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| Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 7:00 AM–11:20 AM |
| Commonwealth |
| Chair: William M. Baum (University of California, Davis) |
| N/a |
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| Newcomers' Session |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 10:00 AM–10:50 AM |
| Clarendon |
| Chair: John L. Michael (Western Michigan University), W. Scott Wood (Drake University) |
An overview of ABA, its history, structures and functions as an international locus of the field of behavior analysis. Awards, special interest groups and other features will also be addressed. Drs. Michael and Woods, two of ABA's original members, will review the origin and organization of ABA as well as describe the principles of behavior analysis that form the scientific foundation of the field. |
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| International Development Brunch |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 10:00 AM–11:30 AM |
| Constitution A |
| Chair: Ned Carter (AFA, Stockholm, Sweden) |
| The international brunch is scheduled on the first day of the convention to welcome the international members and review the international development of behavior analysis. |
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| Opening Event: Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis Awards |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 11:30 AM–1:00 PM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Chair: Michael Perone (West Virginia University) |
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| Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media: Ivar Lovaas, Ph.D (University of California, Los Angeles) |
| Abstract: If ABA is to remain a noteworthy and effective method of treatment, treatment providers must focus on a number of issues. (1) To what extent do data from one or a few individuals as in single-subject research represent other individuals of the same diagnosis or similar pre-treatment measures? (2) Does the beneficial effect provided by behavioral intervention last over time? (3) Can the treatment and data be replicated by others? (4) Data from Achievement Place (Wolf, Kirigin, Fixsen, Blase, &Braukman, 1995) indicate that, once trained, providers of behavioral treatment need to return to their original site of training to prevent drifting off criterion of mastery. (5) Can we develop quality control on treatment? Almost anyone can now claim to be competent in delivering behavioral treatment while citing the favorable outcome from data published by others rather than their own. Finally, it is not enough to pass on examination on the basic variables or reading a training manual comprising discrete trials training. The field has also become specialized over time such that a person trained in one model, such as in the UCLA Young Autism version of ABA would not be qualified to conduct treatment in another model such as the Achievement Place model or school-based programs such as programs at Rutgers or Princeton Child Development Institute. |
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| IVAR LOVAAS (University of California, Los Angeles) |
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| Dr. Ivar Lovaas earned his PhD in Psychology in 1958 from the University of Washington. In 1961 he started at UCLA and has held a full professorship since 1967. In 1995, he founded the Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (LIFE), which is a provider of early intervention treatment for young children diagnosed with autism. He has received many honors for his work in the field, including the Edgar Doll Award, a Distinguished Research Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association, the California Senate Award, an Honorary Doctorate, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been interviewed on national television networks such as CBS, CNN, and the BBC. He has given presentations across the United States and the world, including Sweden, Germany, Poland, and New Zealand. Dr. Lovaas has close to 70 publications to his credit. Dr. Lovaas will give a presentation titled Some Concerns About the Future of ABA. |
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| Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: Beth Sulzer-Azaroff, Ph.D. (University of Massachusetts and Browns Group) |
| Abstract: Dr. Sulzer-Azaroff will give a presentation titled Of Oaks and Acorns
Abstract: The seeds broadcast in the early 20th century have yielded a rich harvest within the field of behavior analysis. Founded in natural science, the analysis of behavior continues to mature exponentially, spanning the discovery and elaboration of fundamental laws and principles to its successful management of an increasingly broad range of individual and social challenges. The excitement generated today by the substantial progress in the well-being and improved performance of ordinary people, students, workers, managers, and many others can be directly traced to those humble beginnings.
Concrete examples are drawn from two different areas: The development, analysis, local application, and widespread dissemination of behavioral methods toward 1) educating children with autism and 2) improving the well-being of workers on the job. Elements will be traced from the study of the behavior of organisms in the laboratory, thorough single and small group analyses, to larger groups in contrived and natural settings, and even for wide scale dissemination. Today, the lives of tens of thousands of children, families, workers and organizations are improving as a result of these collaborative efforts. Beholden, as we are, to the accomplishments of our colleagues, we also share the responsibility for disseminating what we have to offer for the benefit of humankind. |
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| BETH SULZER-AZAROFF (University of Massachusetts and Browns Group) |
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 The challenges of attempting to teach successfully in an inner-city school, led Sulzer-Azaroff to the study of behavior analysis. As a doctoral student in school psychology at the University of Minnesota, she began her investigations of programmed instruction, autism education, and errorless learning. Next, while a faculty member at Southern Illinois University, she, her students and colleagues investigated and wrote of behavior analytic methods for motivating, instructing and managing student and teacher performance. At the University of Massachusetts, she helped coordinate a doctoral-level psychology program in developmental disabilities, meanwhile continuing her collaborative scholarship and research in behavior analytic applications within schools, families, and service and business organizations. Currently she is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts and holds adjunct appointments at Florida International and Florida Gulf Coast Universities. At present, she is collaborating in the development and field evaluations of a federally sponsored distance-learning curriculum designed to teach the parents and teachers of children with autism how to intervene with behavioral methods. |
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| Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis: Michael Davison, Ph.D. (Auckland University) |
| Abstract: Michael will give a presentation entitled Choices, Choices: How to Steal a Soul for Behavior Analysis.
