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| Opening Event and Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis Award Ceremony |
| Saturday, May 25, 2024 |
| 8:00 AM–9:20 AM |
| Convention Center, 300 Level, Ballroom B |
| 📺 Streaming Status: recording available |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| Chair: Ruth Anne Rehfeldt (The Chicago School) |
| CE Instructor: Ruth Anne Rehfeldt, Ph.D. |
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| SABA Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: Jay Moore |
| Abstract: The Importance of Contingencies Operant contingencies of reinforcement specify the relation among the antecedent circumstances of a response, the response itself, and a reinforcing consequence of the response. The study of contingencies is consistent with the thesis of selection by consequences in biological science, and forms the framework for the analysis and explanation of both nonverbal and verbal behavior. Just as nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution, nothing in a science of behavior makes sense except in light of contingencies. |
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| JAY MOORE (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) |
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 Dr. Jay Moore is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received his undergraduate degree from Kenyon College in Ohio in 1967, and his master’s degree from Western Michigan University in 1969 under David Lyon. He served in the US Navy from 1969 to 1972, then returned to graduate school at the University of California-San Diego, where he received his doctoral degree in 1975 under the late Edmund Fantino. He joined the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1977, and retired from there in 2015. He served on the boards of editors of several major journals in our field, as well as editor of The Behavior Analyst and Behavior and Philosophy. He also served as president of the Association for Behavior Analysis - International, in addition to holding various leadership positions with ABAI and as a faculty member at UWM. His principal interests are in the experimental analysis of behavior, and theoretical- philosophical-conceptual-historical topics. In the domain of the experimental analysis of behavior, he is interested in choice, conditioned reinforcement, and the effects of temporal distributions of reinforcement such as seen in delay discounting. In the conceptual domain, he is interested in radical behaviorism as a philosophy of science. He has published articles and chapters on experimental and conceptual topics in numerous journals and books, and is the author of two books: Conceptual Foundations of Radical Behaviorism (2008) and From a Behavioral Point of View (2015). He and his wife Betty have two adult children, David and Sarah, who both live in New York City. |
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| SABA Award for Scientific Translation: Jomella Watson-Thompson |
| Abstract: The Uncommitted: A Behavioral-Community Approach to Advance Collaborative Action There is a plethora of societal issues that challenge our community health, development, and well-being. The application of a behavioral community approach used to advance community change through multisector collaboration is examined. The Youth Violence Prevention Center- Kansas City, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention National Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention, demonstrates the use of a socially valid approach to address violence as an issue of significant societal concern. The importance of collaboration with those uncommitted to institutions and ideologies but rather working together through a common commitment to advancing change and sustained improvement with and in communities is discussed. A challenge is posed to foster broader application and adoption of our science for societal impact through a collective commitment to multisector collaboration and engagement with diverse scholars, practitioners, and communities. |
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| JOMELLA THOMPSON (University of Kansas) |
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 Dr. Jomella Watson-Thompson is a professor of Applied Behavioral Science and a researcher affiliated with the Center for Community Health and Development. Dr. Thompson leads the Youth Violence Prevention Research Center- Kansas City, a Center for Disease Control and Prevention National Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention. Her research focuses on behavioral-community approaches to youth and community violence prevention, adolescent substance abuse prevention, and neighborhood and community development. She has examined the effects of community-based processes and behavioral-community interventions to promote mobilization and change in communities. Dr. Thompson also works with community collaboratives to examine social determinants or factors, including educational attainment and access to resources and supports, that may contribute to disparities experienced particularly for racial and ethnic groups and in underserved communities. She researches and promotes community-academic partnerships through community-engaged scholarship as an approach to foster sustainable change and improvement in communities. Dr. Thompson has received numerous funding awards and co-authored articles on community capacity-building, youth and neighborhood development, and adolescent substance abuse, and youth and community violence prevention. She serves on the Executive Council for the Association of Behavior Analysis International. She attained a Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology, a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Kansas, and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Jackson State University. |
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| SABA Award for International Dissemination: Dermot Barnes-Holmes |
