Invited Events and Tutorials Invited Events and Tutorials are listed below, by area. AUT: Autism

#468 Tutorial

5/25/2009 3:30 p.m. - 4:20 p.m. West 301 CD AUT; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA

Why Children With Autism Often Fail to Acquire a Functional Intraverbal Repertoire Chair: William H. Ahearn (New England Center for Children)

MARK L. SUNDBERG (Sundberg and Associates)

Dr. Mark L. Sundberg received his doctorate degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University (1980). He is the author of the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (the VB-MAPP), and the co-author of The ABLLS; Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities; and A Collection of Reprints on Verbal Behavior. He has published over 45 professional papers, including a chapter titled “Verbal Behavior” in Cooper, Heron, & Heward (2007). He is the founder and past editor of the journal The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, a twice past- president of The Northern California Association for Behavior Analysis, a past-chair of the Publication Board of ABAI, and was a member of the committee that developed the BACB Task Lists. Dr. Sundberg has given over 500 conference presentations and workshops, and taught 80 college courses on behavior analysis, verbal behavior, sign language, and child development. His awards include the 2001 “Distinguished Psychology Department Alumnus Award” from Western Michigan University.

Abstract: Many children with autism acquire an extensive vocabulary of mands, tacts, and listener discriminations, but have difficulty answering WH questions or engaging in meaningful conversational behavior. In addition, the intraverbal behavior they do have may be rote, scripted, or irrelevant to the preceding verbal context. This tutorial will present several examples of intraverbal problems experienced by children with autism along with an analysis of why these problems are occurring and suggestions for possible intervention programs. It will be proposed that the stimulus control relevant to intraverbal behavior involves primarily verbal conditional discriminations where one antecedent verbal stimulus alters the evocative effect of another antecedent verbal stimulus, and that this type of discrimination requires special training for many children with language delays. It will also be suggested that intraverbal development in typically developing children can serve as a guide for sequencing these complex discriminations for purposes of intraverbal assessment and intervention.

#255 Invited Presenter

5/24/2009 2:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. West 301 AB AUT; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Bridget A. Taylor, Ph.D., BCBA

“Do This,” But Don’t Do That: Moving Beyond Imitation to Observational Learning With Children With Autism Chair: William H. Ahearn (The New England Center for Children)

BRIDGET A. TAYLOR (Alpine Learning Group)

Dr. Bridget A. Taylor has specialized in the education and treatment of children with autism for the past twenty-two years. She is co-founder and Executive Director of Alpine Learning Group a highly regarded education and treatment center for children with autism in New Jersey. Dr. Taylor holds a Doctorate of Psychology from Rutgers University, and received her Masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Columbia University. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavioral Interventions, and Behavior Analysis in Practice. She is also a member of the Autism Advisory Group for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, is a member of the Expert panel of the National Autism Center’s National Standards Project, and is a board member of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment. Dr. Taylor has authored numerous research articles and book chapters related to autism.

Abstract: It is commonly recognized that children with autism present with significant deficits in imitation and observational learning. Influenced by Bear and Sherman’s 1964 study on generalized imitation, most modern curricula for children with autism incorporate instruction in a variety of imitative response topographies. Less common in applied research and practice, however, are procedures to ensure that children with autism learn to acquire novel responses through observational learning. Observational learning encompasses generalized imitation, yet exceeds it, requiring subtle discriminations about observed actions and their outcomes. To shift from learning in a one-on-one context to a group setting, for example, a child must identify contingencies as applied to another, and then incorporate into their own repertoire novel responses related to that contingency without directly contacting it themselves. While complex, observational learning is essential for the child with autism to learn more intricate social and academic repertoires. This presentation will outline instructional programs that move beyond direct imitation to the skills essential for observational learning. Specific procedures to increase observational learning in children with autism across a variety of responses will be reviewed.

BPH: Behavioral Pharmacology

#11 Tutorial

5/23/2009 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. West 301 CD BPH; Experimental Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Raymond C. Pitts Ph.D. Behavioral Mechanisms of Drug Action: What Are They and How Do We Identify Them? Chair: Jesse Dallery (University of Florida)

RAYMOND C. PITTS (University of North Carolina Wilmington)

Dr. Raymond C. Pitts received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Florida in 1989. After a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Wake Forest Medical School, he took a job as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In 1996, he moved to the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and has been there ever since. He achieved his current rank of Professor in 2005. Dr. Pitts has served on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst, and routinely reviews for a variety of other journals, including Behavioural Processes and Psychopharmacology. His work has been supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and has been published in journals such as Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Psychopharmacology, Behavioural Pharmacology, Behavioral Neuroscience, Behavioural Processes, and Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Abstract: Over 50 years of research in behavioral pharmacology has provided unequivocal evidence that variables such as the environmental context, behavioral history, schedule of reinforcement, type of reinforcer, level of deprivation, and baseline response rate are powerful determinants of the behavioral effects of a variety of drugs. It has been suggested that such effects might profitably be viewed within a general conceptual framework referred to as “behavioral mechanisms “ of drug action. In this tutorial, the concept of behavioral mechanisms of drug action is presented and discussed, several approaches to identifying behavioral mechanisms are reviewed, and the theoretical and applied implications of the concept are considered. It is argued that the promise of this approach has yet to be fully realized, and that this has been due, in part, to the fact that there does not appear to be an agreed upon set of operations and criteria by which a specific behavioral mechanism of a given drug effect might be identified unequivocally. It is suggested, however, that advances in the quantitative analyses of behavior may provide a set of tools that will allow us to elucidate behavior mechanisms of drug action clearly. BPH: Behavioral Pharmacology

