Association for Behavior Analysis International

For many years authority figures in the science of behaviour analysis have attempted to place a spotlight on the conspicuous factors that have acted as impediments to the dissemination and utility of the strategies and interventions drawn from basic and applied science findings in this field. A number of these impediments have been empirically investigated and some have been described in relation to a misrepresentation of the science to the general public. Ongoing research shows that these impediments continue to present a significant challenge to researchers and practitioners specifically in the application of behaviour change procedures to those with developmental and intellectual disabilities. More importantly, ongoing impediments to dissemination and implementation of effective practices may prevent numerous individuals who may truly benefit from science-based behavioural methods to improve in many areas of their lives. This presentation addresses why behaviour analysis may still be considered a generic science and provides an analytical framework of science communication to bridge the gap between behaviour analysis findings and the public including education, health and social care sectors as well as stakeholders themselves. It will be argued that one of the most important elements of such a framework should ensure that a diversity of perspectives about the applications of behaviour analysis held by different groups are considered when solutions to the dissemination of behaviour analytic strategies are pursued.

Students of Behaviour Analysis, practitioners in the field of Behaviour Analysis, professionals interested in behavior change, researchers within the field of developmental disabilities and behavior change.

This presentation will provide an overview of the elaborated account of metacontingency with the primary focus on ways this perspective offers points of entry to alter contextual factors influencing cultural practices. The elaborated account of culturo-behavior analytic concepts of metacontingency and macrocontingency will be discussed in the context of value-based approach toward the analysis of cultural change. Moreover, the role of cultural milieu as a mediating factor in this interaction will be highlighted. The discussion of cultural phenomena also acknowledges the behaviors of verbally sophisticated consumers interacting with the many aggregate products of cultural entities as well as the verbal contexts within which members of organized groups operate. The presentation will also highlight the recent experimental and conceptual analyses associated with the role of context in the selection of cooperation and resilience.

General

Implicit testing within behavior analysis has been a rather radical development over the past 15 years. Much of the early work was theoretically informed by Relational Frame Theory and progressed using a mixture of top-down and hypothetico-deductive approaches. Many test features and behavioral quantification methods were borrowed directly from the eponymous Implicit Association Test, and involved questionable social cognitive stimulus presentation and scoring methods. The Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST), in contrast, was designed from the ground up in a painstaking research programme intended to expunge all mentalism from implicit testing, draw on well understood behavioral phenomena such as resistance to change, and use learning rates, rather than response time measures as a key dependent measure. It aims to enhance stimulus control in implicit testing, and clarify behavioral process. The FAST has uses in the analysis of stimulus relatedness in both social research and education settings, and might be used as a proxy for social attitudes, if attitudes are understood fully in functional terms. This talk will outline the behavior-analytic development of the FAST method for quantifying the relatedness of stimuli and “class strength,” and illustrate how the method can be used in a variety of novel social research contexts.

Postgraduate students and early career researchers

We face many societal challenges that require a group level response. Education and insight alone do not motivate behaviour change for individuals to support the group. Integrating techniques from Behaviour Analysis and Behavioural Economics has a lot to offer in terms of enhancing motivation towards behaviour for societal good. Behavioural Economics tells us that messages framed in terms of losses are more motivationally impactful than the equivalent messages framed in terms of gains. Adherence to guidelines that would be beneficial at the individual level (e.g., medication adherence) or societal level (e.g., climate change) can be low when people perceive the messaging as coercive, irrelevant or unfair resulting in counterproductive resistance. This is a common response to warning messages framed in terms of potential risks and costs. Fortunately, a wide range of evidence-based behavioural techniques are specifically designed to reduce counterproductive resistance. These techniques are designed to help individuals clarify their own motivators for behavioural change; and to teach psychological skills that can motivationally enhance messages. The current talk will provide insight into how to adopt behaviour analytic principles to support the development of more effective messaging to motivate effective behaviour change that will support individuals and groups.

Academics and practitioners interested in effective messaging to change behavior at individual or group levels.

Automatically reinforced behavior presents substantial challenges to clinicians when developing behavioral interventions. This presentation will examine that questions of how, when, and whether automatically reinforced behavior should be treated. Self-injury is problem behavior that is sometimes maintained by automatic reinforcement and can pose the risk of significant and, in some cases, life threatening harm. On the other hand, stereotypy is nearly always automatically maintained but rarely leads to injury. Ethical considerations for clinicians will be discussed and the risks and benefits of both treating and not treating self-injury and stereotypy be explored. Some applied research on evaluating and treating stereotypic behavior will be reviewed with a focus on effective interventions for building core adaptive living and social skills.

Applied Behavior Analysts

Behavior analysts seek to identify factors that influence behavior, which enables them to predict future responses and develop therapeutic plans by which maladaptive behaviors can change. Usually behavioral science concentrates on environmental factors, but with the implicit understanding that the biology of the organism is critical for determining an individual’s responses to environmental events and the efficacy of consequences to reinforce or punish those responses. This presentation will provide an overview and examples of how genotype influences brain structure and function, thereby providing the canvas on which environmental conditions and outcomes can yield general behavioral effects, as well as providing the source of individual differences. Correlational and experimental techniques by which conclusions linking genes to behavior will be described and critically evaluated.

Behavior Analysts