Association for Behavior Analysis International

Call it what you will, behavior modification, behavior therapy, applied behavior analysis; these are all terms that attempt to understand and use behavior- environment relations for the benefit of individuals and the society in which they live. I have been doing this since the mid-fifties and would like to reflect on the way the early work has changed and the way it has stayed the same. I started with behaviorally dysfunctional hospitalized patients under conditions that permitted a good deal of environmental control. That the principles of behavior described by B. F. Skinner in Science and Human Behavior were effective in altering the behavior of these patients was, for me, a wonderful discovery. The discovery, of course, depended on the unique single-subject methodology that characterized the developing field of behavior analysis and that was essential for clinical psychologists who work with individuals. I eventually became involved in the extension of this theory and methodology to clients in more traditional out-patient clinical settings. From there it was an easy step--easy because the necessary concepts, principles and methodology are the same--to the area that is now referred to as behavioral medicine where the people's problems were not necessarily a form of behavioral dysfunctionality. It was clear by this time that I could participate in the alteration of any kind of behavior, normal or abnormal, and it seems to me that the area of behavioral clinical psychology is just a special interest area within behavior analysis. I think the future of behavioral clinical work is guaranteed by continuing and improving our effectiveness in our current areas of application, but perhaps even more important, in expanding to areas involving more subtle forms of social influence, and less overt or more private forms of behavioral control such as self-control.

The goal for the nicotine analogue program was to find a molecule that would not affect the cardiovascular system, but would mimic nicotine's effects on the brain. The practical application of this research would enable a company to remove nicotine from tobacco, substitute the synthetic analogue, and produce a "safer" cigarette that still had the reinforcing effects of nicotine. Self-administration tests were established to examine the reinforcing properties of nicotine. The studies showed that nicotine has reinforcing properties, which is one of the hallmark characteristics of predicting drug abuse liability. Attempts to publish this work were suppressed by Philip Morris. On April 5, 1984, the laboratory was closed, the data was confiscated, and Dr. DeNoble and his associate were fired. Over twenty research reports on self-administration, tolerance, physical dependence, and smoke biochemistry were suppressed from the public for more than 22 years by a confidentiality agreement. However, since his 1994 congressional release he is now able to discuss the research and its implications.

Skinner's earliest work was influenced by Harvard physiologist L.J. Henderson and by C.S. Sherrington's reflex arc. While attracted to physiology's experimental method, Skinner rejected hypothetical constructs referring to immeasurable brain and genetic events. He later noted that the skin is not an important barrier suggesting variables within a behavioral analysis may reside beneath the skin. Nonetheless, Skinner's antipathy toward reductionistic explanation led later behavior analysts to ignore the legitimate role neurobiological events can play as variables within the analysis of behavior. Objectively measurable neurochemical and neurophysiological events can serve as discriminative and reinforcing stimuli as well as functioning as establishing operations. Understanding developmental brain dysfunction can shed light on the reasons individuals with specific disabilities behave as they do and suggest behavioral intervention strategies. Developmental neuroplasticity affords the opportunity to promote synapse formation in brain structures lacking sufficient connectivity, preventing further neuronal loss through cell pruning. Behavioral assessment tools (e.g. ABLLS) can be used in conjunction with knowledge of which structures play a role in specific cognitive and behavioral functions to inform intervention strategies. The role of genes mediating neurochemical abnormalities associated with specific disabilities (e.g. autism, Prader Willi syndrome) will illustrate the relation between genes, neurochemistry and behavior analysis.