Association for Behavior Analysis International

Reinforcement is all around us and reinforcers are contingent on all kinds of behaviors in real life. A good deal of the time those reinforcers are the events that make the world go 'round; they also produce accidents, errors, catastrophes, and on good days they produce humor, satisfaction, scientific discoveries, save lives and bring great joy. This paper will review the many examples of malfunction of the reinforcement contingency with consequences that go far beyond what they used to do in days before computers and large corporations yielding the conditions in which one person or one small group of persons wreaks havoc. I will review cases of radiation poisoning, eggs spreading Salmonella, oil spills, cell phone malfunction and other blessings created by inappropriate reinforcement contingencies in our society. To make up for the bleak picture, I will suggest ways of correcting these malfunctioning reinforcement contingencies.

Many studies of Pavlovian conditioning have demonstrated that conditioned behavior can be eliminated when previously established relations between stimuli are severed. This extinction process has been extremely important for the development of learning theories and, more recently, for delineating the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie memory. A key finding from behavioral studies of extinction is that extinction eliminates behavior without eliminating the original memory; extinguished behavior often returns with time or with a return to the context in which the original learning occurred. This persistence of the original memory after extinction creates a challenge for clinical applications that use extinction as part of a treatment intervention. Consequently, a goal of recent neurobiological research on extinction is to identify potential pharmacological targets that may result in persistent extinction. Drugs that promote epigenetic changes are particularly promising because they can result in a long-term molecular signal that, combined with the appropriate behavioral treatment, can cause persistent changes in behavior induced by extinction. I will review some of these findings and describe the ways in which extinction enhancing drugs can impact behavior and brain function.

O. Ivar Lovaas (1927-2010) was a trail-blazing clinician-scientist who devoted nearly half a century to improving the lives of children with autism and their families, brought applied behavior analysis (ABA) to the attention of the general public, and inspired many students and colleagues to join his quest for ever-more effective treatments. Lovaas' early studies showed the potential of ABA interventions to decrease severe challenging behaviors and establish communicative language in previously nonverbal children. His later work culminated in landmark reports revealing that many children with autism made remarkable gains with early intensive ABA. In person, Lovaas was larger-than-life, ebullient, outgoing, charismatic, feisty, and brilliant. This distinguished panel will discuss his multi-faceted contributions from the perspectives of former students who collaborated with Lovaas at different stages of his career, parents whose son received early intensive behavioral intervention in his clinic, and colleagues who interacted with him over a period of many years.

The session will focus on the growing emphasis on defining "evidence-based practices" and the role of single-case research to contribute to this effort. Specific recommendations being applied by the What Works Clearinghouse will guide discussion of how single-case research may become more influential.

This symposium will bring together leaders in our field who will discuss the latest ethical and professional challenges to behavior analysis. These challenges are often based in the fact that practitioners are the most public face and fastest growing segment of behavior analysis. A 2008 survey indicated that almost 50% of the practitioners had less than 5 years of professional experience. Challenges for behavior analysts related to supervision, informed consent, referrals, and working within one's scope of practice will be discussed as well as issues related to training practitioners so that they receive the necessary theory in behavior analysis as well as meet practice standards. Financial contingencies that affect the implementation of services can also result in questions in ethical, professional behavior. Finally, lessons that can be learned for those who misrepresent research and interventions and for those whose work is misrepresented will be addressed.

Practitioners are the most public face and fastest growing segment of our field. A 2008 survey indicated that almost 50% of the practitioners had less than 5 years of professional experience. Only a minority of those responding reported that they held professional licenses or credentials in other disciplines governed by separate established legal or ethical standards. Challenges for behavior analysts related to supervision, informed consent, recruitment of clients, and working within one's scope of practice will be illustrated through case example. In addition, complexities including competing contingencies (e.g., levels of tx supported by research vs. available funding) will be explored along with suggestions for ways to avoid or address such problems at both the individual practitioner and systemic level.

The author will provide a description of concerns regarding the training of ethical behavior for individuals going into both practice and academia. How one promotes ethical behavior across all types of trainees will be addressed.

In 2007, Morton Ann Gernsbacher gave invited lectures at the University of Kansas titled, "The Science of Autism: Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions," that misrepresented applied behavior analysis in autism. In 2009, Edward K. Morris published a response to her lecture titled, "A Case Study in the Misrepresentation of Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism: The Gernsbacher Lectures." This presentation uses Gernsbacher's lecture and Morris's correspondence with her and her colleagues about it as case studies in (a) the ethics of representing and misrepresenting intervention research and (b) professional conduct in responding to any such misrepresentations. The ethical issues concerning Gernsbacher's lecture lie in the areas of competence, public statements, teaching, and conflicts of interest. The professional issues concerning Morris's response and correspondence lie in the areas copyright, misrepresenting misrepresentations, disingenuousness, and personal attributions. The presentation concludes with lessons for those who misrepresent research and interventions and for those whose work is misrepresented.