#180 Invited Presenter

5/24/2009 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. West 301 AB BPH

Biobehaviorally-Based Drug Abuse Prevention Chair: Jesse Dallery (University of Florida)

THOMAS H. KELLY (University of Kentucky)

Dr. Thomas H. Kelly is the Robert Straus Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Behavioral Science in the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Scientific Director of the Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation. He also serves as the Director of Research Education, Training and Career Development for the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. He is a clinical behavioral pharmacologist examining drug-behavior interactions and assessing bio- behavioral factors associated with individual differences in drug abuse vulnerability.

Abstract: Sensation seeking is a behavioral trait characterized by frequent exposure to novel, complex, ambiguous and emotionally intense stimuli and by a tendency to take risks to obtain such stimulation. High sensation seekers initiate drug use at an earlier age, use drugs at a higher rate, and develop more problems with drug-taking behavior than low sensation seekers. This presentation will examine biobehavioral factors associated with drug abuse vulnerability and sensation seeking status and the application of these factors for enhancing drug abuse prevention efficacy. I will discuss an interdisciplinary series of studies utilizing neurobiology, preclinical and clinical behavioral pharmacology (e.g., drug self-administration, psychopharmacology), clinical neuroimaging (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography), and community-based prevention (public service announcements). Clinical behavioral pharmacology studies indicate that stimulant drugs engender enhanced behavioral responses, including drug self-administration, among high sensation seekers. Neurobiology and preclinical behavioral pharmacology studies suggest that differences in drug self-administration are associated with biological differences in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. Public service announcements targeted to high sensation seekers using high sensation-value media platforms enhance prevention efficacy. Clinical imaging studies suggest differential brain responses to high sensation value stimulus materials in mesocorticolimbic regions and may be associated with the efficacy of high sensation value public service announcements. Behavioral pharmacology studies also suggest that activities and stimulus materials high in sensation value can be used to alter the behavioral effects of drugs of abuse. Overall, research suggests that biobehavioral studies can be used to develop and enhance targeted and tailored drug prevention interventions.

CBM: Clinical, Family, Behavioral Medicine

#409 Tutorial

5/25/2009 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. West 301 CD CBM; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Kelly G. Wilson, Ph.D

Mindfulness for Two: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy Chair: Ann Branstetter-Rost (Missouri State University)

KELLY G. WILSON (University of Mississippi)

Dr. Kelly G. Wilson is an Associate Professor of psychology at the University at Mississippi. He is Past President of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, Representative-at-Large of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and is one of the co-developers of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Dr. Wilson received his B.A. from Gonzaga University and his Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno. He joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi in 2000 where he established the Mississippi Center for Contextual Psychology. Dr. Wilson has devoted himself to the development and dissemination of ACT and its underlying theory and philosophy for the past 19 years, publishing 34 articles, 28 chapters, and 5 books including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change and the forthcoming Mindfulness for Two: An Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Approach to Mindfulness in Psychotherapy. He has central interests in the application of behavioral principles to understanding topics such as purpose, meaning and values, therapeutic relationship, and present moment focused work. Dr. Wilson has presented workshops to more than 18 countries, and has participated as co-investigator in a wide range of research projects in the U.S., Sweden, Romania, and the United Kingdom.

Abstract: The most obvious ACT connection to mindfulness is in the here-and-now quality of mindfulness. We bring attention to bear in a flexible and focused way in the present moment. The non-judgmental posture of mindfulness is captured by the acceptance dimension of ACT. In being mindful, many things arise. All are met with equanimity. We bear witness with acceptance: to thoughts, emotions, memories, urges, and, paradoxically, even to the judgments that surely arise. In coaching an accepting and open awareness of thoughts-as-thoughts, of emotional-reactions-as-emotional-reactions, of sensations-as-sensations, we notice these things as ongoing processes, rather than being caught by the contents of awareness. This latter is an example of defusion. When a client returns again and again to the present moment, witnessing with equanimity each thing that arises in awareness, they make contact with a sense of self that is distinct from the contents of awareness—what is called in ACT, self-as-context.

The tutorial will provide a behavioral analysis of mindfulness, the role it plays in ACT, and finally, technical means by which we can bring the kind, careful attention found in a mindfulness practice directly into a therapeutic dialogue. Video materials will be used to demonstrate mindfulness for two in ACT.