Abstract: I shall present a methodologically novel hermeneutic quantitative single-subject analysis of the environmental conditions that may be required, in some selected cases, to wash the behaviour of an alien human sufficiently to produce an almost exclusive preference for behaviour analysis over other psychologies. I'll also celebrate the joys of not being trained in behavior analysis by behavior analysts, and suggest that the resultant variation and (I hope) selection will provide for a viable future for behavior analysis in the world. |
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| MICHAEL C. DAVISON (Auckland University, New Zealand) |
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 Dr. Michael Davison obtained a B.Sc. from Bristol University, U.K. (where he discovered behaviour analysis), a Ph.D. from Otago University, NZ, and a D.Sc. from Auckland University. His first job was as Lecturer at Otago University, then successively Lecturer at University College London, and then at Auckland University, NZ, where he has remained since, moving through the ranks to Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, and then being awarded a Personal Chair in Psychology.
Michael was elected Fellow of the NZ Psychological Society, and Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, by whom he was awarded a Silver Medal for research. He has served on the editorial board of JEAB five times, and is currently an Associate Editor of this journal and serves on the SEAB Board. He was the first International Director on the ABA and SABA Boards. He has published about 90 papers in JEAB and authored (with McCarthy) the much cited but little purchased book The Matching Law: A research review.
His research interests lie in the quantification of behaviour and choice, and he has recently become concerned with the neuroscience of choice, taking a 10% appointment to the NZ National Research Centre for Growth and Development. |
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| Award for Public Service in Behavior Analysis: Michael Hemingway, MS |
| Abstract: Accepted by Gerald L. Shook (Behavior Analyst Certification Board) |
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| MICHAEL HEMINGWAY (Behavior Analyst Certification Board) |
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 Michael Hemingway graduated Western Michigan University in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and earned his master’s degree in behavior analysis from the University of Manitoba in 1976. After working as a behavior analyst practitioner for a decade in Michigan, he moved to Florida in 1986 to become Behavior Analyst Consultant for the statewide Developmental Disabilities Office of the Florida Department of Children and Families, and in 1994 became Senior Behavior Analyst there. In these positions, he coordinated and further developed the watershed Florida statewide behavior analysis services and oversight system. Michael was elected to the Executive Committee of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, and later served as FABA’s President. He was awarded the FABA Charles Cox Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 for outstanding contributions to behavior analysis in Florida. Michael’s sphere of influence permeated all aspects of behavior analysis in Florida, and his contribution to the practice and profession of behavior analysis extended to national and international levels. Michael was a founding member of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s Board of Directors, and it was his leadership and commitment that ensured the successful transformation of Florida behavior analyst certification program into the international certification of the BACB. |
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| Award for Impact of Science on Application: John A. (Tony) Nevin, Ph.D. (Auckland University) |
| Abstract: Award for Impact of Science on Application |
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| JOHN A. NEVIN (Auckland University, New Zealand) |
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 Dr. John A. Nevin, known as Tony, studied marine engineering at Yale University and served five years in the Coast Guard before encountering experimental psychology, which proved to be surprisingly compatible with his background in engineering and physical science. His graduate studies at Columbia University combined human psychophysics and color vision with behavioral analyses of conditioned reinforcement in rats and matching to sample in pigeons. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1963, he taught at Swarthmore College until 1968. He returned to Columbia from 1968 until 1972, where he served two years as department chair. To the delight of his five children, he then moved to the relatively rural University of New Hampshire, where he remained until retirement in 1995. He now lives with his wife Nora on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where he engages in community and environmental conservation projects while maintaining research collaborations in Utah and New Zealand through the magic of electronic communication, supplemented by occasional visits. The post-retirement persistence of his research and theoretical work on behavioral momentum is itself an instance of momentum, based on the many reinforcers he has been privileged to enjoy throughout his life. |
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| Award for Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis: West Virginia University Department of Psychology |
