SABA Experimental Fellowship Recipients
2004: Shawn Charlton, University of California, San Diego
Shawn R. Charlton was born and raised in Southeastern Idaho. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Utah State University with a major in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. It was during his time at Utah State that he was introduced to Behavior Analysis through Dr. Carl Cheney’s famous Learning and Behavior “Rat Lab” course. After this initial exposure, he decided that the behavioral methodology and conceptual framework provided the surest foundation upon which to build an investigation of human behavior. This idea was further nurtured through participation in Carl Cheney’s Student Advocates of Behavior Science (SABS) club and Grayson Osborne’s Advanced Experimental Analysis of Behavior course.
Upon completion of his undergraduate studies, Shawn made the move to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) to complete his PhD. At UCSD, he works with Dr. Edmund Fantino and explores a variety of topics with both pigeon and human participants. These current research interests include an exploration of the accuracy of using the “difference” or the “ratio” between choice options in the development of quantitative models of choice behavior, a series of projects modeling human decision making using the predictions from behavioral models of choice with data collected through traditional judgment and decision-making methodology, a series of technological experiments on non-edible, consumable forms of reinforcement for use with human research participants, and a group of studies on the interactions between events occurring within individual trials and those events that occur between individual trials (intratrial events versus intertrial events). While these projects address several very distinct topics, they are all a part of an overall research agenda aimed at understanding how primary behavioral processes are assembled to construct complex behaviors such as self-control and, of greatest importance to Shawn, social cooperation.
In addition to his laboratory work, Shawn’s major interests lie in the teaching of psychology and spending time with his wife and newborn daughter. To satisfy his love of teaching, he works as an adjunct instructor at San Diego Mesa College and Grossmont College (El Cajon, CA) where he has taught Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Learning courses. While he enjoys teaching traditional learning courses, he finds the greatest pleasure in the challenge of teaching traditionally non-behavioral courses with a very behavioral slant.
Shawn wishes to thank the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis for this fellowship and for their support of his explorations of the individual behavioral building blocks of complex social and personal behavior.
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