CSE: Community Interventions, Social and Ethical Issues

#287 Tutorial

5/24/2009 4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. West 301 CD CSE; Theory BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: E. Scott Geller, Ph.D.

The Courage to Actively Care for People and their Environment: How Behavior Analysis Can Do More to Save the World Chair: Michael Weinberg (Orlando Behavior Health Services, LLC)

E. SCOTT GELLER (Virginia Tech)

Dr. E. Scott Geller, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems at Virginia Tech (VT) has authored 31 books, 43 book chapters, 38 training manuals, 203 magazine articles, and over 350 research articles addressing the development and evaluation of behavior-change interventions to improve quality of life. His extramural grant funding, totaling more than $6 million, has involved the application of behavioral science to benefit corporations, institutions, government agencies, or communities in general. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the World Academy of Productivity and Quality Sciences. He is past Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (1989-1992), current Associate Editor of Environment and Behavior (since 1982), and current Consulting Editor for Behavior and Social Issues, the Behavior Analyst Digest, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and the Journal of Safety Research. In 1982, Scott Geller received a teaching award from the American Psychological Association, and since then won every university teaching award offered at VT. In 2001, VT awarded him the University Alumni Award for Excellence in Research. In 2002, VT honored him with the Alumni Outreach Award for exemplary real-world applications of behavioral science; and in 2003, he was awarded the University Alumni Award for Graduate Student Advising. In 2005, Dr. Geller was awarded the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education. And last May 2007, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Organizational Behavior Management Network.

Abstract: In the 1960's, researchers and teachers of applied behavior analysis (ABA) were optimistic they had a practical technology for dramatically improving quality of life wherever and whenever behavior is relevant. "Saving the World with ABA" was a common theme at the Midwestern Association of Behavior Analysis, now ABAI. Successful applications of ABA were evidenced in schools, hospitals, prisons, businesses and throughout entire communities. What happened? While ABA researchers continue to demonstrate beneficial impact on behavior in select settings, our science and technology has fallen far short of its world-saving potential. The number of behavior analysts who teach and research the large-scale and life-improving applications of ABA has seemingly decreased markedly. This presentation will inspire a reconsideration of how ABA can save the world, and suggest strategies for applying our science and technology on a larger scale in diverse domains. After specifying basic principles of ABA, the presenter will show their direct relevance to various societal problems and situations. Then, specific ways to increase community-wide acceptability and appreciation of ABA will be considered. Finally, the presenter will discuss the relevance of courage and compassion in realizing the potential of ABA to save the world. The need for more "actively caring" will be addressed, as well as how applications of behavior analysis can increase actively caring throughout families, organizations, communities, and beyond. This is the theme of the presenter's latest book, coauthored by Bob Veazie and entitled The Courage Factor: Leading People-Based Culture Change. Copies of this storybook will be available at ABAI.

CSE: Community Interventions, Social and Ethical Issues

#506 Invited Presenter

5/26/2009 9:00 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. West 301 AB CSE BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Richard Rakos, Ph.D.

Belief in Agency: Is it “Human Nature?” Chair: Maria R. Ruiz (Rollins College)

RICHARD F. RAKOS (Cleveland State University)

Dr. Richard F. Rakos has been faculty member, graduate program director, department chair, associate dean, and university ombudsperson in his 30 years at Cleveland State University. In addition to publishing extensively on assertive behavior and behavioral self- management, he has examined a wide range of large-scale social phenomena through behavioral and cultural analyses. Targets of these analyses have included socialism in Eastern Europe as it tottered in the late 1980s; perestroika as an ambitious behavioral experiment by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s; corporate media and the promotion of government propaganda; contingencies shaping behavior in academia; conservative and liberal political ideologies in the US; and many issues related to the promise of more just societies. Dr. Rakos edited Behavior and Social Issues and its two predecessor journals for 11 years and has served as Consulting Editor for BSI for the past 14 years. He also co-chairs Behaviorists for Social Responsibility, is on the Editorial Board of Law and Human Behavior, twice served on the Editorial Board of The Behavior Analyst, and is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Division 25). In recent years, Dr. Rakos has turned his attention to examining, both conceptually and empirically, the apparently resilient human belief in free will and agency.

Abstract: In Western civilization’s endless debate about free will, behavior analysts are “hard determinists” and “incompatibalists,” contending human agency cannot exist in a world governed by scientific laws. Behaviorists interpret the widespread endorsement of the belief in agency in Western culture as a malleable product of “the literature of freedom” that developed in response to aversive social control schemes. An alternative possibility is that the belief in human agency is an evolved psychological mechanism (EPM). An EPM solves a specific problem in environmental adaptation; in the present case, effective responding in choice situations. From this perspective, I suggest the belief in agency is a motivating operation that is activated in situations presenting concurrent schedules of reinforcement; it increases choice behaviors and the potency of a “sense of autonomy,” an emotion-like primary reinforcer contingently produced by effective choice behavior. Because the environment influences how an EPM is expressed, the belief in agency may be expressed differently in different cultures (e.g., “free will” in the West, “harmony” in the East). I present data regarding endorsement of free will and discuss anthropological, historical, physiological, medical, and psychological support for the agency belief as EPM. I suggest that evolutionary selection of the belief does not compromise behavior analytic theory; in fact, an understanding of the belief in agency as part of “human nature” may enhance behavior analysts’ ability to intervene in society to promote progressive social change.