The values that guided the development of applied behavior analysis emerged from the science of behavior. Our founders expressed those values in the seminal paper, "Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis" (Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968). They envisioned a field that was applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, embodying conceptual systems, effective, and generalizable. They specifically did not include "profitable" as I do not believe they could imagine a day behavior analysis would emerge as a profession powered by competitive markets with all the attendant legal and ethical issues we see in other business ventures. In this presentation I will address the clash of two cultures: capitalism and behavior analysis and outline what I see as some specific problematic issues for our profession.

In 1977, Ted Carr described five major hypotheses regarding the motivation for self-injurious behavior (SIB) and provided a comprehensive review related to each hypothesis. What followed was the development and evolution of a robust technology for examining the influence of the first two hypotheses Carr described, namely, operant mechanisms. Functional analysis technology can be effective for specifying positive and negative social reinforcers, and in turn, effective intervention for socially-maintained SIB. Far less is known about the third and fourth hypotheses; namely the sensory and neurobiological bases of chronic SIB among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In behavioral models of SIB, sensory mechanisms function as putative positive or negative automatic reinforcers but there is little evidence directly linking behavioral and biological mechanisms. Evidence from both clinical and animal studies of chronic pain and its behavioral sequelae support the hypothesis that some forms of SIB may be regulated by altered pain mechanisms. We know that pain can lead to SIB in individuals with IDD, but we do not know whether chronic SIB leads to pain and the resulting neurobiological cascade of effects. This talk will describe several sets of recent findings pertaining to the relationship between pain and SIB.

Since the publication of the book Nudge, governments world-wide have become increasingly interested in behaviour change. Nudge was written not by behaviour analysts, nor even by psychologists, but by an economist (Thaler) and a law professor (Sunstein) and, following their lead, there has been a stream of further publications by other academics setting out to show that the most pressing health and social problems of our time can be effectively addressed only by changing people's behaviour. So the message of behaviour change is at last getting through. But where are behaviour analysts in this enterprise? Are they among those helping to influence health and social policy? And, most crucially, are they playing their full and vital part in delivering programmes of behaviour change? This paper will consider how academic research can assist governments and other agencies to bring about large-scale and positive behavior change in whole populations. To illustrate key issues, it will examine the history of a behavior analysis-based programme designed to combat obesity and improve children's eating habits internationally-the Food Dudes Programme. There are lessons that need to be learned from this and related enterprises, both within and outside behavior analysis, if we really are to change the world.

Interest in Skinner's third level of selection (the cultural level) has grown substantially during the last 2 decades. During that period the primary emphasis has been on theoretical and conceptual work. Building on that base, the cultural analytic sub-discipline has recently moved increasingly toward applied work. Both conceptual and applied cultural analysis are represented in this symposium, but all of the papers have an applied emphasis. In his paper, Dr. Richard Rakos follows reports on how advances in cultural analytic science have refined his earlier analyses, supporting "humane capitalism" as the most promising direction for cultural stability and survival. Recognizing the need for environmental sustainability for cultural survival, Dr. Mark Alavosius discusses an extension of the work of the Cambridge Center for Behavior Studies in accrediting sustained and effective behavioral safety programs within corporations. He outlines plans for an accreditation program to recognize corporate achievement in promoting environmentally-friendly ("green") behavior. Dr. Joao Claudio Todorov then will report on a UNESCO-funded project intended to arrange metacontingencies promoting peaceful relations in schools in Ceilandia, a satellite city of Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil. This project collaboratively engages community institutions and organizations in a replication of the cultural analytic PEACE POWER strategy. Finally, Dr. Mark Mattaini will outline behavior analytic and cultural analytic principles underlying constructive noncooperation, a powerful strategy for nonviolent resistance to, and liberation from, oppression.

Skinner (1971) argued that cultures that survive are "good." Over 20 years ago, I (Rakos, 1988, 1989) suggested that socialism, unlike capitalism, was an unstable socioeconomic-political system because it established environmental conditions that were incompatible with behavior theory. Today, with capitalism's actual triumph over socialism, the question becomes what version of capitalism-laissez faire or highly regulated-does behavior theory predict will be stable and survive-and therefore be considered as "good?" An analysis of behavioral principles and concepts suggests that cultures that survive will balance individual and social interests (i.e., reinforcements), and thereby promote both industrious and cooperative behavior as well as a varied mix of secondary reinforcers. The degree to which balanced interests are related to cultural survival is compared to the cultural impact of unbalanced individual interests by examining several recent large-scale cultural phenomena, including the 2008 recession. I conclude that balanced interests, like those found in regulated capitalism, promote cultural stability; thus a "humane" capitalism that promotes social as well as individual interests is more likely to survive as a culture and be understood as "good."

