Association for Behavior Analysis International

Rats selectively bred for high (HiS) vs. low (LoS) saccharin preference exhibit high and low vulnerability, respectively, for cocaine-seeking behavior. Also, rats selected for high (HiI) vs. low (LoI) impulsivity, based on a delay-discounting task for food, show similar high vs. low vulnerability, respectively, vulnerability for drug seeking. These findings agree with those of other laboratories that have selected or selectively bred rats for high or low reactivity to novelty or sign-tracking vs. goal tracking. These phenotypic markers for drug addiction also are related to age and sex differences in which adolescents and females are more avid drug-seekers than adults and males, and the vulnerability markers appear to be additive. This presentation will discuss how HiS vs. LoS and HiI vs. LoI rats differentially respond to behavioral (exercise), and pharmacological treatments, and their combinations, to reduce drug seeking. It also will discuss how high and low drug seekers respond to aversive drug effects of drugs such as withdrawal and punishment. Overall, the results suggest commonalities among the drug-seeking phenotypes, and that drug-addiction-prone rats are more sensitive to reward and less sensitive to aversive effects, while drug-resistant phenotypes are more responsive to aversive effects of drugs and less motivated by reward. This information is valuable for developing strategies for prevention and designing treatments for drug abuse. Supported by NIDA grants: R01 DA003240, R01 DA019942, P20 DA024196.

The target audience are researchers and practitioners that deal with populations at risk for developing substance abuse and dependence problems.

This tutorial will outline the steps required to create, expand, and integrate an Accelerated Independent Learners (AIL) model of learning into general education settings. AIL is the general education initiative of CABAS, a systems-based model of schooling at the center of the Teaching as Applied Behavior Analysis programs at Teachers College, Columbia University. These efforts have included teaching district-based staff to implement basic principles and tactics from the science of behavior. The completion of CABAS ranks are part of the training for teachers and teaching staff in AIL programs. The learn unit is the basic method of instruction and learning pictures provide the visual display of learning in AIL classrooms. TPRA observations, and decision protocols assure the accuracy of instructional presentations and related decisions. The VBDA and C-PIRK assessments provide curricular and protocol based objectives and criterion referenced measures of learning for both at-risk and advanced students. Furthermore, the AIL model has been effective in raising performance outcomes for included students with disabilities, students considered at-risk, and students at advanced levels of achievement.

Informed activism and advocacy supporting human rights, sustainability, and democracy is a crucial contemporary need with high visibility, whether in the Middle East, where the question of armed or nonviolent civil resistance is paramount; in phenomena like the Occupy movement challenging failed economic systems, where questions regarding "diversity of tactics" has been an obstacle to collective action; or in stalled efforts to achieve sustainable cultures. For example, last year at the ABAI convention, Erica Chenoweth reported on her research demonstrating that nonviolent civil resistance is twice as effective as armed alternatives for challenging dictatorship or repression, and in most cases produces much more promising long-term outcomes. Yet the armed option continues to be chosen, in part because the resources dedicated to the development and dissemination of rigorous science supporting nonviolent alternatives have been vanishingly small. Even less attention has been given to the strategic exercise of power addressing issues of sustainability or structural injustice. The moment now appears to be right, however, for behavioral systems science to contribute to the development of effective activism and science-based advocacy in all of these areas. This tutorial will briefly review the current state of knowledge regarding nonviolent activism, advocacy, and civil resistance, drawing on examples of more and less successful campaigns from every inhabited continent. Drawing particularly on current work in cultural analysis and organizational behavior management,the presenterwill then provide detailed explorations of behavioral systems science principles that have promise for supporting strategic civil resistance and leveraging "people power." The tutorial will offer practical analytic approaches for exploring behavioral systems dynamics that obstruct cultural change, and those that might support it. Examples for analysis will be drawn from current work being done by the presenter and others involved in activism and advocacy. Particular but not exclusive attention will be paid to "constructional" (Goldiamond's term) alternatives. While acknowledging the limits of current knowledge and the ethical challenges involved in working as a scientist-activist, the presentation will offer resources for immediate application, suggesting directions for the next generation of behavioral systems science advancing sustainability, human rights, and structural justice.

Compared to alternatives such as the medical and ethological models, the behavioral model is comprehensive, parsimonious and has a high degree of predictive utility for professionals working in animal behavior. Yet, recognition of theapplied behavior analysismodel in captive animal environments has been slow, often encompassing little more than a pejorative head nod to Pavlov's dogs, Skinner's box, and Ringling's circus. It is not uncommon to hear ABA erroneously described as simplistic, mechanistic, and based on the belief that animals are incapable of thought or emotion. Successfully disseminating ABA to this sector of stakeholders requires an expanded approach to ABA that addresses the relevance of the law of effect on a global level, species' evolutionary-based behavioral preparedness, and additional technological behavior change tools such as marker signals and food management. These and other issues unique to changing the game for captive animals with ABA will be discussed.

Behavior analysts interested in applying behavioral principles to captive animal populations, or those interested more generally in the dissemination of behavior analysis.

Companies have been introducing and massively investing in e-learning since the 1990s. The reasons for such development are as much technical as economic. This represents a very special business and professional chance for all the behavior analysts specialized in learning technologies because all around the world self-claimed experts are proliferating, but few of them can effectively teach low performers. However, the legacy of B. F. Skinner's Teaching Machines seems to be lost: Current technologies for e-learning and virtual training do not take into account the principles of learning. This is the main reason why so many programs have failed. This tutorial will describe different applications of Teaching Machines, Precision Teaching and Fluency Building to industrial and commercial training situations. Thanks to the use of software and contents designed by the speaker and his staff, pharmaceutical sellers learned product features and verbal skills; helicopters pilots learned the layout of commands in a cockpit and memorized safe procedures; train drivers learned signals and maneuvers; nuclear power plant maintenance operators learned to discriminate the status of metals and how to handle their tools. All these applications warranted valuable benefit to companies: all employees learned the expected contents, according to the pre-defined curricula; all employees reduced their latency in responding the correct answers; and all employees remembered for a longer period.

Students and practitioners interested in reviewing a possible application of behavior analysis to business and eLearning.

The speakerwill provide three general suggestions for embarking upon a career in developmental disabilities and applied behavior analysis. First, he will suggest that you should become familiar with various developmental disorders and recognize that some professionals identify their specialization by disorder type. Second, he will suggest that you should become familiar with contemporary issues influencing practice in a range of settings such as schools and residential facilities. Examples will be provided. Third, he will suggest that you can guide a research career around behavior analytic models of assessment and treatment. There need not be a dichotomy between clinical goals and research aims. Examples from the presenter's research career will be discussed.

Behavior analysts clinicians and researchers working in the field of autism and developmental disabilities.