| Abstract: Stronger Together: Fostering Cooperation and Collaboration inside Behavior Analysis In reflecting upon the international dissemination of behavior analysis, and my own role in this sphere, I think it is important to recognize that we are too small a field to divide ourselves into even smaller sub-groups. Disseminating our science is rendered even more difficult if we are constantly embroiled in, what some may argue are, petty in-house conflicts. Such conflicts are perhaps in stark contrast to the tremendous overlap in the research that we are all doing, even if we often use different terms and concepts to talk about the behavior we are studying. In my own area, that of human language and cognition, we all seem to be aiming to develop a behavior-analytic, monistic, and naturalistic account of human language and thought that is devoid of mentalistic theorizing and speaks directly to practical concerns in educational, clinical, organizational, and other settings. In calling for a more collaborative or cooperative approach I are not suggesting that we all have to agree with each other in an anodyne manner and engage in empty gestures of mutual respect. Debate and disagreement should be welcome but only if it serves to bring greater clarity or progress for the field. An excellent example of the type of debate I am thinking of here may be found in the exchange between Willard Day and Murray Sidman in the series of letters between the two that Murray (1994) published in his volume, Equivalence Relations: A Research Story. In my brief presentation, I will use this exchange to highlight the advantages for all concerned in fostering a more cooperative and collaborative approach within our field. |
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| DERMOT BARNES-HOLMES (Ulster University) |
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 Dr. Dermot Barnes-Holmes graduated from the University of Ulster in 1985 with a B.Sc. in Psychology and in 1990 with a D.Phil. in behavior analysis. His first tenured position was in the Department of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, where he founded and led the Behavior Analysis and Cognitive Science unit. In 1999 he accepted the foundation professorship in psychology and head-of-department position at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. In 2015 he accepted a life-time senior professorship at Ghent University in Belgium. In 2020 he returned to his alma mater as a full professor at Ulster University. Dr. Barnes-Holmes is known internationally for the analysis of human language and cognition through the development of Relational Frame Theory with Steven C. Hayes, and its application in various psychological settings. He was the world's most prolific author in the experimental analysis of human behaviour between the years 1980 and 1999. He was awarded the Don Hake Translational Research Award in 2012 by the American Psychological Association, is a past president and fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and a fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International. He is also a recipient of the Quad-L Lecture Award from the University of New Mexico and became an Odysseus laureate in 2015 when he received an Odysseus Type 1 award from the Flemish Science Foundation in Belgium. |
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| SABA Award for Enduring Programmatic Contributions: Teachers College, Columbia University |
| Abstract: Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis: Teachers College, Columbia University In 1981 Doug Greer, in conjunction with his graduate students from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Science and Teachers College, developed the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) model of education. CABAS® was designed to incorporate the findings in the science of behavior and its philosophy to all components of the schooling system (students, parents, organizational administration, teacher trainers, parents, and the university). CABAS® schools are driven by students’ learning that is continuously and directly measured. Application of the science involves continuous measurement as teaching tools. Student outcomes and research drive the curriculum at the university level. PhD students function as strategic scientists of teaching in their classrooms and train their MA teacher assistants. CABAS® School salaries have funded MA and PhD students for 43 years (264 PhD dissertations, more than 450 MA students). Today accredited CABAS® schools (see www.cabasschools.org) are in the USA, Korea, and England, with hundreds more CABAS® trained professionals in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and China. Research contributions include: a strategic science of teaching and accelerated independent learning, identification and establishment of verbal developmental cusps, how ontogenetic verbal development affects instruction, conditioned reinforcement by denial, and effects of verbal cusps on learning to read and reading to learn. |
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| R. GREER (Professor Emeritus Columbia University Teachers College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), JESSICA SINGER-DUDEK (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
