Association for Behavior Analysis International

Researchers and professionals interested in learning, the development of habits, and response inhibition.

Mark E. Bouton received his BA from Williams College and his PhD from the University of Washington (Seattle). He is currently University Distinguished Professor and Robert B. Lawson Green and Gold Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Vermont, where he has held appointments since 1980. He has done research on the effects of context on conditioning and learning, with an emphasis on behavior change (including extinction, punishment, and the transition of operant behavior from goal-directed to habitual), for over four decades. His research was continuously funded by grants from NSF or NIH between 1981 and 2023. He has received a number of awards, including the Gantt Medal from the Pavlovian Society and the Quad-L Award from the University of New Mexico, and he is a Fellow of several organizations, including the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and the Eastern Psychological Association, of which he is a past president. He is the author of a textbook on learning and behavior theory [Learning and behavior: A contemporary synthesis (2nd ed.)], published in 2016 by Sinauer Associates, an imprint of Oxford University Press.

The increasing availability of behavior analytic services for individuals with autism is addressing a critical service gap, yet a significant portion of providers are relatively new to the practice, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for the field. Each service delivery model, whether a school, clinic, or consultancy, needs mechanisms to ensure that providers are relying on best practice informed by research, teaching socially relevant and important skills to learners, and contributing to the growth and development of its service providers along the way. This presentation explores the pillars of a strong clinical service delivery model situated in a school for learners with autism. Those pillars include an ecosystem for professional development and research, both of which then offer the opportunity for continuous program improvement; a system for identifying and teaching important skills that relies on the principles of behavior analysis; and a well-considered set of logistical practices that are specifically designed to meet the needs of learners with autism. This presentation highlights NECC's commitment to evidence-based practices and its ongoing contributions to advancing autism education.

Dr. Jessica Sassi is President and Chief Executive Officer at the New England Center for Children, a school committed to transforming the lives of children with autism through education, research, and technology.  Dr. Sassi’s professional interests include the functional analysis and treatment of severe behavior disorders, education and support for those with autism, and public policy advocacy for those most severely affected by autism. Dr. Sassi graduated with her doctorate in Behavior Analysis from the University of Florida in 2007. She taught and mentored master’s and doctoral students as faculty in the Western New England University programs in Behavior Analysis, and served as guest Action Editor and Reviewer for several journals, including the Journals of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Interventions.  Dr. Sassi is a board member of the Massachusetts Association of Private Special Education Schools and serves as Non-Legislative Member of the Massachusetts Autism Commission.

Attendees should have a basic understanding of what discounting is. The presentation will briefly review the basics of model fitting in discounting so not a pre-requisite per se. But, having some familiarity with how this process currently works will be useful.

This talk tells my story as an applied researcher in behavior analysis for the last 40 years, with an emphasis on evaluations of behavioral skills training (BST) and its variants. My research on BST has been applied to several different target behaviors, often chosen as opportunities arose at different times in my career. I conducted early work in behavioral interview skills training as these were important skills in my work as a clinical behavior analyst with outpatient clients. Also early in my career, I because interested in safety skills such as sexual abuse prevention, abduction prevention, and firearm injury prevention and evaluated BST for the acquisition and generalization of these skills. In this research, I discovered the importance of in situ assessments to measure the generalization of skills to natural settings. Due to my consultation in agencies serving persons with disabilities, I became interested in staff training and management and again evaluated BST interventions for promoting the acquisition and generalization of skills exhibited by staff and teachers. This research also emphasized the importance of in situ assessments to measure generalization to natural settings when a supervisor was not present. Finally, my more recent research, fueled by student athletes with whom I worked, has evaluated BST and other feedback approaches for enhancing athletic performance across a variety of sports. The presentation ends with a review of lessons learned from my research on BST.

The target audience consists of applied behavior analysis researchers, behavior analysts in practice, and graduate students in behavior analysis.

Researchers and professionals interested in human learning using virtual environments.

Dr. Michael Young is a Professor of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University.  He received his Bachelor’s (U. of Illinois) and Master’s (U. of Minnesota) degrees in Computer Science and his Ph.D. in Psychology (U. of Minnesota).  During his 35+ year academic career his research program has included causal learning by humans that was built on the principles of classical and operant conditioning, avian judgment and perception, the integration of reward magnitude, delay, probability, and resource limitations in decision making, and quantitative methods used in data analysis.  For the past 20 years, a large portion of his behavioral data has been collected by architecting research-specific video games.  His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Air Force Office for Scientific Research, the Hershey Corporation, and RTI International.  He has served as a Graduate Program Director, Department Head, Provost Fellow, and Acting Associate Dean of the Graduate School. 

