Association for Behavior Analysis International

This session considers the development of behavior science in the context of celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Association for Behavior Analysis International. The session includes three presentations by leaders in the science of behavior, each representing areas of work where there has been significant development with broad implications for theory, research, and application. These areas include cultural behavior science, derived stimulus relations, and the molar perspective. Each presentation addresses where we have been, where we are, and implications for the future, within the context of their respective topic. The session concludes with a panel that discusses these developments as well as the future of science of behavior more generally. Central to this discussion is how the science of behavior might continue to be a progressive science that develops and changes in various ways over time.

Behavior analysts and graduate students interested in history of behavior analysis and culturo-behavioral science, the molar view of behavior, and human language and thought.

The history of the molar view of behavior as I conceive it goes back even to my undergraduate days, when Richard J. Herrnstein was my advisor. By the time I finished, I was already doubting the adequacy of the concepts of discrete responses, contiguity, and reinforcement. In graduate school, I saw the beginnings of a way to view behavior as temporally extended with temporally extended causes, particularly relations between rates. Many influences affected my thinking after that, but a linear account would be impossible. In this talk I will explain the influences as best as I can recall them and give some idea of chronology.

Over a period of 50+ years, B. F. Skinner set the agenda for a scientific approach to the subject matter of behavior. His doctoral thesis was essentially philosophical in nature. After about a quarter century of experimentally analyzing operant behavior in laboratory settings, Skinner turned to applications and interpretations that dealt with real-world phenomena in terms of the scientific principles established by his experimental work. For many behaviorists, his 1981 paper titled “Selection by Consequences” pointed to a future in which operant analysis would be linked substantively and conceptually to the evolution of human species on one end, and the evolution of their cultural environments on the other. On the cultural end of this linkage, behavior scientists tend to focus either on substantive or on conceptual matters. Those focusing on substantive matters rather straightforwardly apply operant principles to deal with societal problems involving the behavior of many people (and these efforts pre-date Skinner, 1981). Those focusing on conceptual problems go forward to explore Skinner’s suggestion that selection by consequences accounts for the evolution of cultural phenomena themselves. A brief review of the substantive and conceptual work suggests that integration could be helpful.

The presentation will describe how the study of derived stimulus relations has provided the basis for a behavior–analytic approach to the study of human language and cognition in purely functional–analytic terms. A brief history of the early behavior–analytic approach to human language and cognition is first provided, focusing on Skinner’s text Verbal Behavior, his subsequent introduction of the concept of instructional control, and Sidman’s seminal research on stimulus equivalence relations. Thereafter, the concept of derived stimulus relations from the perspective of relational frame theory is considered, with an emphasis on how it allowed researchers to refine and extend the functional approach to language and cognition in multiple ways. Some recent conceptual and empirical developments are then reviewed, which highlight how the concept of derived stimulus relations continues to play a key role in the behavior–analytic study of human language and cognition. It will also be argued that this recent work appears to encourage particular synergies across different theoretical perspectives within behavior science, suggesting potential directions for future research.

Please join us for a discussion of the presentation: The Development of Behavior Science

Behavior analysts and graduate students interested in history of behavior analysis and culturo-behavioral science, the molar view of behavior, and human language and thought.

ABAI members who donated to the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) in 2023 and 2024 are invited to an informal gathering at the 50th Anniversary Celebration in honor of their contributions and commitment to the field. We are grateful for the generosity of those who support the activities of ABAI and SABA.

The 50th Anniversary Celebration will combine the reunions and ABAI social. This special event is open to all convention attendees and will include light snacks, cash bars, live music, trivia, and a presentation about the history of ABAI.