DDA: Developmental Disabilities

#69 Tutorial

5/23/2009 3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. West 301 CD DDA; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: W. Larry Williams, Ph.D., BCBA The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA): Thirty years in the development of a Clinical and Research Tool Chair: Christina A. Weise Default (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)

W. LARRY WILLIAMS (University of Nevada, Reno)

Having graduated in 1977 from the University of Manitoba, Canada, in 1978, Dr. Wilfred Lawrence Williams and 2 prominent Brazilian Psychologists designed the first Masters Degree program in Special Education in South America at the Federal University at Sao Carlos. Dr. Williams was its chair from 1979-1981. In 1985 Dr. Williams became the director of the Agency Behavioral Consultation Services and subsequently Director of the Family and later the Community Behavioral services at Surrey Place Centre, Toronto Canada. In 1994, Dr. Williams accepted his current position at the University of Nevada, Reno where he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, directs a community program for adults with Intellectual disabilities, consults to service agencies, provides a service for children with Autism, and maintains an active basic and clinical research laboratory. Dr. Williams served as Associate Chair of the Psychology Department and has now assumed the duties of Director of the UNR graduate Behavior Analysis Program. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a registered Psychologist in Ontario, Canada, he was the founder of the Ontario Behavior Analysis Association, a founding member of the Manitoba Behavior Modification Association, and the Founding President of the Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis.

Abstract: A ubiquitous feature of a behavior analytic approach to the measurement and manipulation of learning is the concept of discrimination. Much of the behavior analytic literature on learning and behavior change in general is presented in terms of simple discrimination tasks and more complex “conditional “ discrimination tasks. It has been assumed that more complex, conditional discriminations represent performance that is more “difficult “ than simple discrimination tasks.

The ABLA is a table top testing protocol that assesses an individual’s performance on 6 types of discriminations: a simple motor task, a visual position discrimination, a simple visual discrimination, a conditional visual discrimination(match-to-sample), a simple auditory discrimination, and a conditional auditory-visual discrimination. Thirty years of research has indicated that these discriminations are hierarchical in difficulty, predict testability on standard intelligence tests, are predictive of daily living skills, and may be pre-requisite for cross-modal equivalence formation and relational framing. As such the ABLA can be considered a basic tool for clinicians and researchers interested in learning, behavior function, preference assessments, language acquisition, social skills and many other performances. The objective of this tutorial is to allow more behavior analysts to become aware of this amazing clinical and research instrument.

DDA: Developmental Disabilities

#150 Invited Presenter

5/24/2009 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. West 301 AB DDA; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Cathleen C. Piazza, Ph.D.

JABA and the Impact Factor Chair: Joel Eric Ringdahl (University of Iowa)

CATHLEEN C. PIAZZA (Munroe-Meyer Institute)

Dr. Cathleen Piazza, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, is the Director of the Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Munroe-Meyer Institute. Prior to her recruitment to create a high-caliber program at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, Dr. Piazza served as director of the Marcus Behavior Center Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program in Atlanta, Georgia, director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program in Baltimore, Maryland, and director of training for the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s psychology department. Dr. Piazza received her Bachelor of Science degree, Master of Science degree and Ph.D., from Tulane University in New Orleans. She completed a predoctoral internship in the department of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSM) and the department of psychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in 1988 at the same two institutions. Following her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Piazza was appointed an instructor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at JHUSM and director of behavioral programs for the severe behavior unit at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Dr. Piazza has served as a mentor to over 40 predoctoral interns and postdoctoral fellows who have trained at the Kennedy Krieger and Marcus Institutes

Abstract: Scientific journals such as the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) face many challenges currently and in the coming years. The advent of the electronic age has resulted in the proliferation of journals that compete with JABA; thus authors have more outlets for their publications. One factor that may affect whether authors submit to a given journal is the journal’s impact factor, which is a number that is calculated based on how frequently a journal’s articles from the previous 2 years are cited. The impact factor for JABA has been on a downward trend in recent years. Reasons for this decline in JABA’s impact factor will be discussed as well as potential strategies for improving the impact JABA has on the field.

#530 Invited Presenter

5/26/2009 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. West 301 AB DDA BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Iser Guillermo DeLeon, Ph.D.

