Myerson, she has spent a large part of the past two years investigating the complex choice situations characterized in delay and probability discounting. More specifically, she is concentrating on comparing both delay and probability discounting among rats, pigeons, and humans in situations that minimize differences between the laboratory procedures used across species. Some of her current work includes: a series of investigations into the parameters of reward value that determine the magnitude effect in non-humans and humans; a comparison the processes involved in discounting of delayed and iterated probabilistic rewards in pigeons and humans; a series of studies on the effect of income on delay discounting in non-humans; the beginning of an exciting area of research on the effects of “framing” on choice between two delayed rewards in pigeons.
Amanda hopes to continue her work on discounting, as well as other areas of choice and behavioral economics while at Washington University. Upon completing her Ph.D., she plans to pursue an academic position that includes both research and teaching responsibilities. Amanda wishes to thank the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis for this award and the generosity of its members who make the fellowship possible.
2007 Sidney W. and Janet R. Bijou Fellowship Awardee: Jessica Frieder (Idaho State University)
Jessica Frieder
Jessica Frieder received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Allegheny College (2001), and credits the classes and guidance she received from Dr. Rodney D. Clark for her decision to pursue a career and lifelong goals in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. While completing her studies there, she worked as a juvenile probation officer and was in charge of coordinating community service activities and carried a unique caseload of individuals with special needs. That experience led Jessica to seek further education in behavior analysis. She completed her Master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis/Special Education (2003) at The Ohio State University under the direction of Dr. Stephanie M. Peterson and Dr. Lloyd D. Peterson. During her training at Ohio State, Jessica was involved in a variety of research projects from effective interventions for individuals with severe problem behavior primarily motivated by escape to utilizing self-monitoring to increase on-task behavior in school-based settings. Jessica’s thesis concentrated on implementing self-monitoring across different social skills for children in an elementary school setting who were at-risk for school failure and expulsion. Jessica also worked in the campus’ Office for Disability Services, where she trained college students with disabilities to use adaptive technology and assistive devices.
Following her training at The Ohio State University, she worked as a behavior analyst for Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, PA on a highly specialized multi-disciplinary program called RESPOND under the direction of Dr. Bernie Fabry, Dr. Martin J. Lubetsky, and Dr. John J. McGonigle. During her stint there, she designed, implemented, and trained residential staff to deliver behaviorally based interventions for individuals with dual diagnoses and multi-system involvement. During this time Jessica also became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.
In 2005, Jessica decided to pursue her doctorate degree under the primary supervision of Dr. Stephanie M. Peterson and Dr. Lloyd D. Peterson at Idaho State University. She has since had the opportunity to work on a variety of research projects. Currently, she is serving as the project coordinator for an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grant under principal investigator, Dr. Stephanie Peterson, that is examining the effects of concurrent schedules of reinforcement and adjusting demand requirements on the communication, compliance, and problem behavior of children with varying disabilities who display escape-maintained problem behavior in school-based settings. Jessica has also been instrumental in research on collaborating with educators to conduct functional analyses via the use of web-based technology and to design and implement reinforcement-based interventions. Jessica’s other areas of interest include: effective social skills instruction, self-monitoring and self-management procedures as they relate to both academic and social behavior; the integrity with which behavioral strategies are implemented; and effective training for future teachers and other practitioners.
Following the completion of her doctorate, Jessica plans to continue her research interests in a higher education setting and to train future behavior analysts and teachers.
2007 Sidney W. and Janet R. Bijou Fellowship Awardee: Sara Kupzyk (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
Sara Kupzyk
Sara Kupzyk received her Master’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas in 2006. Under the guidance of James Sherman and Jan Sheldon, Sara applied her knowledge of behavior analysis to various populations. Sara worked as an in-home family therapist for families with adjudicated youth or children who had been removed from the home. Sara helped the families set goals that would help them be successful in their environment. Sara also systematically taught parenting and social skills and monitored the families’ performance and skill generalization. In addition to working with families, Sara applied her skills to adults with developmental disabilities. For Sara’s Master’s thesis she developed and evaluated an exercise program for adults with developmental disabilities living in a community setting. The program included a motivational system for both the participants and teachers, along with scheduling of exercise. These varied experiences allowed Sara to see the generalizability of behavior analysis to many situations. Her focus then turned to development and implementation of interventions for children in educational settings and parent and teacher training.
To pursue these interests, Sara joined the School Psychology program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Under the guidance of Edward Daly, Sara has expanded her knowledge of behavior analysis to its applications in educational settings. Sara enjoys working in educational settings because they provide an important setting for the delivery of effective interventions for students and families that may not otherwise seek services. On a broad level, Sara has been involved in the development and refinement of Nebraska’s model for Response to Intervention. Response to Intervention provides schools with a framework for meeting the needs of students using a continuum of services and focuses on early intervention. The model encourages schools to operationally define problems, provide high quality instruction, continuously monitor progress, and make modifications to improve student success.
Specifically, Sara’s research interests include the development and implementation of academic and behavioral interventions for children in school settings. Within the Response to Intervention framework, the implementation of effective instruction for students is central to student success. Sara is interested in the refinement and application of brief experimental analysis in school and clinic settings, as well as the effects of student choice on the implementation of treatments. Additionally, Sara is interested in training parents and teachers to implement interventions and to use single-case designs to monitor and evaluate students’ performance. Sara would also like to develop teacher training in behavioral principles, procedures, and methods, enabling them to deal with problem behaviors in classrooms, and implement good teaching tactics and strategies. Furthermore, Sara and her colleagues are working to develop a revised model of behavioral consultation for use in schools that incorporates technological innovations (e.g., performance deficit analyses, stimulus preference assessments, and brief experimental analysis) and makes the process more efficient for use in schools.