Association for Behavior Analysis International

Building architects are concerned with the physical design of a structure and with the flow of people through it, the ease of maintenance, emergency access, and a range of other factors. They consider the entire building as a dynamic system with all its parts. Performance architects view each organization as a dynamic system where every part affects every other part. They align all the components of the system to best achieve the desired results. Performance architecture grew out of the field of performance technology (PT). Early applications tended to focus on the workers, but soon people like Geary Rummler, Paul Harmon, Don Tosti, and other PT professionals saw the need to consider the nature of the work, the process, as well. Still others began to apply PT principles to the workplace and developed ways to analyze and address factors like culture, leadership, and strategy. These elements impact every worker and every process. Thus, performance architecture addresses the worker, the work, and the workplace, and does this within a system framework. This session will focus on several case studies, the performance architect models and tools, the recommended solutions and measurable evidence of success.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic mental health disorder in children that causes serious problems in relationships with teachers, parents, and peers, and school functioning, as well as other adverse outcomes through the lifespan. With a prevalence rate of 2-9%, ADHD is a major public health problem in the U.S. and worldwide. The vast majority of ADHD children are treated with psychoactive medication alone, and the rates of medication usage have increased exponentially over the past decade. Although medication is beneficial in the short term, it has no demonstrable long-term benefit and long-term side effects (e.g., permanent growth suppression). There are two other methods of treatment for children with ADHD: behavioral (non-medicinal) treatments; and multimodal approaches that combine behavioral and pharmacological treatments. Behavioral treatments have a solid evidence base for the short-term treatment of children with ADHD, but evidence of long-term impact is lacking. The combination of the two treatments has been understudied—especially with respect to the dosing and sequencing of each component. Important questions remain unanswered. Should high or low doses of treatment be employed, and what are the costs, risks, and benefits of different doses and lengths of intervention? Should non-medicinal treatments such as parent training and classroom interventions begin before trying medication or vice versa? If one or the other is begun first, does that influence the dose of the second component, its incremental effectiveness, and the societal cost of providing treatment? Does treatment sequencing impact positive outcomes and side effects? Are there individual differences among children that influence the answers to such questions? This presentation will describe a series of studies designed to answer such issues. The implications for treatment of children with ADHD and the costs and benefits to children, families, schools, and society at large will be discussed.

Chronic drug use is associated with a range of cognitive deficits, including elevated levels of impulsive and risky decision-making, but the causal relationships between these two phenomena have not been clear. Our laboratory uses rodent models to investigate relationships between drug use and decision-making. In one line of research, we have found that chronic cocaine self-administration causes long-lasting increases in impulsive choice in a delay discounting task, and that chronic cocaine exposure results in decreased sensitivity of the task to dopaminergic manipulations. In another line of research, we have developed a "risky decision-making" task, in which rats choose between small "safe" rewards and large rewards associated with varying risks of punishment. Preference for the large "risky" reward is associated with lower D2 dopamine receptor mRNA expression in dorsal striatum, and this preference is reduced by activation of D2-like receptors. Preliminary data also indicate a relationship between greater preference for the large risky reward and acquisition of cocaine self-administration, suggestive of links between risk-taking, drug use, and striatal D2 receptors. Considered together, the data indicate the presence of bi-directional relationships between drug use and decision-making deficits that have the potential to further the process of addiction.

It is widely believed that consciousness itself, that Holy Grail of science and philosophy, will soon be given a neural explanation. And yet, after decades of research, only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious-how it gives rise to sensation, feeling, and subjectivity-has emerged unchallenged: we don't have a clue. In this lecture I propose that we've been looking for an explanation of consciousness in the wrong place. Rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do. An outmoded and unproductive philosophy has held the science of consciousness captive. It is time to free ourselves and move toward a better understanding of ourselves. In this lecture I lay out the basic argument of my recent book Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness (Hill and Wang 2009).

B. F. Skinner's teaching machines are often described as revolutionary, yet controversial, contributions to education in the archives of education and psychology literature. Less credit has been given to Dr. Skinner's substantial impact on contemporary and emerging accountability practices in education today. Namely, the significant impact on the development of modern assessment models employing interrupted time series analysis techniques to measure students' acquisition, mastery and generalization of instructional content. Various iterations of single-case experimental designs have been used in the design and implementation of behavioral treatments for children with low-incidence handicapping conditions for many years. Only recently has this approach begun to gain widespread acceptance in the general education setting. This presentation will highlight the origins of the response-to-intervention (RtI) model in the United States in the context of the identification of children with disabilities. Discussion will also focus on more recent developments in the education arena involving the use of interrupted time series data to frequently monitor progress, rapidly modify instruction, and maximize teacher and learner effectiveness in the classroom. The foundation for these remarkable developments in accountability in American education today was made possible through Dr. Skinner's seminal and enormously creative approach to measuring the behavior of organisms.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 20 and 25 people are killed in dog attacks every year. Most of the victims are children. Although accurate data are difficult to compile, thousands more people are victims of dog bites that range from minor to serious. Many experts believe the majority of these attacks and bites could be prevented with appropriate pro-action. When these cases land in court, otherwise unavailable details of what led up to the incidents unfold. These details are a rich source of information that can be used by experts to develop multi-faceted bite prevention programs and community policies. In this presentation, Dr. Hetts will use her experiences as an expert witness in four fatal cases and numerous serious injury personal liability cases to share how expert knowledge of applied animal behavior and learning contributes to understanding the "why" of these cases, and how such knowledge can form the basis of science-based intervention and prevention.