Is Giving Stuff Away such a Good Idea? Translational Explorations on Some Effects of NCR Chair: Joel Eric Ringdahl (University of Iowa)

ISER GUILLERMO DELEON (Kennedy Krieger Institute)

Iser DeLeon received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida, deviating along the way to pick up an M.A. at Western Michigan University. Currently, he is the Director of Research Development for the Department of Behavioral Psychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute; Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine; and holds adjunct appointments at several other universities including the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for which he serves as Co-Director of the Behavior Analysis graduate program. Dr. DeLeon is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, past president of the Maryland Association for Behavior Analysis, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, for which also served as Associate Editor. Dr. DeLeon began his career in behavior analysis conducting non-human laboratory research, later shifted to clinical settings for persons with developmental disabilities, and has been striving to bridge the basic-applied continuum ever since. He is the recipient of several recent NIH grants that reflect the translational nature of this work by importing findings of basic research towards the understanding of clinical concerns in children with disabilities.

Abstract: Response-independent delivery of reinforcers (noncontingent reinforcement or NCR) has grown increasingly popular in our literature on treating the behavior disorders of individuals with developmental disabilities. Positive therapeutic effects are the norm, albeit in the context of circumscribed evaluations using brief treatment sessions. Applied researchers have considered some potential side effects of NCR (e.g. the possibility for adventitious reinforcement, motivational decrements that impede acquisition of alternative behavior), and have suggested ways to avoid them. However, our basic literature suggests a variety of additional ways in which NCR can complicate matters; processes that have only been sporadically investigated by applied researchers. This presentation will lay out implications of several such processes, including: 1) reinstatement effects related to the discriminative function of reinforcers, 2) phenomena related to incentive shifts in which dense NCR schedules can arrange aversive (escape-inducing) circumstances, 3) behavioral momentum effects stemming from overlaying supplemental reinforcers on ongoing reinforcement for problem behavior, and 4) value-altering effects related to the amount of effort historically required to produce reinforcement. The presentation will then offer a sampling of data from investigations specifically designed to determine the extent to which we should worry about observing such effects in clinical contexts with individuals with developmental disabilities. DEV: Human Development, Gerontology

#446 Tutorial

5/25/2009 2:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. West 301 CD DEV; Theory BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Ruth Anne Rehfeldt, Ph.D., BCBA

On the Relation Between Stimulus Equivalence, the Naming Hypothesis, and Relational Frame Theory in the Analysis of Verbal behavior and Cognition Chair: Ramona Houmanfar (University of Nevada, Reno)

RUTH ANNE REHFELDT (Southern Illinois University)

Dr. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt has had an ongoing interest in derived stimulus relations since she was an undergraduate at the University of Puget Sound, where she did an independent study on the topic with a child with autism. She studied under Dr. Linda Hayes at the University of Nevada, where the two collaborated on a number of basic laboratory investigations of stimulus equivalence. After working directly with individuals with autism and other intellectual disabilities, Dr. Rehfeldt’s interests in derived stimulus relations shifted from the laboratory to educational and habilitation settings. Her interests in refining a technology based upon derived stimulus relations has evolved further since joining the faculty in the Rehabilitation Services and Behavior Analysis and Therapy programs at Southern Illinois University. To this end, Ruth Anne co-edited an upcoming book with Yvonne Barnes-Holmes entitled Derived Relational Responding: Applications for Learners with Autism and other Developmental Disabilities: A Progressive Guide to Change, which features a number of internationally recognized contributors in the area of relational learning. Ruth Anne has published over 70 scientific papers and book chapters. She is currently the Editor of The Psychological Record, and is an editorial board member for Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and The Behavior Analyst.

Abstract: The phenomenon known as derived stimulus relations holds a number of important implications for the understanding of human language and cognition, leading some researchers to suggest that relational learning repertoires are the basis of most, if not all, of complex human behavior. This tutorial will first describe the relation between derived stimulus relations and emerging language repertoires, and will then discuss three current theoretical perspectives on derived stimulus relations. These include Sidman’s (1994) stimulus equivalence paradigm, Horne and Lowe’s (1996) Naming Hypothesis, and Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001). Similarities and differences between the three theoretical positions will be discussed within the context of language development in children, along with the experimental procedures and results of studies in support of each position. Strategies for programming for the emergence of rudimentary verbal repertoires that have been inspired by each theoretical framework, separately and in conjunction, will also be discussed.

EAB: Experimental Analysis of Behavior

#181 Invited Presenter

5/24/2009 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. West 301 CD EAB BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: T.V. Joe Layng, Ph.D.

Mainstream Behavior Analysis: Do We Need to Go Back to Meet the Future in the 21st Century? Chair: Todd L. McKerchar (Jacksonville State University)

T. V. JOE LAYNG (Headsprout)

Dr. Joe Layng co-founded Headsprout and serves as the company's Senior Scientist where he led the scientific team that developed Headsprout’s patented Generative Learning Technology. Joe is the chief architect of the company’s Headsprout® Early Reading program and its new Headsprout® Reading Comprehension program, both based on this technology. His current efforts include, developing Internet-based generative learning strategies for rapidly establishing complex intellectual-skill repertoires with children; completing a consequential contingency analysis of emotions & emotional behavior, including a contingency analytic framework.