| Abstract: Behavior analysis was born in a department of psychology, in a college of liberal arts. From there its influence and effects spread not only throughout the university but also to myriad applied settings that could only be imagined at its birth. The Department of Psychology at West Virginia University, and particularly its Behavior Analysis doctoral training program, through its graduates, students, and faculty has contributed to the web of multiple influences of behavior analysis in contemporary society. As the influence of behavior analysis spreads from its birthplace in the liberal arts and continues to evolve, it also is important to continue to develop and build on that liberal arts tradition and not abandon it. In departments of psychology, like that at West Virginia University, behavior analysis contributes to students' understanding of not only the behavioral sciences but also the humanities and other sciences. Behavior analysis places other psychological viewpoints in a different perspective, suggests a unique worldview to many of these students, and challenges them to question the nature of their own histories and personal philosophies. Such influences in the shaping of the lives of generations of young people argue strongly for the continued commitment of behavior analysis to the liberal arts and to psychology. |
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| WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY (West Virginia University Department of Psychology) |
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 Dr. Kennon A. Lattal will accept the award on behalf of West Virginia University Department of Psychology and will give a presentation titled Behavior Analysis and the Liberal Arts Tradition. |
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| SQAB 2004 Tutorial: What Good is Mathematics in Behavior Analysis? |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 1:00 PM–1:50 PM |
| Commonwealth |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Peter Killeen (Arizona State University) |
| Presenting Authors: : M. JACKSON MARR (Georgia Tech) |
| Abstract: Behavior analysis is founded on the assumption that there can be a science of behavior. Indeed, our methods reveal an astonishing order to behavior virtually unique in the behavior sciences. We also assume that relatively few principles of behavioral control can account for very complex behavior. All these characteristics lead us to expect that the behavioral phenomena we see around us as well as those we engender and explore in the laboratory may be subject to mathematical description. Indeed, behavior analysis is one of the more quantitative of the behavioral sciences, but, unfortunately, many students are not introduced to the power and beauty of a quantitative account, Moreover, even if they were exposed to such an account, the curricula in typical undergraduate and graduate programs require little quantitative training, so the student is too often intellectually isolated from understanding. This is, of course, NOT the student's fault. My tutorial will address the question: "What good is mathematics?" and attempt to provide examples supporting the rationale for greater emphasis on mathematical modeling and other quantitative approaches to behavior in academic programs in behavior analysis. |
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| M. JACKSON MARR (Georgia Tech) |
 Dr. M. Jackson (Jack) Marr received the BS degree in 1961 from Georgia Tech where he majored in psychology and mathematical physics. He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a minor in physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966. He is Professor of Psychology at Georgia Tech where he teaches courses in the experimental analysis of behavior, physiology and behavior, behavioral pharmacology, and probability/statistics. He is Past-President of the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, Past-President of both the Association for Behavior Analysis and Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of the American Psychological Association, and Review Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. He has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst, and was the Experimental Representative to the Executive Council of the Association for Behavior Analysis. He was a Research Fellow in Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, a visiting professor at the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, and the first Eminent Scholar invited to Jacksonville State University. He served as a Navy contractor for Project Sanguine in a study of possible effects of extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields on operant behavior. As an AIEE Senior Fellow at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, he conducted research on the effects of microwaves as reinforcers for operant behavior and the effects of drugs on sustained military flight performance. His recent research interests include the development of instructional systems for teaching engineering physics, dynamical systems theory, behavior analysis at Zoo Atlanta, assessment methods for engineering and science education, and conceptual issues in behavioral analysis. |
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| SQAB 2004 Tutorial: Behavioral Variability: Control, Description, and Analysis |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 2:00 PM–2:50 PM |
| Commonwealth |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Marc N. Branch (University of Florida) |
