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| 2005 ABA Tutorial: The Importance of Understanding and "Extending" Skinner's Extended Tacts for Behavior Analysis Applications |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 |
| 9:00 AM–9:50 AM |
| International North (2nd floor) |
| Area: VBC; Domain: Theory |
| BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: T. V. Joe Layng, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Janet S. Twyman (Headsprout) |
| Presenting Authors: : T. V. JOE LAYNG (Headsprout) |
| Abstract: Some have maintained that the investigation and teaching of higher cognitive function is outside the domain of behavior analysis or at least Skinners treatment of Verbal Behavior. In contrast, this presentation will argue that Skinners treatment provides the foundation for understanding a range of complex verbal phenomena important to behavior analysts or anyone interested in higher cognitive function. This is particularly true for those who build programs to teach verbal behavior skills. Building on Skinners analysis, this talk offers a heuristic that may be useful for those who design Verbal Behavior programs. This heuristic helps delineate a hierarchy of repertoires and the contingencies that define them. These extended relations include: Basic units or sameness relations, which include concepts and simple equivalence relations; linked units or ordered relations, which include principles and more complex equivalencelike relations; and combined units or generative repertoires, which include reasoning, problem solving, and the use of metaphor. Generative repertoires are of particular importance for they provide the learner with the means for more autonomous learning. Accordingly, this category will be emphasized, drawing heavily from the work of Joanne K. Robbins (and others) and her analysis of how to teach the various types of intelligence. |
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| T. V. JOE LAYNG (Headsprout) |
 Joe Layng co-founded Headsprout, and serves as the company's Senior Scientist where he led the scientific team that developed Headsprout’s patented Generative Learning Technology. This technology forms the basis of the company’s Headsprout Early Reading program, for which Joe was the chief architect.
Joe has over 25 years of experience in the experimental analysis of behavior and the learning sciences both in the laboratory and in applied settings. Joe earned a Ph.D. in Behavioral Science (Biopsychology) from The University of Chicago, where he conducted basic research on animal models of psychopathology. Specifically, he, in collaboration with P. T. Andronis and I. Goldiamond, investigated the recurrence of chronic, un-reinforced, self-injurious behavior (SIB – head-banging by pigeons) as a function of past selection contingencies for SIB, and current selection contingencies which maintained a different class of behavior (key-pecking). He also collaborated with P. T. Andronis and I. Goldiamond on research investigating the adduction of untrained complex symbolic social-behavior, which led to the key elements upon which the Headsprout Generative Learning Technology is based. Other work has included Signal Detection Theory experiments on the discrimination of ambiguous stimuli, particularly those of social consequence, in collaboration with J. K. Robbins, H. Karp, and M. Mauldin while at the University of Houston–Clear Lake.
From 1991 to 1996, Joe was the Director of the Academic Support Center, and then Dean of Public Agency and Special Training Programs at Malcolm X College in Chicago. While at Malcolm X College Joe founded the Personalized Curriculum Institute (PCI), which rapidly equips under-prepared students with the skills needed for college success, and worked with the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago White Sox Charities to bring research-based instruction to Chicago's schools. |
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| 2005 ABA Tutorial: “Verbal Behavior” and Autism: A Review and Call for Research |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 |
| 11:00 AM–11:50 AM |
| International North (2nd floor) |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Pamela H. Gorski (Reaching Potentials) |
| Presenting Authors: : GINA GREEN (San Diego State University) |
| Abstract: Intervention techniques derived from Skinner’s 1957 book Verbal Behavior are being promoted widely for learners with autism. Those techniques are often presented as if their effectiveness is well-established, and as if they are more effective than other techniques. In his book, however, Skinner presented conceptual analyses of the verbal behavior of typically developing humans, not a prescription for remediating deficient verbal repertoires in individuals with learning difficulties, nor even experimental analyses of typical verbal repertoires. Others have drawn implications from Skinner’s analysis for developing verbal behavior in learners with autism, but their interpretations need to be subjected to experimental testing to see if they are valid. This tutorial reviews some specific empirical questions that have been raised by those interpretations, and a number of claims that have been made about the “Verbal Behavior” approach to autism intervention. Peer-reviewed scientific studies addressing each question and claim are summarized. Questions that remain to be addressed through experimental research are discussed, and some suggestions regarding research methods are offered. |
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| GINA GREEN (San Diego State University) |
 Gina Green received a PhD in Psychology (Analysis of Behavior) from Utah State University in 1986 following undergraduate and master’s degree studies at Michigan State University. She has been a faculty member in Behavior Analysis and Therapy at Southern Illinois University; Director of Research at the New England Center for Children in Southborough, Massachusetts; Associate Scientist at the E.K. Shriver Center for Mental Retardation in Waltham, Massachusetts; Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Medical School; and Director of Professional Training and Research at The Institute for Effective Education in San Diego, California. Dr. Green is currently in private practice in San Diego as a consultant and serving as an adjunct faculty member for the University of North Texas and San Diego State University. She has authored numerous publications on the treatment of individuals with developmental disabilities and brain injuries, as well as the experimental analysis of behavior. Dr. Green co-edited the books Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism and Making a Difference: Behavioral Intervention for Autism. She serves or has served on the editorial boards of several professional journals in developmental disabilities and behavior analysis. Dr. Green also serves on the Board of Trustees and the Autism Advisory Group of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, the Board of Directors of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, the Board of Directors of the California Association for Behavior Analysis, and the advisory boards of several autism programs and organizations. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, former president of the Association for Behavior Analysis, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Council for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. Psychology Today named her “Mental Health Professional of the Year” in 2000. Dr. Green lectures and consults widely on autism and related disorders, behavioral research, and effective interventions for people with disabilities. |
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| 2005 ABA Tutorial: The Science of Science |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 |
| 1:30 PM–2:20 PM |
| International North (2nd floor) |
| Area: TPC; Domain: Theory |
| Chair: Ramona Houmanfar (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Presenting Authors: : LINDA J. PARROTT HAYES (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: The sciences are cumulative, consequential enterprises through which we become more effectively oriented to the things and events of the natural world. Scientific enterprises are also cultural enterprises, the implication being that while they may influence the societal conditions out of which they arose, they are also never free of influence from those conditions; and the greater the influence on science from nonscientific sources, the less effectively we are oriented to the natural world. While it is important for scientists of every variety to be watchful of undue influence from non-scientific sources, the science of behavior is especially vulnerable to corruption by this means due to the ubiquity and intimacy of its subject matter. It is, thereby, incumbent upon behavior scientists to periodically examine their work and its products for signs of damage, and to take whatever actions are needed to undue it. This tasks falls to the logician of science and the task itself is what is meant by the science of science. The aim of the tutorial is to provide an overview of this science, including its materials, methods, and products, and to consider its value for the long term well-being of the science of behavior. |
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| LINDA J. PARROTT HAYES (University of Nevada, Reno) |
 Linda J. (Parrott) Hayes received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Western Michigan University. Prior to her present position, she held faculty appointments at West Virginia University and St. Mary’s University in Canada. Linda is a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno where she co-founded a graduate program in Behavior Analysis and served as its director for over a decade. Linda has been active in the Association for Behavior Analysis throughout her entire career and is currently serving as its President. She is best known for her work in behavior theory and philosophy. |
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| 2005 ABA Tutorial: The Utility of Teaching Self-Control and Tolerance for Delayed Reinforcement to Persons with Disabilities |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 |
| 2:30 PM–3:20 PM |
| International North (2nd floor) |
| Area: DDA; Domain: Theory |
| Chair: Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy) |
| Presenting Authors: : MARK R. DIXON (Southern Illinois University) |
| Abstract: Many advances have been made in the basic operant laboratory towards understanding delayed reinforcement and how non-optimal preferences for sooner smaller reinforcers can be reversed. Such choices, between smaller immediate and larger delayed reinforcers can be seen everywhere in clinical settings. When a client chooses to engage in a problem behavior for the immediate small reinforcer of escape from a demand versus engaging in a life enhancing behavior for the larger delayed reinforcer of successful rehabilitation he/she is making a non-optimal choice. However, easy applications of basic principles can alter these initial preferences dramatically. Unfortunately, applied behavior analysts do not frequently capitalize on adopting techniques that teach tolerance for delayed reinforcers. The present tutorial will trace the various developments on altering response allocations from sooner smaller reinforcers to larger delayed reinforcers and illustrate the utility of application for various clinical populations. Data will be presented demonstrating changes in persons with developmental disabilities, autism, mental-illness, and traumatic brain injuries. Implications for greater synthesis between basic laboratory research and successful clinical interventions will be discussed. |
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| MARK R. DIXON (Southern Illinois University) |
 Dr. Dixon holds a Ph.D. (1998) and a M.A. (1996) in Psychology from the University of Nevada and his B.A. (1993) in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has authored 55 journal articles, 5 book chapters, 2 books and over 200 papers and presentations in a variety of areas including choice and self-control, verbal behavior, gambling, organizational effectiveness, computer programming for psychological research, and developmental disabilities. Dr. Dixon is currently the coordinator for the Behavior Analysis and Therapy Graduate Training Program at Southern Illinois University and is also the director of the Behavioral Consultation Group - a service project designed to place graduate students in human service agencies as behavior analysts or organizational consultants. He is a current editorial board member of The Behavior Analyst, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. Some of Mark's current research projects include designing of effective behavioral interventions for persons with acquired brain injuries using delayed reinforcement training techniques and examining the choice variables involved in maintaining or terminating gambling behavior. Mark’s research on self-control and delayed reinforcement has been repeatedly published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. |
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