Abstract: Whereas there has been considerable advancement in the past several years in the application of applied behavior analysis to the treatment and education of the developmentally delayed, often overlooked is the importance of behavior analysis to other areas of human well being. It has been asserted that just as natural selection can help us understand the evolution of biological complexity over long periods of time without a directing hand, consequential selection can help us understand behavioral complexity over a lifespan, also without a directing hand. Unfortunately, however, we find from time-to-time well meaning behavior analysts resorting to explanations which are not primarily based upon consequential selection, particularly when language or verbal behavior is the topic. This presentation will examine how a modern, nonlinear, behavior analysis, can extend the science of consequential selection to the understanding of, and building interventions for, complex areas of individual, social, and societal importance without resort to explanations that are divorced from consequential governance. The presentation will begin with a framework for analyzing complex consequential relations, the concept of contingency, and build from there to show its relevance to our understanding of human choice, emotions, and intellectual complexity. It will present the case for a new mainstream, and relevant, behavior analysis that has the analytical and programmatic power to help tackle the important problems confronted in a modern world.

EDC: Education

#93 Tutorial

5/23/2009 4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. West 301 CD EDC; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Richard P. West, Ph.D.

Five Things that Guarantee School Success, and may even Close the Achievement Gap for Disadvantaged Learners Chair: Cathy L. Watkins (California State University, Stanislaus)

RICHARD P. WEST (Utah State University)

Dr. Richard P. West is executive director of Utah State University's Center for the School of the Future, a research center dedicated to the development and promotion of best practices in education. He is also professor of special education and rehabilitation counseling. He currently directs the Utah School Improvement Partnership and various research and demonstration projects funded by state and federal grants. He has directed more than $20 million in research, training, and demonstration projects during his 29 years at Utah State University. Prior to this, Dr. West was a school administrator in a large metropolitan school district. Dr. West has devoted his career to researching models of behavior support, effective instruction and developing tools for behavioral, instructional and programmatic decision-making. In collaboration with his associates at the Center for the School of the Future, Dr. West has developed school- based assessment tools used in more than 1300 schools. Dr. West has served as guest or consulting editor of six national journals and has authored six books, 12 book chapters, more than 50 articles in national refereed journals, more than 40 additional articles and instructional products including videotapes and computer software, and more than 200 papers presented at national and international conferences.

Abstract: Participants will learn why much of what we have been told about learning and school success simply isn’t enough to get the job done. In this era of increased accountability and pressure to meet standards, what really makes the biggest difference? How can we support teachers and enable them to do what they have been prepared to do? Tools and procedures for data-based decision-making will be described and explained.

OBM: Organizational Behavior Management

#420 Tutorial

5/25/2009 1:30 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. West 301 CD OBM; Service Delivery BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Karolyn A. Smalley, M.A.

A Systemic Change in a Health Care Organization Chair: Heather M. McGee (Western Michigan University)

KAROLYN A. SMALLEY (The Performance Puzzle)

Dr. Karolyn A. Smalley, a Performance and Instructional Systems Consultant, is a graduate of Michigan State University, the programmed-learning workshop of the University of Michigan, and the MA program in Industrial / Organizational Psychology at Western Michigan University. She helps improve performance at the organization, process and the job level for large, medium and small business organizations. She specializes in process improvement projects, performance management systems, and instructional systems. Karolyn combines her understanding of performance systems and instruction to define organizational change strategies and tactics that provide sustainable results to the organization. In addition, she has successfully, developed, mentored and coached individuals at all levels of the organization.

Abstract: Today’s health care environment is tumultuous, uncertain and costly. Governmental regulations and fee structures change frequently. Pharmaceutical and device companies create new products and technologies. Professional medical associations develop new guidelines and protocols to meet these changes. How does a medical practice improve or maintain profitability in the face of these changes? Practice leadership knows the practice must become more efficient. Usually there is no lack of ideas or solutions on how to do this. However, what is less well known are which variables to select and monitor in order to determine success. This presentation is about one practice that had seen a steady increase in overhead and a 3-year trend of reduced net income for physicians. A reasonable solution had been identified. However, the practice had a history of poorly implementing solutions. Consultants were hired to help determine if the practice had identified the correct solution and to recommend implementation strategies and tactics that would enable the practice to succeed. One and a half years after the consultants made their recommendations, the practice saw a 299% increase in profitability. In addition, the administrator could supply anecdotal information that demonstrated the practice had learned to identify the correct variables, collect data and implement an appropriate solution.

