Association for Behavior Analysis International

The 9/11 Commission Report provides a detailed account of the nature and extent of terrorism facing us and recommendations for a global strategy to combat terrorism and build respect among cultures. Their recommended strategy includes a remarkable range of initiatives seeking a coalition of forces to build respect for cultures, tolerance for diversity, opportunities for the disadvantaged, defense of western values, and defeat of terrorism. Many of their recommendations pertain to restructuring the US governments systems for security and defense and will require wide scale organizational change. The challenges and complexity of this are enormous and the struggle will require a unity of purpose and effort perhaps unseen in our lifetimes. The 9/11 Commission has wisely called for an open dialogue on this process. In response, this symposium presents four papers by behavior analysts reacting to the 9/11 Commission report. Our purpose is to contribute to the dialogue needed to develop a coherent response to global terror and suggest contributions by behavioral scientists to this endeavor.

In the past few years there has been growing interest in what some investigators have come to call Theory of Mind. Catalyzed by work with Chimpanzees by David Premack and his colleagues, it has been postulated that certain animals, particularly humans, develop a model for what another may be thinking. This model is used in turn to guide how the organism responds in various social situations. In essence, an individual generates a theory concerning the mind of another, and uses that theory to help maximize his or her own social effectiveness. Where such ability is lacking, social effectiveness is said to diminish. Recently, it has been suggested that such diminished capacity may be at the root of Autism. This presentation explores some of the data, both behavioral and from brain imaging studies, which are used to support some of the theory of mind hypotheses. Further, it suggests a behavioral alternative based on Skinners (1957) analysis of Verbal Behavior, with particular emphasis on autoclitic responses, and the steps behavior analysts might take to further explore this interesting area of animal and human research.

The success behavior analysts have had in treating individuals with autism has had a substantial impact on our membership and has led to a much wider profile for our discipline. However, many challenges and obstacles face us that we have either not met or that we choose to ignore. Though agencies, such as the National Institute of Mental Health, acknowledge ABA as an empirically based effective intervention, they also state that there is no single best treatment option for children with autism. Prominent members of the autism community often criticize ABA as; not addressing social functioning, failing to establish dramatic play skills, incapable of establishing a theory of mind, and of creating children with robotic responding that lacks spontaneity. Other more practical critiques state that it is unclear what the effective components of ABA are, how many hours of service delivery are necessary to achieve gains, and what setting ABA services should be delivered in. The main purpose of this presentation is to describe what is necessary for ABA to address these criticisms. Among the recommended courses of action we will describe the importance of local, regional, and national advocacy and public relations.

Organizations are complicated entities: They incorporate constant, countless dynamic interconnections among behavioral contingencies of many individuals, and yet each configuration of interconnections is unique and temporary. In this context, linear approaches are insufficient to account for and manage organizational change. This presentation will address the complex, transient dynamics within organizations and propose methodological considerations for successful organizational change.

Among the criticisms of B. F. Skinners analysis of verbal behavior is Noam Chomskys claim that it had nothing useful to say about productivity, the generation of novel grammatical utterances. Yet the behavior analytic armamentarium includes a variety of sources of novel behavior, including shaping, fading, adduction, the direct reinforcement of novelty, and the emergence of novel instances of higher order classes. This presentation will consider the implications of such sources for the development of productive verbal behavior and will address Chomskian arguments such as the argument from the poverty of the stimulus. In so doing, it will examine semantic as well as syntactic novelty, as when verbal behavior allows the creation of novel entities such as angels and demons.This address is dedicated to Eliot Shimoff

Most Pavlovian (classical) conditioning theories of nicotine addiction conceptualize the pharmacological effects of nicotine as an outcome or unconditional stimulus (US) that changes the incentive/motivational value of contiguous stimuli. Although preclinical and clinical laboratory studies have affirmed the potential role of these processes in the etiology of nicotine addiction, therapies targeting nicotine and its associated cues have not consistently outvied other forms of intervention in promoting long-term abstinence from smoking. This disconnect highlights the possibility that nicotine might be serving as more than a US. One possibility supported by recent preclinical research with rats from our laboratory is that nicotine appears to also serve as a conditional stimulus (CS). According to this view, nicotine as a CS acquires the ability to evoke a conditioned response by being reliably paired with an appetitive US. The present talk will describe this research characterizing nicotine as a CS, discuss some predictions (e.g., occasion setting, renewal) and implications of this conceptualization, and hopefully facilitate critical discussion on research exploring similarities and differences between nicotine in the role of a discriminative stimulus (SD) versus conditional stimulus.

Originally delivered in shortened form to accept the APA Division 25 Fred S. Keller Award for behavioral education, this address is part of our celebration of Ogden Lindsleys legacy. It honors Dr. Keller and Dr. Lindsley whose contributions to education and behavior analysis continue through their students and colleagues. As behavior analysts we share an understanding of biological, cultural, and individual evolution as processes of selection by consequences. As students and teachers, we participate in the process of evolution itself and can accelerate our contributions to our planets well being and the survival of its inhabitants by consciously assuming responsibility for that participation. Because of the potential advantage that a science of behavior offers our species, we have an evolutionary imperative to pass it on. Some of our greatest teachers, including Skinner, Keller, and Lindsley have given us examples to emulate in this regard.Carl will share anecdotes illustrating the multiplicative effects of passing on what we know and discuss the critical role and evolution of Skinners response rate measurement passed on to us through Lindsley. Hell highlight some of the important ways in which the foundation measurement technologies of our science can inform education and our continued evolution.

Applied behavior analysis has become dominated by the study of developmental disabilities and a few other problem areas where direct contingency principles provide relatively adequate guidance for technological development. Basic behavior analysis is struggling for its identity and indeed for its very survival. Both situations are symptoms of the same problem: the failure to provide an adequate account of human language and cognition. In this talk I review the empirical and conceptual progress of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is one of a small number of new third wave interventions that is fundamentally changing modern behavioral and cognitive therapy. In the five years since the first major outcome study on ACT appeared, successful outcome studies have shown that ACT is helpful in the areas of stress, substance abuse, smoking, diabetes, pain, anxiety, psychosis, prejudice, parenting, and other areas. Both the breadth of application of ACT and the data on its processes of change comport with its underlying theory, Relational Frame Theory (RFT). Since the combination of functional contextualism, RFT, and ACT is at its essence an expression and extension of the core assumptions of behavior analysis, empirical and conceptual progress in this area carries with it a broader lesson: It is useful for behavior analysis to embrace the empirical and conceptual analysis of language and cognition, and explore the applied implications of that analysis. There are barriers to be overcome in both the applied and basic areas before the opportunities that lesson affords can be realized, however. If these barriers can be addressed there is little to prevent behavior analysis from becoming much more central to modern psychology without having to abandon any of its core commitments.

Behavior that is automatically reinforced must come under some type of stimulus control. However, the development of stimulus control is not discussed much by Skinner (1957), or by others who have since written about automatic reinforcement. The current presentation will briefly describe the concept of automatic reinforcement, its applications, and then suggest how stimulus control develops when behavior is automatically reinforced. The analysis may help to explain behavior such as delayed echolalia, self-stimulation, and verbal perseverations. In addition, techniques to evoke desirable behavior (e.g., infant babbling) related to a history of automatic reinforcement will be presented.