Basic

Many studies over the past 15 years have investigated choice between drug and non-drug reinforcers in rats. This presentation will focus on research manipulating behavioral economic variables in this model. Recent results from a new variation of the model, wherein rats can choose between contexts where the drug and non-drug alternative are available at different prices, and the cost of switching between contexts varies, will be presented. How economy type, income, and reinforcer interactions affect the allocation of behavior between heroin or cocaine and non-drug alternatives including social reinforcement, safety from avoidance, or saccharin will be described. Appreciation of the broader behavioral economic context within which choice occurs can help understand factors that promote or reduce drug-taking behavior.

David Kearns is a professor and chair of the Psychology Department at American University.  He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from American University, where his mentor was Stan Weiss, a previous ABA-I B.F. Skinner lecturer.  His research takes a learning and behavior approach to the study of drug taking in animal models, seeking to understand those factors that promote or reduce the self-administration of drugs in rats.  His current program of research, funded by NIDA (NIH) is titled “Opioid and Psychostimulant Taking: Testing the Impact of Behavioral Economic Contexts.”

Interbehaviorism has not been widely disseminated in behavior analysis. Even when it has been considered, questions about its everyday practical value have always been present. This presentation addresses these questions directly – highlighting the implications of interbehaviorism for practice. This includes practice in the workplace, education, and clinical settings. Most work in applied behavior analysis is dominated by operant concepts and practices. This approach is appealing for several reasons and has been associated with a great deal of success. Still, there are limits to strictly approaching behavior change efforts this way. And while these limits may be experienced in many areas of the science of behavior, they seem particularly present in complex practice settings. This presentation describes some of the core features of interbehaviorism and how they might facilitate a more comprehensive approach to clinical work. The role of language in behavior change efforts is given special attention. Examples from clinical behavior analysis, including a consideration of relationships and psychological flexibility, are provided.

-General understanding of basic behavioral principles -Experience working in the practice of behavior analysis

Dr. Hanley has been applying the principles of learning to improve socially important behaviors of children and adults with and without disabilities for over 30 years. He worked and trained at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, was degreed at the University of Florida, was tenured at the University of Kansas, and directed the Behavior Analysis Doctoral Program and Life Skills Clinic at Western New England University. Dr. Hanley has published over 100 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals in areas such as the assessment and prevention of problem behavior, teaching tactics for young children, and evidence-based values. Dr. Hanley is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Div. 25), past Associate Editor of The Behavior Analyst, and past Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and of Behavior Analysis in Practice. He currently serves as a Research Professor at Western New England University and as CEO of FTF Behavioral, an international training and consulting group based in Worcester, Massachusetts.  

Autism practitioners at all levels.

The experience of a reward, such as the ingestion of food, is accompanied by dynamic patterns of neuronal activity across many brain regions. For example, reward ingestion is often accompanied by brief increases in spike activity of dopamine neurons, as well as other neural populations in the basal ganglia. I will discuss animal laboratory studies that illustrate the important role of behavioral approaches in revealing the functions of this reward-elicited activity with a focus on reward signals that promote future reward seeking behavior.

Intermediate - should have understanding of reinforcement and familiarity with general related brain activity.

Patricia Janak is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University, with appointments in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience in the School of Medicine. Dr. Janak earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health. From 1999 to 2014, Dr. Janak was faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was the Howard J. Weinberger, M.D., Endowed Chair in Addiction Research at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Janak has served as Program Chair and Secretary for the Society for Neuroscience and is editor-in-chief for the journal, Psychopharmacology. Dr. Janak studies neural processes of reward learning, both under normal conditions and in animal models relevant to substance use disorders.  Janak and her laboratory members have made critical discoveries regarding the neurochemical and neuroanatomical bases of alcohol intake and relapse. Current work focuses on circuit level analysis of striatal systems and dopamine error signals during learning and decision making.

Grant writing can be a daunting and overwhelming process. This panel aims to empower behavior scientists to effectively navigate the grant writing process. Recognizing the unique research questions of behavior analysis and the challenges behavior analysts face when applying for grant funding, the panel features experienced professionals from diverse backgrounds who will share their expertise in securing research funding. The session will include a live Q&A, allowing participants to ask specific questions about the grant writing process. Panelists will provide insights into identifying funding opportunities, crafting compelling grant applications, and articulating the significance and impact of their research across various funding mechanisms. Additionally, the panel will discuss common challenges encountered during the grant submission process. By discussing both their diverse experiences and the common hurdles faced during the grant submission process, this session aims to inspire and motivate practitioners and researchers to secure funding for their innovative and impactful projects.