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 Doug Greer is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Teachers College of Columbia University and currently Senior Research Scientist for the Foundation for the Advancement of a Strategic Science of Teaching (FASST). He has served on the editorial boards of 12 journals, published over 200 research and theoretical articles in more than 23 journals and is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of 14 books and the ELCAR curriculum and inventory of repertoires for preschoolers. Two of his most recent books are translated into Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese. Greer has sponsored 264 doctoral dissertations, taught numerous teachers and psychologists, founded the Fred S. Keller School and the CABAS? model of schooling used in the USA, Korea, Spain, Ireland, Italy, China, and England (www.cabasschools.org). He has been involved in basic and applied experimental research for 55 years in schools with students, teachers, parents, and supervisors as well as pediatric patients in medical settings. He and his students and colleagues have identified: (a) verbal and social developmental cusps and protocols to establish them when they are missing in children, (b) conditioned reinforcement by observation and denial conditions, (c) an organizational systems science of schooling, and (d) the stimulus control for incidental bidirectional naming. Doug is the recipient of the Fred S. Keller Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education from the American Psychology Association, a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, the ABAI award for International Contributions to Behavior Analysis, May 5 as the R. Douglas Greer Day by the Westchester County Legislature and the Jack Michael Award for Contributions to Verbal Behavior. The ABAI award for Enduring Contributions to Behavior Analysis to Teachers College Columbia University and CABAS® is scheduled for the May 2024 ABAI convention. He has served as guest professor at universities in Brazil, China, Spain, Wales, England, Japan, Korea, India, Ireland, Germany, Italy, USA, and Nigeria. |
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 Dr. Jessica Singer-Dudek is the Director of Transdisciplinary Programs in ABA at Columbia University Teachers College. She also serves as a Senior Behavior Analyst Consultant to schools implementing the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) model, and serves as the CABAS® Professional Advisory Board Secretary/Treasurer. Dr. Dudek’s research interests include component analyses of successful behavior analytic models of education, teacher and supervisor training, verbally governed and verbally governing behaviors, establishment of early observing responses, verbal behavior development, conditioned reinforcement, and observational learning. |
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| SABA Award for Effective Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media: Stuart Vyse |
| Abstract: The Happy Accidents of a Writer’s Life I will offer some reflections on how I learned be a better writer and what drew me to write about behavioral science for a general audience. The talk will describe several ways the behavior analysis community supported my development as a writer and some fortunate events outside the field of behavior analysis that also contributed. I will give particular attention to the role of editors and reading for pleasure in the life of the writer. |
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| STUART VYSE (Independent Scholar) |
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 I am a behavioral scientist, teacher, and writer. I am a contributing editor for Skeptical Inquirer magazine, for which I write the “Behavior & Belief” column, both online and in print. I have written personal and professional essays in a variety of places, including the Observer, Medium, The Atlantic, The Good Men Project, Tablet, and Time. The first edition of my book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association and was translated into Japanese, German, and Romanian. An updated edition was published in 2014. My book Going Broke: Why Americans (Still) Can’t Hold On To Their Money is an analysis of the current epidemic of personal debt. The first edition was translated into Chinese, and the second edition was released in September of 2018 in both paperback and audiobook formats. In 2020, my book Superstition was published in the Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series. The Spanish translation, Breve historian de la superstición, was published by Alianza editorial on January 13 (!), 2022. My latest book, The Uses of Delusion: Why It’s Not Always Rational to be Rational (Oxford, 2022), is out now in the US in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook. It will be published in the UK in August 2022. As an expert on superstition and irrational behavior, I have been quoted in many news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and have appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN International, the PBS NewsHour, and NPR’s Science Friday. See the In the Media page for recent quotes and appearances. I hold a PhD in psychology and BA and MA degrees in English Literature and am a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. The majority of my teaching career was spent at Providence College, the University of Rhode Island, and Connecticut College. My academic interests are in decision-making, behavioral economics, philosophy, behavior analysis, and belief in the paranormal. |
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| Target Audience: All convention registrants are welcome and encouraged to attend. |
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to:
1) Discuss how the study of contingencies is consistent with the thesis of selection by consequences in biological science, and forms the framework for the analysis and explanation of both nonverbal and verbal behavior,
2) Describe how the application of a behavioral community approach may be used to advance community change through multisector collaboration,
3) Discuss the advantages of fostering a more cooperative and collaborative approach to behavior analysis,
4) Describe how the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) model of education incorporates the science of behavior and its philosophy to all components of the schooling system, and
5) Discuss the role of editors and reading for pleasure in the life of the writer. |
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| The Story of ABAI |
| Saturday, May 25, 2024 |
| 10:00 AM–12:50 PM |
