Association for Behavior Analysis International

This study examined the effects of defusion exercises on decreasing the interference of words associated with anxiety in processing during the Emotional Stroop task. Ten participants (5 males, 5 females) were assigned to either an intervention group, which received five ACT defusion exercises, or a control group, which completed five unrelated spoken and written tasks after completing an Emotional Stroop consisting of negative and neutral word blocks. After the exercises, they completed the Emotional Stroop task a second time. Participants averaged a greater decrease in the negative trial block compared to the neutral block in the intervention group. A two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to assess the effects of the intervention on the Stroop task performance. The results revealed a significant main effect of group (control/test), with a p-value of 0.0383, indicating that the intervention group showed a notable difference compared to the control group. These findings suggest that the defusion exercises led to faster processing during the second negative trial block. This effect is hypothesized to be the result of the exercises distancing participants from the negative functions of the words.

Behavioral coaching strategies have been successfully applied in the dance context to enhance the performance of skills and promote the satisfaction of dancers. A scoping review?of the behavioral literature that provides a description of the coaching strategies applied in the dance context and identifies gaps that need to be addressed has not yet been conducted. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses – Scoping Reviews process to guide the systematic search of these databases: Web of Science, PsychINFO, MEDLINE, ERIC, and Sport Discus. A combination of key search terms (‘dance or dancing’ and ‘behav* coaching or behav* analysis or behav* modification or behav* intervention’) yielded 218 unique findings. Identified articles were assessed for inclusion based on the following criteria: (a) implemented a behaviorally based coaching method (i.e., alters observable and measurable behaviour) with dancers and/or dance instructors, (b) utilized an experimental or quasi-experimental design, (c) published in a peer-reviewed journal, and (c) written in English. All 30 articles that met these inclusion criteria were descriptively summarized in terms of publication year, participant characteristics, research design, intervention type, and dependent measures. Strengths and limitations of behavioural coaching strategies in dance education will be discussed.

The growing demand for Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) highlights the critical need for evidence-based supervision practices to prepare future professionals in the field. Recent literature has emphasized the importance of ethical and effective supervision strategies (e.g., Sellers et al., 2016; Valentino et al., 2016). This poster presents a comprehensive supervision model implemented within a graduate Behavior Analysis program for students working across diverse settings. The model incorporates four key components: (1) an initial skills assessment, (2) a feedback modality preference assessment, (3) the development of an individualized curriculum, and (4) data-driven supervision practices. Results align with prior research, underscoring the value of individualized supervision to individual supervisees, identifying strengths and areas for growth, and systematically monitoring progress. Recommendations are provided for graduate programs and supervisors to enhance supervision quality and ensure effective service delivery in behavior analytic practice. These recommendations include the development of a comprehensive skills assessment to identify supervisee strengths and areas for improvement, systematic data collection to monitor skill progression, the incorporation of gamified strategies to increase engagement and motivation, and tools for tracking supervisee activities across diverse settings.

Communication is one of the most foundational skills organisms have. Scientists and practitioners of behavior analysis have mastered communicating with each other, but when it comes to talking with non-behavior analysts, we don’t speak the same language. We use lingo no one has ever heard of before. Researchers have been suggesting for decades that a second set of everyday terms needs to be created in order to replace technical jargon and to improve the spread of accurate behavior analysis information (Bailey, 1991; Lindsley, 1991; Marshall, 2021; Neuman, 2018, Ryndak Samuel, 2024). This presentation will teach behavior professionals: the importance behind speaking basically about behavior analysis with lay audiences, problems which could arise, with whom to use jargon and layman's terminology, and how to translate our behavior analytic jargon into simpler terms using suggestions from my book: Talk Behavior to Me: The Routledge Dictionary of the Top 150 Behavior Analytic Terms and Translations.

Almost 40 years ago, Relational Frame Theory (RFT) emerged as a behavioral analytic approach to human language and cognition. RFT aspires to account for relational responding beyond equivalence relations by expanding on the stimulus equivalence paradigm. When stimuli are related in patterns of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR) other than sameness, the behavioral functions of one stimulus may be modified or transformed by the functions of another stimulus in terms of the type of relation between the two. As such, transformations of stimulus function may account for some idiosyncrasies in the behavioral repertoires of individuals. The last decade has brought a surge in conceptual developments within the RFT framework, including new ways to interpret transformation of stimulus functions. Coincidentally, there is a growing interest in function transformation among behavior-analytic research communities not traditionally associated with RFT. Based on findings from a systematic review of published articles, the poster will provide insight into the current discourse and research involving transformation of stimulus function. The findings suggest an increasingly unified effort to provide a more comprehensive behavioral account of complex human phenomena.