Association for Behavior Analysis International

Dog ownership has been shown to provide many benefits to humans, such as increased and regular walking, improved cardiovascular health, as well as increased social interactions. However, dogs can display behaviours that are problematic for their owners and their respective social environment. Such behaviours include jumping up on people or aggressive responses toward other individuals. In an effort to alleviate their dogs’ problematic behaviour, owners often reach out to companion animal behaviourists or trainers. However, the interventions’ effectiveness and their outcomes can be variable, especially if there are a lack of resources, such as time, skills, and finances. Unresolved problem behaviour in dogs often leads to a breakdown of the owner-dog relationship and may result in relinquishment and euthanasia. Therefore, our research is aimed at investigating the characteristics of behavioural interventions that may contribute to their ease of implementation and effectiveness (e.g., clicker training and time-based delivery of reinforcers). This presentation will introduce our work on systematically testing intervention components, such as modelling or feedback. We identified variables maintaining problematic behaviour through functional behaviour assessments, and implemented interventions based on respective information. Attendees will learn about the effectiveness of different intervention components, the time-based response-independent delivery of reinforcers (i.e., noncontingent reinforcement) and clicker training.

Applied behaviour analysts, animal behaviourists, students, and dog owners

As a long-time dog owner (since 1994) and a “Dog Trainer Certified According to Animal Welfare and Protection Legislation” (awarded by the Austrian Ministry of Health and the Messerli Research Institute), Nicole founded her own dog training business in 2008, Happy-Fellow® Coaching & Seminars. Since then she has worked with a range of clients whose dogs display problematic behaviours, such as fear-related behaviour, inter- and intraspecific aggression or stereotypic behaviours. Additionally to her work as a behaviour consultant, Nicole frequently teaches retrieving classes as a fun and stimulating activity for all dogs but also for dog-owner teams participating in retriever-specific competitions. Nicole holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Animal Behaviour from the University of Portsmouth (UK) and a MSc degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis from Queen’s University Belfast (UK). Currently, Nicole is working toward her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis in Behaviour Analysis at Queen’s University Belfast. She conducts research on canine learning, human-dog interactions and owner training from a behaviour-analytic perspective.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most researched conditions within the field of psychology and education. While ABA-based early intervention is considered the most effective evidence-based comprehensive approach to increase skills and reduce problem behaviour in young children affected by ASD, behaviour analysis has yet to provide an analysis of the unique repertoires of children with autism. Instead, the most widely accepted explanations of learning deficits associated with ASD are almost exclusively non-behavioural. In this talk I will discuss the importance of a behavioural account for understanding the unique challenges associated with ASD. At minimum, such an account must be able to address three areas of cognition, widely understood to be compromised in ASD: joint attention, theory of mind, and executive functioning. Developing a comprehensive behavioural conceptual framework that addresses these areas would give behaviour analysis a seat at a table traditionally occupied by other disciplines. Behaviour analysis may then be seen not merely as a collection of techniques to decrease problem behavior or to produce isolated skills.

behaviour analysts, speech and language therapists, education professionals

Humans are fortunate, in that their behavior can greatly impact their health. Many behaviors can promote health, wellness, and longevity (e.g., physical activity, healthy food choice, and treatment compliance.) However, there are also behaviors that negatively impact health and wellness (e.g., alcohol consumption, sedentary behavior, unhealthy food choices, risky sexual behavior). Unfortunately, the “unhealthy” behaviors are often associated with immediate and highly probable reinforcers, while the “healthy” behaviors have delayed and uncertain reinforcers. Two areas within behavior analysis can inform this competing reinforcer problem: contingency management and behavioral economics. Behavioral economic approaches allow researcher to characterize the value of reinforcers for health-related behaviors. Contingency management research primarily focuses on the use of differential reinforcement of health-promoting behaviors. This presentation will give brief backgrounds on these two areas in the context of health promotion. Data will be presented highlighting factors that impact the efficacy and feasibility of these interventions (e.g., reinforcer type, immediacy of consequences, cost of intervention, goal-setting criteria, and length of intervention.)

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Dr. Wendy Donlin Washington is an associate professor of Psychology at University of North Carolina Wilmington. She received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Auburn University under the direction of Dr. Christopher Newland, and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working with Kenneth Silverman and Maxine Stitzer in developing behavioral treatments for drug abuse. She has conducted research in the areas of contingency management, behavioral toxicology and pharmacology, and behavioral economics. Her current research has focused on using behavioral interventions, like contingency management, to treat health related behaviors such as drug use and physical activity. She has served as Membership Board Coordinator for ABAI since 2016, is on the board of editors for Perspectives on Behavioral Science and Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Mobile phone use is ubiquitous in our society. While some people use it in a reasonable manner, others use it excessively and/or in a problematic manner (e.g., while driving). In this presentation, I will discuss what behavior analysis can do with the societal issue of problematic mobile phone use. From a behavioral economic perspective, problematic mobile phone use is fundamentally a choice controlled by competing reinforcement and/or punishment contingencies that involve a trade-off between multiple consequences (e.g., a smaller-sooner reinforcer vs. a larger-later reinforcer). Based on this conceptualization, I will illustrate how some behavioral economics principles, such as delay/probability discounting and demand analysis, can be utilized to understand, predict, and potentially control some forms of problematic mobile phone use, such as texting while driving, media multitasking, and excessive social media use. I will also argue that this conceptualization of problematic mobile phone use as choice can direct our attention to identifying the environmental/contextual variables that affect the choice, and that this conceptual/philosophical framework, along with strong data, is what behavior analysis can offer to other disciplines in an effort to combat the societal issue of problematic mobile phone use.