OBM: Organizational Behavior Management

#13 Invited Presenter

5/23/2009 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. West 301 AB OBM; Service Delivery BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Judith A. Johnson, Ph.D. Switchpoints: Culture Change that Delivered a 2:1 Return on Investment Chair: Alicia M. Alvero (Queens College, CUNY)

JUDITH A. JOHNSON (CLG)

For more than 15 years, Judy Johnson has applied her expertise in behavior-based principles to help business leaders create environments that improve organizational performance through clear and well-communicated strategies via the effective use of positive reinforcement. Judy has worked with clients in a broad range of industries: pharmaceuticals, financial services, telecommunications, consumer products, manufacturing, petrochemicals, technology, automotive, engineering, transportation, shipping logistics, and retail services. She has helped organizations realize measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, quality assurance, and traditional performance indicators (revenue growth, safety, customer retention, productivity). Judy has assisted organizations by: Coaching leaders at C-level, VP-level, and operations-level to improve their communication, feedback delivery, and decision-making skills -Helping leaders execute their strategies by pinpointing key behaviors that enable successful execution - Working with senior leadership to define/implement performance metrics (team and individual) that correlate behaviors directly with successful business results. Judy earned her Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University. She also holds a Master’s in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Bachelor’s in Psychology with Management, and an MBA Essentials certificate from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Business. Judy has taught university courses in Applied Behavior Analysis and conducted research on feedback, motivation, and productivity. She has authored journal articles and presented on many subjects from cross-training techniques to improving performance through feedback, teaming, and incentives.

Abstract: Global competition, changing regulations, and instability in the marketplace all create a current business climate where companies must be ready for whatever change may come. While companies in this environment would benefit from ABS, they will tend to ignore any methodology that does not add immediate value to their business. As practitioners, we will be under increasing demand to demonstrate results for our work. In her recently released book Switchpoints: Culture Change on the Fast Track to Business Success (2008), Johnson and co-authors describe how Canadian National Railway (CN) applied behavioral techniques to develop leaders, engage employees, and create a culture that delivered over a 2:1 return on their investment. Through real life stories and examples, Johnson will share how individual leaders, working with their teams in new ways, delivered profound results in a range of metrics including service, reliability, and cost reduction. Johnson will also go beyond the book to share insights into critical success factors, lessons learned, and what those lessons tell us about how behavior analysts can help companies maximize performance in the current business environment.

OBM: Organizational Behavior Management

#469 Invited Presenter

5/25/2009 3:30 p.m. - 4:20 p.m. West 301 AB OBM; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: John Austin, Ph.D.

OBM Research and OBM Practice: Shall Ever the Two Meet Again? Chair: Alicia M. Alvero (Queens College, CUNY)

JOHN AUSTIN (Western Michigan University)

Dr. John Austin is an internationally recognized expert in providing behavior-based solutions to organizational challenges. He is a Professor of Psychology at Western Michigan University. He has conducted research and consulted with organizations to improve productivity and safety in various industries including: aviation health care and hospitals, chemical higher education, construction, public accommodations, food service transportation glass and plastics manufacturing utilities and government retail. John has experience in occupational safety, motivation, performance measurement, leadership development, coaching, and organizational change management. In the area of improving human performance he has published more than 85 articles and chapters, delivered nearly 200 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, and has published three books, Organizational Change, Handbook of Applied Behavior Analysis, and Mindfulness at Work. John has taught college and graduate level courses and conducted research in the areas of occupational safety, organizational performance improvement, consultation, motivation, and behavior change for 15 years. He earned his BA from the University of Notre Dame, and his MS and PhD from Florida State University. He served as Editor of the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management from 2000-2008, Associate Editor of Behavior Analysis and Practice, and is on the board of editors for four other comparable scientific journals, including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. John is a leading member of the UK & USA based BMT Federation, a group of independent consultants that specialize in using behavioral science techniques to improve business performance.

Abstract: Early OBM applications appeared in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and were largely characterized by the application of feedback, reinforcement, and systems analysis to solve organizational problems and improve performance. Soon after the initial studies, The Journal ( Journal of Organizational Behavior Management ) was founded in 1977 by Aubrey Daniels, with Larry Miller serving as Managing Editor (Dickinson, 2000). At the first MABA and ABA conferences there was a strong presence from members of the University of Kansas and BSI (a consulting firm headed by Aubrey Daniels) (Dickinson). Since that time, OBM presence at universities, in consulting firms, and inside organizations has grown steadily, although not dramatically. In the early days, research and practice were essentially one in the same – as evidenced by the applied nature of most early articles appearing in JOBM . However, it appears to me that the link between the research we publish and the OBM practice in which we engage has become increasingly faint. I will discuss this issue, give some ideas for how it might be remedied, and discuss some things about practice that I have learned as a researcher of 15 years. OTH: Other

#213 Tutorial

5/24/2009 11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. West 301 CD OTH; Service Delivery BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Kimberly Nix Berens, Ph.D.

Bringing Behavior Analysis into the Mainstream through the Private Sector Chair: William L. Palya (Jacksonville State University)

KIMBERLY NIX BERENS (Center for Advanced Learning, Inc.)

Dr. Kimberly Berens is the President and Founding Director of Center for Advanced Learning, Inc. Her work centers on using behavior analysis to produce academic transformation with a wide-range of learners. Dr. Berens currently owns and operates three private learning centers located in Reno, Carson City, and Medford, Oregon. Through these centers, Dr. Berens and her team have developed a variety of learning programs that consistently produce an average of one year’s growth in 40 hours of instruction. Dr. Berens is also an experienced educational researcher who has published and presented extensively on science-based approaches to education and learning. She currently serves as an affiliated professor in the Behavior Analysis program at the University of Nevada- Reno.

