Association for Behavior Analysis International

Any perturbation of the stream of behavior has numerous effects. Delivery of a food reinforcer will activate approach and alimentary responses, elicit search modes, and instigate species typical foraging or predation repertoires. Any correlated stimuli will become conditioned--as an occasion-setter, conditioned stimulus, discriminative stimulus, or conditioned reinforcer. If the correlation is positive those stimuli will be approached; if negative avoided. Theories of conditioning have focused on one or another of these factors; that is called analysis. Synthesis requires understanding the development of these processes, each at its own rate, and as each interacts with the others. The resulting system is complex, in that it involves dynamic networks of interactions. The degree to which responses support or compete with each other, and each with higher-level organizations, may be described with the Price Equation. The evolution of dynamic and average steady states requires other models. This lecture provides an introduction to this next step in the evolution of the experimental analysis of behavior, toward the Syncretic Approach to Behavior, SAB.

Researchers in both basic and applied behavior analysis who are wondering "where next?".

Relational frame theory (RFT) is sometimes said to provide a foundation in basic behavior analysis for acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and ACT is said to be part of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) writ large. This lecture will consider the potential role that RFT could play in grounding ACT, and perhaps some CBT concepts, in more functionally based theorizing. The first part of the lecture will argue that the so-called “middle-level terms” employed in ACT, such as acceptance, defusion, values, and self-as-context, may be seen as lacking the (functional) analytic precision that many concepts in traditional CBT also lack. This lack of functional precision is entirely understandable for CBT, given its explicitly mentalistic origins, but it could be seen as placing a question mark over the functional-analytic “credentials” of ACT. The second part of the lecture considers the argument that RFT can “rescue” ACT from its apparent lack of functional precision, and concludes that it cannot do so without additional substantive conceptual development of the theory itself. A brief outline of how this conceptual development might be realized is presented in the form of a multi-dimensional, multi-level (MDML) framework for analyzing the dynamics of relational framing as generalized relational operant behaviors.

Individuals with an interest in conceptual issues pertaining to translational research, particularly in the domains of clinical behavior analysis, and human language and cognition.

Among the behavior analysts who first appreciated the scope and power of Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, Jack Michael has been by far the most influential. In addition to having trained many of the most prominent figures in the field, Jack relentlessly refined and sharpened Skinner's analysis over the course of five decades. In honor of his unparalleled contributions, the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group annually acknowledges a prominent figure in the field with the Jack Michael Award. The first three winners of the award will speak about Jack's influence on their work and on the field as a whole. Among the topics they will discuss are multiple control, establishing operations, automatic reinforcement, recall, and private events.Dr. Jack Michael was born in 1926 in Los Angeles and entered UCLA in 1943, majoring in chemistry. He served two years in the US army and returned to UCLA in 1946 as a psychology major. He obtained a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. at UCLA, finishing in 1955. As a graduate student, his main interests were statistical methodology, physiological psychology, and learning theory. During his first teaching job (Kansas University), he was much influenced by B. F. Skinner’sScience and Human Behaviorand, throughout his teaching career, he was primarily involved in teaching behavioral psychology (Kansas University, University of Houston, Arizona State University, and from 1967, at Western Michigan University). In 1957, as a result of influence by the rehabilitation psychologist, Lee Meyerson, Jack Michael began to apply Skinner’s approach to individuals with developmental disabilities, mental illness, and physical disabilities. During the next several years, “behavior modification” was in a period of rapid expansion and Dr. Michael contributed with his teaching, writing, and public presentations. He spent much of his academic career concerned with the technical terminology of behavior analysis, basic theory regarding motivation, and verbal behavior. He contributed to the founding of the Association for Behavior Analysis (International) in 1974 and served as its President in 1979. Among his many awards are: 1989 Western Michigan University’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar; 2002 Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: ABAI; 2008 The Murray Sidman Award for Enduring Contributions to Behavior Analysis: Berkshire Association for Behavior Analysis and Therapy; 2009 Ellen P. Reese Award: Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies; 2012 Victor Laties Lifetime of Service Award: Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB); and in 2012, he was the first recipient of the award named in his honor: The Jack Michael Outstanding Contributions in Verbal Behavior Award from the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group at ABAI.

Nature and nurture always work together. Genetic determinism in any form is not a viable concept. Evolution is a continuous process. Do contemporary "evolutionary psychologists" give these facts more than lip service? Some talk as if human behavior is determined (somehow) by genes that were selected 10,000 years ago and unchanged since then. Many evolutionary psychology observations can be explained more parsimoniously by the principles of behavior, mediated by a nervous system, that have been selected for just such plasticity. Indeed, behavior is both a product and a driver of evolution. Then, there are the implications of the immense flexibility in the larger biobehavioral system. The "systems" approach offers an evidence based alternative encompassing everything, including the many complex, nonlinear interactions across all levels of behavior and its development. This panel discussion compares the typical views of evolutionary psychologists with the systems approach and explores where behavior analysis fits in.

Behavior analysts and others interested in evolutionary psychology.

Large-scale changes in cultural practices happen due to natural accidents and/or government intervention. Democracy requires planning and the programming of positive consequences for change. The possibility of counter control limits the use of coercion. Behavior analysis have been useful as a resource to correct and/or devise programs. This work presents examples of interventions in programs used by Brazilian governments to change the behavior of millions of its citizens, in situations like the conditional transfer of income, reforestation, city transit, life in prisons, and dengue control.

Behavior analysts and students who are interested in learning about and practicing in the area of large-scale public policy.

The existing scientific literature strongly suggests that the most effective interventions for children and youth typically require active implementation of treatment in their natural environments by in-vivo care providers. These findings align with the practice of applied behavior analysis. Research over the last two decades in particular has demonstrated that simply providing care providers verbal directions is frequently insufficient to assure treatment implementation. This session will focus on findings relevant to assuring implementation of intervention plans in the natural environment with a particular focus on teachers as the treatment agents. The session will describe conceptual issues surrounding the assessment and assurance of treatment integrity in applied settings. Additionally, the session will review findings regarding procedures that have been found to be effective across studies in supporting intervention implementation as well as often repeated hypotheses about factors mediating treatment implementation that have not been supported by data. The session will conclude with a focus on future directions and the application of a behavior analytic science of treatment implementation across contexts.

Practitioners and researchers interested in the challenges of treatment implementation in the natural environment and the development of a behavior analytic approach to implementation.

The ability to categorize physically dissimilar stimuli such as objects, words, etc., is characteristic of normal intellectual development. Categorization is evident in the emergence of “untrained” behavior and novel stimulus control relations after explicit training on other relations. It is also an ability that does not require language, as Dr. Urcuioli's research shows. After highlighting the long-recognized importance of categorization and equivalence in behavior theory, the presentation will describe how sets of interchangeable stimuli (viz., stimulus classes) can develop from conditional discrimination training in pigeons. Class formation is inferred from pigeons’ subsequent ability to respond in a class-consistent manner to new combinations of the baseline stimuli, including derived stimulus-stimulus relations rarely seen in non-human animals (e.g., associative symmetry). The presenter will also describe his theory of stimulus class formation (Urcuioli, 2008) which emphasizes the reinforcement contingencies of training, proper identification of the functional stimuli, and the combinatorial effect of the same functional stimuli in different trained relations. The theory successfully explains the conditions under which emergent relations have, and have not been, observed and accurately predicts a variety of novel equivalence-like relations.

Licensed Psychologists, certified behavior analysts, graduate students.