basic and applied behavior analysts; graduate students

Yusuke Hayashi is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Pennsylvania State University, Hazleton. His current research interests lie in understanding basic behavioral processes, such as sensitivity to delayed/probabilistic reinforcers and valuation of reinforcers, as well as translating basic principles to solve societal problems, such as problematic mobile phone use. He completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as a post-doctoral training at the University of Kansas. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology from West Virginia University, his M.S. in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas, and his B.A. in history from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan (his unofficial minor was behavior analysis, though). He also enjoyed his carrier as an IT engineer before he crossed the ocean and headed toward Texas. Dr. Hayashi is currently an associate editor of European Journal of Behavior Analysis and an editorial board member of Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. He is active in publishing his work outside of behavior analysis, hoping to maximize the impact that behavior analysis can make on our society.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a behaviorally defined disorder. We are learning that ASD is associated with many medical co-occurring conditions such as sleep problems, gastrointestinal disorders, seizures, allergies, and anxiety, just to name a few. In addition, we are learning that there are underlying biological abnormalities with how the cells and body work. These medical and biological abnormalities may not only be related to ASD symptoms but, most importantly, may be impeding successful habilitation if they are not addressed. Thus, a multidisciplinary medical approach is necessary to evaluate and treat ASD in order to provide optimal outcomes.

Educational and behavior therapists.

Dr. Richard Frye is a Child Neurologist with expertise in neurodevelopmental and neurometabolic disorders. He received an MD and Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown University and completed his Child Neurology Residency and Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Learning Disabilities at Harvard University/Children’s Hospital Boston. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and serves on several editorial boards. He has conducted several clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of safe and novel treatments that target underlying physiological abnormalities in children with ASD. He is the Chief of Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

The terms stimulus, response, and stimulus control are derived from the experimental literature. The term "prompt" arose within the applied field. There are many conceptual and logical errors in how trainers use these terms that often lead to ineffectual lessons. Similar problems can be found regarding error correction strategies and those that are described as "errorless." We will review many popular teaching strategies, including fading, most-to-least, least-to-most, etc., several error-correction strategies and a host of strategies described as "errorless teaching." The goal is to shake up many long-held and cherished beliefs about common teaching strategies.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Alternating treatments designs can be used to evaluate multiple interventions and compare interventions. This presentation will address common interpretation errors that are associated with standard alternating treatments designs and propose solutions for each type of error. First, the presentation will focus on how researchers frequently conclude that an intervention or multiple interventions were effective, when changes may have been caused by uncontrolled threats to internal validity. A design solution to this problem, including a no-treatments series during the alternating treatments phase, will be described and analyzed. Next, the presentation will focus on misinterpretation associated with cumulative learning data. A proposed solution to this problem focus on supplementing repeated measures cumulative learning figures with figures that plot learning per session data. Discussion focuses on applied strengths of alternating treatments designs, effect size analysis, and how interpretation errors can adversely affect consumers of applied science.

researchers, graduate students, consumers of research

Christopher H. Skinner received his Ph.D. in School Psychology program from Lehigh University in 1989. While at Lehigh, he served as a special education teaching assistant for elementary students with Autism and as a teacher for 10th grade students with emotional/behavioral disorders. After finishing his Ph.D., Skinner was an assistant professor at The University of Alabama (3 years) and coordinator of School Psychology Programs at Mississippi State University (7 years) and The University of Tennessee (15 years). Currently, he is Professor at The University of Tennessee and teaches graduate courses in the School Psychology and Behavior Analysis programs. Skinner has co-authored over 200 peer-refereed journal articles and earned three national research awards including the Fred S. Keller Award for empirically validating interventions. Skinner’s accomplishments can be directly traced to his work with exceptional graduate students and practitioners. He is happiest when he is partnering with his students to work with educational professional to remedy presenting behavior or academic problems, while also conducting applied research. To simultaneously accomplish these goals, Skinner and his collaborators have relied single-subject design procedures.

There is increased attention to problems of societal concern that may disproportionately affect marginalized populations and communities. Disparities in access to services and cultural adaptations for underserved populations persists as a challenge in the field. The importance of addressing social determinants of health or common underlying factors that serve as setting events is discussed. Collaborative opportunities to address large-scale societal problems through cross-sector and multidisciplinary collaboration between applied behavior analysis and other disciplines including community psychology, prevention science, and public health are explored. As an example, a multisector collaboration to address youth violence using a behavioral community approach is presented. The presentation examines strengths, challenges, and opportunities to advance common goals for supporting change and improvements in population-level outcomes through multisector collaboration.

Those interested in addressing large-scale societal problems.

The roles of basic and applied research have been the subject of much discussion in behavior analysis in recent years (e.g., Sidman, 2011). One view contends that innovation is possible through a translational research paradigm that synthesizes “basic and applied questions, literatures, and methods” (Mace & Critchfield, 2010, p. 293). This presentation will use Pasteur’s quadrant as a backdrop to describe the infrastructure of an OBM research laboratory designed to span the continuum of basic-to-applied research. To showcase the value of translational OBM research and its relevance for practice, data from use-inspired basic and applied research will be shared.

scientists, researchers, graduate students, OBM practitioners

Dr. Florence DiGennaro Reed, a board certified behavior analyst, received a doctorate in school psychology from Syracuse University. She also completed a clinical post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Child Development and a pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology at the May Center for Education and Neurorehabilitation and the May Center for Child Development. Presently, Florence is an Associate Professor in and Chairperson of the Department of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas where she directs the Performance Management Laboratory. Her research examines effective and efficient staff training and performance improvement practices. Florence has published nearly 90 articles and book chapters and two edited books on a variety of topics including training, performance management, assessment, and intervention. Moreover, she has been an Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Behavioral Education, and Behavior Analysis in Practice.