This paper describes development of an accreditation program to recognize corporate achievement in promoting environmentally-friendly behavior. Many corporations increasingly emphasize their stewardship of the environment. Usually this entails adoption of eco-friendly processes and technologies; in some cases it involves promotion of "green-behaviors" by employees and/or consumers. Increasingly companies and their products are labeled as "green" but often criteria to support such claims are poorly defined. Accreditation and recognition of these initiatives might strengthen commitment to the environment and responsible behavior by industry leaders. The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (CCBS) is a non-profit organization promoting the application of behavior analysis towards amelioration of social problems. Currently the CCBS accredits sustained and effective behavioral safety programs within corporations. This safety accreditation process might be revised and extended to "green behaviors" and prove fruitful for promoting environmental protection. Challenges to this systematic replication include measuring "green behaviors" within large corporate systems, detecting effects on the environment, benchmarking sites, and recognizing potential externalities such "green behaviors" might entail. Solutions likely require evaluation of organized units within industries ("green teams") that target environmentally damaging behaviors, seek alternative "green behaviors," apply systemic interventions to promote them and assess impact.

All public schools (89) of Ceilândia, a satellite city of Brasilia, Federal District, Brazil, were offered the possibility of participating in a project intended to promote peaceful relations in the schools. To do that, a Forum was established through invitations made to business leaders, school principals, and community leaders belonging to nongovernmental organizations, civic associations, churches, federal and local officials and the school police. On August 5 and 6, 2010, during a workshop organized to present the project; Mark Mattaini presented his “Peace Power” project, which was commented by Sigrid Glenn, Ingunn Sandaker, and Telmo Eduardo Peña Correal. The attendees then had time to question the presenters. As a result of the workshop most of the invited attendees and/or their organizations decided to work within a permanent forum supervising the work in the schools. Teachers and students of the courses of Psychology, Education, Administration, Interior Design, Journalism, Publicity and Law are participating in the work with one school that accepted the invitation and was selected by the Forum to be a pilot project. The Forum will choose adequate aggregate products and orient university teachers and students on how to help establish interlocked behavioral contingencies to better reach those aggregate products. In this presentation, Dr. Todorov will report on results thus far.

Mohandas Gandhi often indicated that nonviolence was "a science," and he appears to have meant this literally. Consistent with this vision, in this paper, I will outline and apply principles of behavioral systems science, an emerging data-based approach to understanding the dynamics of complex cultural systems, to the practice of constructive noncooperation (Gandhi's "constructive programme"). Although Gandhi emphasized that constructive action was the most important and potent of nonviolent strategic options, constructive alternatives have been the least developed in the literature of nonviolent resistance. History, however, generally supports Gandhi's assertion. A reconceptualization of constructive noncooperation in behavioral systems terms suggests that rigorous analysis of Havel's "living in truth" and Gandhi's "truth force" may be both possible and practically useful in challenging oppression and supporting human rights. Such analysis moves beyond existing largely ad hoc understandings of effective nonviolent struggle, and suggests directions for real world experimentation. Given the enormous human costs and poor record of sustainable success for violent strategies of resistance, insurgency and rebellion, the rigorous exploration of alternatives is a critically important emphasis for applied cultural analysis.

The panel will discuss the ideas presented in Alva Noe's lecture, and will include the author's response and questions from the audience.

Building on Skinner's (1957) Verbal Behavior, Horne and Lowe (1996) provided a detailed account of how aspects of verbal behavior can be learned, particularly naming and categorisation. They outlined how learning the same name for disparate stimuli may establish category relations between these stimuli. Naming is defined as a higher-order bidirectional behavioral relation that combines conventional speaker and listener behavior within the individual. It does not require reinforcement of both speaker and listener behavior for each new name to be established, and it relates to classes of objects and events. In this presentation, I will give a basic introduction to the naming account, and an overview of the Bangor research on naming and categorisation that tested the predictions of the account. Research initially focused on naming and categorization at one level, and was then extended to different levels (hierarchical categorisation). Based on the data, I will evaluate the predictions of the naming account. And finally, I will highlight the implications of the naming account and naming research with typically developing children for verbal interventions in populations with learning disabilities.