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| From the Learner’s View: Methods to Assess and Produce Coherent Stimulus Control Topographies |
| Monday, May 26, 2025 |
| 10:00 AM–10:50 AM |
| Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 1-5 |
| Area: VBC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Alice Shillingsburg (Munroe-Meyer Institute, UNMC) |
| CE Instructor: Alice Shillingsburg, Ph.D. |
| Presenting Author: TOM CARIVEAU (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
| Abstract: Efforts to teach individuals with and without neurodevelopmental disabilities might commonly suffer from what Saunders (2010) described as the rookie stimulus-control error: the misconception that reinforcement in the presence of some stimulus guarantees control by that stimulus. Decades of research findings have confirmed that certain experimental procedures, stimulus arrangements, or types of stimuli commonly result in control by conditions unintended by the behavior analyst. Sidman (2011) suggested that the “teacher must make sure that pupils see what they see” (p. 986). Fortunately, the behavior analyst can access several manuals and tutorials describing instructional arrangements to foster the development of control by the intended stimulus conditions, or said another way, to help the learner see what they see. Behavior analysts might also choose an alternative course: they might seek to understand what the learner sees or, at least, what the learner could see. This presentation will describe methods to assess and foster coherent stimulus control topographies, delusive sources of stimulus control, and gaps in the literature with implications for applied practices. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Target Audience: The target audience includes individuals with a basic knowledge of stimulus control. |
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe methods to assess stimulus control topographies
2. Describe methods to arrange instructional conditions to produce coherent stimulus control topographies
3. Describe potential sources of stimulus control that might result from common instructional arrangements |
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| TOM CARIVEAU (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
 Dr. Tom Cariveau is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Graduate Programs in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. There, he conducts applied research on skill acquisition and stimulus control in collaboration with a small team of exceptional graduate students. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon under the mentorship of Dr. Tiffany Kodak and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Marcus Autism Center under the mentorship of Dr. Alice Shillingsburg. He is an associate editor for The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and the Journal of Behavioral Education and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Dr. Cariveau is the past president of the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis. |
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