Association for Behavior Analysis International

During the past 40 years, behavioral systems analysts (e.g., Tom Gilbert, Dale Brethower, Geary Rummler) developed models of organizations that help us understand behavior in context and suggested that behavioral interventions are far more powerful when the total system is considered as a backdrop for individual performance. Unfortunately, most applications at the systems level are described in terms of metaphors or principles, rather than practical, replicable approaches. Few lasting, large-scale applications of behavioral technology in working organizations have been implemented under realistic circumstances. Most published accounts of behavior change in organizations focus on a limited environment (e.g., one department or unit) and are driven by researchers or consultants who implement contrived circumstances to incubate and sustain the changes. This is no sin: many of these approaches have led to powerful changes and improved bottomline results. However, they often fall short of documenting reliable ways of changing the behaviors of hundreds or thousands of people--behavior analysis and change on a scope and scale that has the potential to move entire organizational cultures. This presentation will provide an example of large-scale, long-term behavioral intervention in a Fortune 100 business at the cultural level and describe how behavior analytic methods were used to functionally embed new practices that have been sustained over a period of 8 years with the promise of continuing indefinitely (i.e., becoming a way of life for leaders throughout the company). The approach and results will be discussed in terms of a whole-system application with reference to early work of behavioral systems analysts. The intervention involved teaching leaders (including the CEO and 20 top level executives) applied behavior analysis and supporting their use of the skills with extensive coaching and feedback. The model was subsequently extended to the 200 most senior leaders (Phase II) and then to another 700 general managers (Phase III). Plans call for training and coaching more than 2,000 managers and supervisors over the coming year to complete skill development (phase IV). To embed these practices in the ongoing culture, each leader receives a leadership scorecard (ratings and comments) from his/her direct reports every 6 months and completes an upward feedback dialogue session where the direct reports describe what they see as more effective practices (to be...

The Behavioral Research Program (BRP) initiates, supports, and evaluates a comprehensive program of behavioral research ranging from basic behavioral research to research on the development, testing, and dissemination of disease prevention and health promotion interventions in areas such as tobacco use, screening, dietary behavior, and sun protection. Our goal is to increase the breadth, depth, and quality of cancer prevention and control behavioral science. Dr. Paige McDonald will present the scientific mission of the program, highlight research priorities, and discuss funding opportunities for the scientific study of behavior in a cancer control and population science context.

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Forty years ago Fred Keller published his now classic paper that introduced the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) to the teaching world. PSI, or the Keller Plan, as it is sometimes called, gained immediate widespread popularity. Indeed, college and university professors from many disciplines adopted the technique for use in their classes. Researchers published numerous articles showing PSI to be superior over traditional teaching methods in terms of student learning outcomes (i.e., final grades). Interestingly, now, in 2008, few college and university professors have ever heard of PSI, or for that matter, other forms of behavioral instruction. In this presentation, I will discuss the current state of college and university teaching against the backdrop of Keller's and others' work with behavioral approaches to college and university teaching. I will provide an overview and theoretical analysis of prevailing teaching techniques and the key elements of "master teaching" in an attempt to suggest effective practices for improving one's teaching.

I have long been confused by attempts to distinguish emitted operant responses from elicited Pavlovian reflexes and will describe a new theory based on control by reinforcement over levels of response variability. The theory states that a voluntary response has two defining attributes: functionality and potential unpredictability. A voluntary response is functional in the sense that it can be explained, it happens for a reason, it is goal oriented or, in behavior analytic terms, it is an operant, controlled by reinforcement. A voluntary response must also be at least potentially unpredictable (or free, self-generated, not determined). In other words, voluntary responses can be functionally unpredictable. There are two sources of that functional unpredictability: natural variability and learned variability. Natural variability is seen in baseline operant responding, during exploration of novel spaces, and under concurrent reinforcement schedules. Learned variability is seen in Karen Pryors reinforcement of novel responses in porpoises, Don Bloughs reinforcement of random interresponse times in pigeons, and reinforcement of more-or-less variable sequences that has been studied in my lab and others. I will describe psychophysical evidence in support of an operant variability theory of voluntary behavior and discuss implications for self control.