| Marriott Downtown, Level 5, Grand Ballroom Salon H |
| 📺 Streaming Status: recording available |
| Domain: Theory |
| Chair: Mitch Fryling (California State University, Los Angeles) |
| Discussant: Marcus Marr (Georgia Tech) |
| Abstract: This session looks back on the 50-year career of the Association for Behavior Analysis with an eye to its future. The first presentation is focused on the development of ABA as organization, describing the challenges it has faced and overcome throughout its history. The second presentation looks at the mission of ABA and its role in the development and implementation of the organization’s strategic plan. The evolution of the science of behavior analysis, as reflected in ABA conference presentations over its history, is provided in the third presentation. The fourth presentation describes ABA’s longstanding commitment to the preparation of successive generation of behavior analysts as evident in its efforts to develop and sustain quality education programs. Following these presentations, the speakers will participate in a discussion with the audience, focusing on these and related issues as well as the aims and objectives of the Association for Behavior Analysis International going forward. |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
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An Inside Perspective on ABAI |
| MARIA MALOTT (Association for Behavior Analysis International) |
| Abstract: I have had the honor and the privilege of serving ABAI for over 30 years as Executive Director/CEO. Since its inception and especially, during the last three decades, the field of behavior analysis, like other disciplines, has been impacted by significant socio-economic changes. ABAI has successfully adjusted to those constantly evolving vicissitudes, while remaining committed to preserving, developing, and disseminating the science of behavior with the ultimate objective of contributing to the well-being of society. With that vision in mind, ABAI has grown from a small membership association to the largest in our field; from producing a convention and a journal to offering a great variety of products and services; from having no employees to establishing a competent and caring team. This presentation offers an inside perspective of ABAI’s growing pains, conflicts, and successes—an account that only a few members in its leadership have benefited from living firsthand. As well, it offers some reflections for future directions. |
 Since 1993, Dr. Malott has served as Executive Director/CEO of the Association for Behavior Analysis International and Secretary Treasurer of the Society for the Advancement for Behavior Analysis. Previously, she was vice-president of manufacturing in a Midwest company in the United States. In addition, for more than 12 years, she worked as a consultant for a variety of businesses in service, retail, manufacturing, education, government, and others. She has served as affiliate faculty member at five universities and on five editorial boards. She coauthored a textbook on principles of behavior and authored two editions of a textbook on culturo-behavioral change. She has published dozens of peer reviewed publications and hundreds of presentations in 22 countries. In all applied and theoretical work, she specializes in cultural analysis and the management and improvement of behavioral systems. Dr. Malott is a fellow of ABAI and was the recipient of the 2003 Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis, the 2004 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Organizational Behavior Management, and the 2012 Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis. She also received the 2002 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University. |
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The ABAI Mission |
| CAROL PILGRIM (University of North Carolina Wilmington) |
| Abstract: The mission of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International is “to contribute to the well-being of society by supporting, developing, and enhancing the growth and vitality of the science of behavior analysis.” Indeed, the statement of our mission has remained a relative constant since ABAI’s inception in 1974, even as the field of behavior analysis has grown in number, diversity of interests, and professional and educational identifications. For this increasingly complex and varied discipline, it is essential to ensure the strength of, and support for, scientific behavior analysis and the philosophy that underlies it. As ABAI has worked to balance the many, and sometimes competing, priorities of its constituencies, our mission has provided the compass. This presentation will: 1) describe ways in which major challenges for ABAI throughout its history have often involved pressures to deviate from its central mission; and 2) review the role of our mission in determining content and implementation of the organization’s strategic plan as well as the decision-making of its Executive Council over the past 50 years. |
 Dr. Carol Pilgrim is professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Dr. Pilgrim has contributed substantially to behavior analysis through her leadership, teaching, and research. She has served as president of its major organizations, including ABAI (as well as its Southeastern ABA chapter), the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, and Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of the American Psychological Association. She also served as secretary of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and as a board member of that organization. She has advanced the dissemination of behavior analysis and the vitality of its journals in her roles as chair of the Publication Board of ABAI, editor of The Behavior Analyst, co-editor of the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, and associate editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. She has served on the board of directors of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and other organizations, and chaired numerous committees. Dr. Pilgrim is known, in addition, as a stellar teacher and mentor. She served as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at UNCW for nine years, and has been recognized with numerous awards, including the North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching and the ABAI Student Committee Outstanding Mentor of the Year Award. Dr. Pilgrim's research expertise and contributions traverse both basic experimental and applied behavior analysis. Her health related research has brought behavior analysis to the attention of scientists and practitioners in cancer prevention, and she is noted for her innovative work on the development and modification of relational stimulus control in children and adults. |
