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| Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior (EAHB) Distinguished Contributions Award: Celebrating the Contributions of Bryan Roche |
| Monday, May 26, 2025 |
| 3:00 PM–3:50 PM |
| Convention Center, Street Level, 151 AB |
| Area: EAB/PCH; Domain: Translational |
| Chair: Catherine Williams (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
| Discussant: Stephanie Jimenez (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) |
| Abstract: Each year, the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group members vote on nominees for our Distinguished Contributions Award. The goal of this award is to recognize the contributions of behavioral scientists whose work has helped to define EAHB as an interesting and viable area of study. This award is presented each year at the ABAI annual convention. The Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group invites you to formally recognize the contributions of Dr. Bryan Roche, whose extensive research career has shed much light on the complexities of human behavior. A colleague of Dr. Roche will reflect on his many contributions toward advancing our understanding of complex human behavior, and Dr. Roche will subsequently deliver an address on a topic of his choosing. Dr. Roche’s talk is entitled " How I built an exciting and rewarding research career in behavior analysis without a five-year plan". Please join us in celebrating Dr. Roche's contributions. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Avoidance, Derived Relations, Human Behavior, psychotherapy |
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How I Built an Exciting and Rewarding Research Career in Behavior Analysis Without a Five-Year Plan |
| (Theory) |
| STEPHANIE JIMENEZ (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown) |
| Abstract: In this talk, I will outline the palpable excitement of being in the room as a PhD student during the heyday of derived relational responding research in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I will outline the importance of my venture into the philosophy of science and key epistemological issues in behavior analysis for supporting my later empirical research. I will then outline a flavor of each of three strands of my research in the analysis of resistance to change in derived relations, the derived transformation of fear and avoidance functions and implications for psychotherapy, and the development of a relational responding intervention to enhance general intellectual ability. The synopses of these adventures and misadventures will include an illustration of how in each case, progress could not have been made if I had been bound by a five-year plan, career and self-promotion concerns, or concerns over publication output. Staying true to my philosophical roots as first and foremost a radical behaviorist, has placed me in a rather difficult to define position between traditional behavior analysis and contextual behavioral science, with which I am often associated. But in that open space I have carved out an interesting and agile research career, surrounded by brilliant friends and colleagues who share an informed distrust of overly-complex theoretical and philosophical models that are progressive to the point of being hard to identify as behavior analytic. Most importantly they share my passion for the beauty and elegance of basic behavioral science. |
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| Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group Distinguished Contributions Award |
| (Theory) |
| JACK FRANCIS BLAKE (University of Massachusetts Lowell), David J. Cox (Endicott College; Mosaic Pediatric Therapy), Vanessa Ayres-Pereira (Federal University of São Carlos), Denise Passarelli (Universidade Federal de São Carlos) |
| Abstract: Dr. Bryan Roche is Professor in Psychology at Maynooth University, Ireland where he has led a behavior-analytic research program for the past two decades. He is best known for his early work on Relational Frame Theory, the first textbook for which he served as co-editor. Since then, he has been actively publishing basic studies on the formation of derived relations and their resistance to change; a program which led eventually to the development of an indirect assessment method to identify the configuration of naturalistic verbal relations in the vernacular, sometimes referred to as an “implicit” test (i.e., the Function Acquisition Speed Test; FAST). He has also published extensively on the derived transformation of eliciting and operant response functions in the analysis of sexual arousal and, more extensively, the development and treatment of fear and avoidance. In this vein, he has been a regular commentator on the importance of clearly identifying behavioral processes underlying treatments within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Finally, he is the co-developer of the SMART method of multiple exemplar relational responding training to enhance general intellectual ability. The development of a web-based and mobile application to deliver this intervention free for schools and research institutions was recently acknowledged by the awarding of an honorary doctorate. |
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