| Presenting Authors: : MICHAEL PERONE (West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: Variability is fundamental to the analysis of behavior. Both basic and applied behavior analysts emphasize systematic variability, the kinds of behavioral changes they bring about by manipulating environmental factors in laboratory or field settings. They are inclined to eschew statistical evaluations of these changes in favor of demonstrations of experimental control. But behavior analysts cannot avoid statistical methods entirely. At the very least, they need to them to quantify the degree of unsystematic variability ("noise" or "error") in their results. Indeed, the description of unsystematic variability underlies the evaluation of experimental control: If every factor relevant to the behavior under study could be identified and controlled, unsystematic variability would be eliminated. This tutorial will: (a) review and evaluate behavior analysts' use experimental and statistical methods to control, describe, and analyze variability, and (b) compare the underlying logic of behavior analytic methods to that of conventional group-statistical methods. My approach to these matters will be pragmatic, not dogmatic. |
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| MICHAEL PERONE (West Virginia University) |
 Michael Perone is a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University, where he has worked since 1984. He was educated at the University of Maryland (B.S., 1975) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (M.A., 1977; PhD, 1981). He conducts basic research with rats, pigeons, and people in the areas of positive and negative reinforcement, schedule control, and conditioned reinforcement, with particular attention to bridging human and animal work. Mike also is interested in research methodology and recently co-edited, with Kennon A. Lattal, the Handbook of Research Methods in Human Operant Behavior (Plenum, 1998). His work has been supported by grants from NSF, NIOSH, and NICHD. He has served as President of ABA, President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Associate Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, co-chair of the ABA Convention Program Committee, and co-editor of the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin. He is a Fellow of e American Psychological Association. He currently serves as President of the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis. |
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| SQAB 2004 Tutorial: Fitting Equations to Data |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 3:00 PM–3:50 PM |
| Commonwealth |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Randolph C. Grace (University of Canterbury) |
| Presenting Authors: : JACK J. MCDOWELL (Emory University) |
| Abstract: Why fit equations to data? Problems and pitfalls in statistical fitting procedures including how to identify and deal with degenerate parameters, how to analyze residuals, how to simultaneously fit to several sources of variance, and how to choose among competing equations. |
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| JACK J. MCDOWELL (Emory University) |
 Jack McDowell received his Ph.D. in 1979 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Howard Rachlin was his major professor and dissertation supervisor. Dr. McDowell was trained as a clinical psychologist but his principal research interests are in basic behavior analysis. He is currently a Professor of Psychology at Emory University where he recently completed a five-year term as the director of Emory’s Clinical Psychology Training Program. Dr. McDowell’s principal research focus has been the mathematical description of operant behavior. He recently developed a computational model of behavioral selection by consequences. In 25 years of mathematical research, Dr. McDowell has encountered, and learned to deal with, most of the logical and statistical problems that arise when comparing equations to data in behavior analysis. |
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| SQAB 2004 Tutorial: Choice and the Hyperbolic Decay of Reinforcer Strength |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 4:00 PM–4:50 PM |
| Commonwealth |
| Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Armando Machado (University of Minho) |
| Presenting Authors: : JAMES E. MAZUR (Southern Connecticut State University) |
| Abstract: Results from a variety of species suggest that as a reinforcer's delay increases, its strength decreases according to a hyperbolic function. This tutorial will review how a hyperbolic decay equation can account for choice in self-control situations, choice with probabilistic reinforcers, preference for variability, procrastination, and other phenomena. Some unresolved puzzles about the effects of delayed reinforcers will also be examined. |
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| JAMES E. MAZUR (Southern Connecticut State University) |
 Dr. James E. Mazur is Professor of Psychology at Southern Connecticut State University, where he has taught since 1988. He obtained his B.A. at Dartmouth College in 1973, and his PhD at Harvard University in 1977. He then taught at Harvard for several years and conducted post-doctoral research at Yale University. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and is currently an Associate Editor for Learning and Behavior.
For 30 years, Dr. Mazur has conducted research on choice behavior in animals. He is especially interested in how such variables as delay of reinforcement, variability, probability, and conditioned reinforcers affect choice. In his writings, he has presented evidence that a simple mathematical expression called the hyperbolic decay model describes how a reinforcer's strength decreases with increasing delay. He is the author of Learning and Behavior, a popular textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses on learning, which is currently in its 5th edition. |
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| Pilates/Yoga Session |
| Saturday, May 29, 2004 |
| 7:00 PM–7:50 PM |
| Fairfax A |
| Chair: Kim D. Lucker Greene (Behavior Mgmt. Consultants) |
| Participants will be led through 30 minutes of Mat Pilates exercises followed by 30 minutes of yoga. Instructors are certified and experienced. Beginners welcome. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a towel. |
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