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The Program |
| LINDA J. PARROTT HAYES (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: A science is identified by the products of its scientists as these are presented at its conferences and appear in its journals. The status of a science at any given time is especially evident in its conference presentations because these ordinarily (and ethically) precede their published appearances. The aim of this address is to examine the identity of the science of behavior analysis as revealed in the conference presentations of its scientists over the past fifty years. A retrospective analysis of these products, categorized in accord with present day program areas, will be presented. Changes to submission procedures, speaker invitations, and other relevant administrative actions will be noted as they occurred. The aims of these actions will be described, and their outcomes assessed to the extent possible. Some comments on the status of behavior analysis as a scientific enterprise at the present time will be offered along with some thoughts about its possible futures. |
 Linda J. Parrott Hayes is a distinguished international professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba and her graduate degrees from Western Michigan University. She was a member of the behavior analysis faculty at West Virginia University while completing her doctorate, after which she returned to Canada, taking a position at St. Mary’s University. Dr. Hayes co-founded the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, on a self-capitalization model and served as its director for more than a decade. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to the training of behavior analysts including the Fred S. Keller Award for Teaching of Behavior Analysis from the American Psychological Association’s Division 25, an Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Colleges and Universities, an Outstanding Alumna Award from Western Michigan University, and for the program she founded a Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis Award for Enduring Contributions to Behavior Analysis. Dr. Hayes also founded and directs UNR’s Satellite Programs in behavior analysis, aimed at meeting the ever-growing demand for qualified practitioners in regions where appropriate training has been unavailable or inaccessible. Her efforts in this regard have earned her an International Development Award from the Latin Association for Behavior Analysis and Modification, a Global Engagement Award from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a SABA International Development Award. She is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International and has served the association in many capacities including coordination of its Practice and Education Boards as well as multiple terms on its Executive Council. Dr. Hayes’ scholarly interests range from the experimental analysis of animal behavior to the logic of science. She is best known for her contributions to behavior theory and philosophy. |
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Higher Education and the Future of Behavior Analysis |
| MICHAEL PERONE (West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: The vitality, development, and growth of behavior analysis depends on many factors. Perhaps most important is the quality of the educational programs that prepare successive generations of behavior analysts. ABAI’s commitment to education started early in its history with the establishment of the Education and Evaluation Committee in 1977 (just the fourth year of the association’s existence), progressed to the accreditation of graduate and undergraduate programs and, in collaboration with the Behavior Analysis Certification Board, verification of graduate course sequences. This presentation will focus on the development of the accreditation system, the challenges it faces today, and the role that ABAI accreditation plays in securing a future for behavior analysis as a science and profession. |
 Dr. Michael Perone is a professor in the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University. He has made substantial contributions to behavior analysis through his research, service, administration, and teaching. He is well known for his programmatic research on conditioned reinforcement, avoidance, and transitions from rich to lean schedules of reinforcement, and more generally for the elegance and ingenuity of his experimental methodology. He has secured support from NICHHD, OSHA, and NSF for much of his research. His investigations with animals and extensions of basic mechanisms to humans serve as a prototype for research translation. Dr. Perone's accomplishments in administration, service to the discipline, and teaching are similarly noteworthy. Dr. Perone served for 12 years as chair of the West Virginia University Department of Psychology, one of the foremost programs in behavior analysis. He has served as president of ABAI, SABA, SEAB, and SEABA. He has been appointed to key editorial positions for major journals in behavior analysis, represented behavior analysis on the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences, and served on numerous committees. In each of those roles, his skill and humor have been instrumental in bringing a charge to effective completion. Dr. Perone has received numerous awards for his teaching and mentoring, which, along with the successes of his former students, are testaments to his effectiveness in that arena as well. |