The intended audience for the grant writing panel includes pre-doctoral and post-doctoral researchers, as well as early- to mid-career behavior analysts and scientist-practitioners. Participants should have a foundational understanding of behavior analysis principles and be familiar with the research process. They are expected to have experience in conducting research, including formulating research questions and basic methodologies. This panel is designed for those who are eager to enhance their grant writing skills, navigate funding opportunities, and address the specific challenges associated with securing research funding in the field of behavior analysis.

Behaviorism is often contrasted with mentalism, which purports that behavior is attributable to the mind or “mental activity.” In this way, mentalism includes the attribution of behavior to constructs found within the person like personality, mood, diagnosis, will, or the Self (among others) - a perspective which dominates mental health treatment. Behaviorism is distinct, however, in viewing behavior in terms of context-behavior interactions. One conceptualization of context-behavior interactions is as functional relations, or relationships where participants convolve (i.e., co-evolve), bidirectionally, with neither serving as cause nor effect.This approach centers the functional relationship as the primary unit of analysis, with distinctions among individual factors secondary to further analytic purposes. The functional relationship is a powerful construct, honoring the complexity of our subject matter without foregoing an actionable foundation for analysis. One application of the construct of functional relationship might be as a referent for translating mentalism. We will explore the idea that treating the mind (along with personality, mood, the Self or other mentalist constructs) as a metaphor for functional relations could allow for improved discourse with non-behavioral mental health practitioners and effective integration of non-behavioral data and wisdom relevant to mental health. Examples and challenges will be discussed.

behavior analysts interested in mental health

Dr. Emily K. Sandoz (she/they) is the Director of the University Honors Program, the Emma Louise LeBlanc Burguieres/BORSF Endowed Professor of Social Sciences, and Full Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Emily is also the Director of the Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, which supports collaborative contributions from students and professionals from all over the world. They have co-authored three books on acceptance and commitment therapy for struggles with eating and body image, along with chapters and journal articles on contextual behavioral science, social justice, clinical behavioral processes, and psychological flexibility. Emily has led more than 100 training workshops for professionals around the world, and serves as a peer-reviewed ACT trainer. They also practice as a Clinical Psychologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, focusing on clinical behavior analysis.

Behavior analysts, clinical psychologists, and other mental health professionals interested in the application of behavioral principles in therapeutic settings

As Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Carl W. Lejuez (pronounced: LEZSCH-way) serves as Stony Brook’s chief academic officer, with responsibility for all academic units and operations. His appointment began on July 1, 2022.

Lejuez oversees the academic mission of the university, providing direct supervision for all academic units, support services, and operations, including enrollment management and student success, and coordinating all academic programs. The deans and directors of the West Campus colleges, schools, libraries, centers, and institutes report to him, as does the associate provost for the Lichtenstein Center. He also collaborates with the executive vice president of health sciences to support the health sciences schools on the East Campus. Across these areas, leaders work to provide greater alignment in our research enterprise, enhance interdisciplinary education, and offer enhanced services to all students and faculty.

Prior to his affiliation with Stony Brook, Lejuez served as provost and executive vice president at the University of Connecticut as well as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas, where he also served the university as interim provost for two years. He spent the bulk of his academic career at the University of Maryland, where he was a professor in the clinical psychology program in the department of psychology and where he served as an associate dean for research for the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. His other academic appointments include research professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and an adjunct faculty member at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, CT.

Lejuez’s research focuses on the use of basic laboratory research findings for the development of behavioral interventions to address a wide range of psychological conditions including mood disorders, addictions, and personality disorders for marginalized and underserved populations. At Maryland, he founded and led the Center for Addictions, Personality and Emotions Research. Lejuez has received grant funding from several sources for his research and is widely published, having also served on several editorial boards and having been a founding editor of the publication “Personality Disorders: Theory, Research and Treatment.” Moreover, he is the co-editor of the “Cambridge University Press Handbook of Personality Disorders,” published in spring 2020 and currently has a contract with Oxford University Press for a book about a transdiagnostic behavioral therapy he has developed to be part of their “Treatments that Work” series.

He proudly carries the distinction as a first-generation student. He holds his M.A. and Ph.D., both in clinical psychology, from West Virginia University; and earned his B.A. in psychology from Emory University.

Basic instruction for behavior analysts.