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| Presidential Address: Designing Effective Instruction to Teach Micro-credentials . . . Or Any Instructional Objective |
| Saturday, May 25, 2024 |
| 6:00 PM–7:15 PM |
| Convention Center, 300 Level, Ballroom B |
| 📺 Streaming Status: recording available |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| Chair: M. Christopher Newland (Auburn University) |
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Presidential Address: Designing Effective Instruction to Teach Micro-credentials . . . Or Any Instructional Objective |
| Abstract: A new approach to documenting the skills and repertoires of professionals is emerging in several fields of study, including education, medicine, and information technology. The technology is called micro-credentialing. According to the Mozilla Foundation, micro-credentialing refers to “digital certification of assessed knowledge, skills and competencies which is additional, alternate or complementary to, or a component of, formal qualifications.” A micro-credential is an award, based on a short, verifiable presentation that demonstratesthat a scientist-practitioner has mastered a specific skill in a content area. An individual with a micro-credential can demonstrate competent, mastery-level performance of its corresponding skill—on demand. Here are some examples of micro-credentials relevant to behavior analysts:
• conduct a reinforcement preference assessment
• shape behavior in an operant chamber
• conduct an organizational needs assessment
• design a Precision Teaching program for a specific skill
• analyze delay-discounting data
Notice that micro-credentials are much narrower in scope than typical recognitions of study endeavors like M.S. or Ph.D. degrees, Continuing Education Units, and licenses or certifications like a BCBA. As important as these traditional recognitions are, they do not concretely indicate an ability to engage in ANY specific skill or expertise.Further, the latter recognitions emphasize only clinical skills rather than the broad array of skills that characterize diverse behavior-analytic jobs (e.g., laboratory skills, instructional design). Establishing skill-based credentials across the field of behavior analysis would provide additional reassurances about the skills of potential employees or supervisors and may provide a data-based way for individuals to demonstrate specific expertise in an area.
In my address today, I’ll describe a behavior analytic view of the concept, micro-credential, focusing upon micro-credentials for intellectual skills and repertoires—those related to “doing” vs. recitation or “saying” repertoires, as in the examples I listed above. Intellectual skills require teaching for generative responses. The learner must go beyond what has been taught and demonstrate mastery of responding in new situations, those never seen before. Then I’ll use the context of intellectual skill development to describe some “best practices” in instructional design that one could incorporate in a micro-credential learning program. I will focus upon micro-credentials relevant to three kinds of intellectual skills—concepts, principles, and strategies, highlighting evidence-based protocols for teaching each kind. Then I will describe and illustrate explicit generalized imitation training procedures to teach component intellectual skills, and procedures for practicing component skills to fluency. Finally, I will relate my discussion of intellectual skills to a new analysis of generalization, breaking it into two kinds of active processes—simple and complex generative responding.
Whether or not you agree with me about the benefit of establishing a micro-credential program in behavior analysis, no matter our everyday responsibilities and functions, every behavior analyst is a teacher who desires to engage in effective instruction and help their learners master everything they teach. So, I hope that my description of some best practices in instructional design will guide improvements to any instruction you provide in your work as a behavior analyst. |
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| KENT JOHNSON (Morningside Academy) |
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 Kent Johnson, Founder and Executive Director of Morningside Academy and Co-Founder of Headsprout, received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1977. Morningside Academy operates a scientifically driven “catch-up” program for children and youth with learning and attention problems and a “get-ahead” program for average and above-average middle school youth, as well as provides a laboratory for developing instructional methods and materials. Morningside’s exemplary science-based approach has had global impact and serves as a beacon of hope for many, transforming lives and demonstrating what high-quality behavior analytic education can offer. Dr. Johnson’s commitment to and success in developing and disseminating innovative and highly effective behaviorally based educational practices have been recognized by his receiving the Award for Public Service in Behavior Analysis from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, the Edward L. Anderson Award in Recognition for Exemplary Contributions to Behavioral Education from the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, the Ogden R. Lindsley Lifetime Achievement Award in Precision Teaching from the Standard Celeration Society, and the Fred S. Keller Behavioral Education Award from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association. |
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