Abstract: B.F. Skinner’s theoretical writings emphasize the relevance of behavior analysis for solving complex human problems. Unfortunately, of late, applied behavior analysis has become synonymous with services for those with autism and other developmental disabilities. However, behavior analytic training allows individuals to work effectively in a wide range of areas. Moreover, being flexible in service provision is the key to a successful business model. The current paper will offer strategies and guidelines for use in starting a business in behavior analysis. Specifically, information on conducting demographic analyses, identifying community needs, and designing marketing strategies will be offered. In addition, specific practice guidelines that can be used to enhance programmatic outcomes will be discussed.

OTH: Other

#151 Invited Presenter

5/24/2009 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. West 301 CD OTH; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Charles T. Merbitz, Ph.D., BCBA

Mainstream Behavior Analysis: Eight Decades of Applications and Growing Chair: William L. Heward (Ohio State University)

CHARLES MERBITZ (Chicago School of Professional Psychology)

Charles T. Merbitz, Ph.D., BCBA, is currently Chair of the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Since 2004, when he began the ABA Program, the Department has grown to over 100 graduate students and seven faculty members. Dr. Merbitz has 35 years of experience in applications of scientific methods to learning, including the design and implementation of effective school programs in both Regular and Special Education, service delivery as a school psychologist, federally-supported researcher in rehabilitative medicine, and university professor. Dr. Merbitz has a national reputation in the rehabilitation and behavioral communities for research involving objective process measures for relating interventions to outcomes and outcome measures. Dr. Merbitz has published numerous articles, chapters and two books, and has served as reviewer for NIDRR (the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research) and the journals Stroke, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Behavior Research Methods Instruments and Computers, Journal of Precision Teaching, and The Behavior Analyst. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Psychologists and Social Workers, for whom he helped write SCI treatment standards. He currently serves ABAI as Coordinator of the Education Board.

Abstract: As of 2008 it has been 80 years since the publication of Behavior of Organisms began the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and 50 years since the inception of JABA inaugurated the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In these few decades the field has grown tremendously, both in the numbers of professionals identifying themselves as practicing or teaching ABA, and in the range of problems and issues that are addressed successfully by mainstream behavior analysis. However, ABA frequently remains conspicuous by its absence in discussions of human problems and their solutions, in both professional and popular discourse. One perspective on this information gap is that as some other helping disciplines continue to define themselves in the light of postmodernism, ABA professionals have strengthened the commitment to natural science and selectionism. Nonetheless, ABA continues to grow, and as this brief survey of the field shows, the range of successful applications, training venues, and opportunity in ABA is striking. As a field ABA seems poised for even further dramatic expansion.

OTH: Other

#257 Invited Panel

5/24/2009 2:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. West 301 CD OTH/CSE; Theory BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Anthony Biglan, Ph.D.

Responding to Global Warming...or Not: The Green Behavior Deficit Chair: Anthony Biglan (Oregon Research Institute)

ANTHONY BIGLAN (Oregon Research Institute) RICHARD F. RAKOS (Cleveland State University) MARK P. ALAVOSIUS (University of Nevada, Reno) ROBIN RUMPH (Stephen F. Austin University)

Dr. Anthony Biglan is a Senior Scientist at Oregon Research Institute and Director of the Center on Early Adolescence. He is the Past President of the Society for Prevention Research. He has conducted numerous experimental evaluations of interventions to prevent tobacco use both through school-based programs and community-wide interventions. He has also done experimental evaluations of school and family focused interventions to prevent aggressive social behavior and reading failure, as well as clinical interventions to prevent high-risk sexual behavior. During the 2000-2001 school years, Dr. Biglan led a team of scholars in a review of current knowledge about the development and prevention of multiple problem behaviors of adolescence (Biglan, Brennan, Foster, & Holder, 2004). He is the author of the 1995 book, Changing Cultural Practices: A contextualist framework for intervention research, published by Context Press. His current work focuses on fostering the beneficial evolution of societal practices through the use of behavioral science knowledge.

Dr. Richard F. Rakos has been faculty member, graduate program director, department chair, associate dean, and university ombudsperson in his 30 years at Cleveland State University. In addition to publishing extensively on assertive behavior and behavioral self- management, he has examined a wide range of large-scale social phenomena through behavioral and cultural analyses. Targets of these analyses have included socialism in Eastern Europe as it tottered in the late 1980s; perestroika as an ambitious behavioral experiment by the Soviet Union in the early 1990s; corporate media and the promotion of government propaganda; contingencies shaping behavior in academia; conservative and liberal political ideologies in the US; and many issues related to the promise of more just societies. Dr. Rakos edited Behavior and Social Issues and its two predecessor journals for 11 years and has served as Consulting Editor for BSI for the past 14 years. He also co-chairs Behaviorists for Social Responsibility, is on the Editorial Board of Law and Human Behavior, twice served on the Editorial Board of The Behavior Analyst, and is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Division 25). In recent years, Dr. Rakos has turned his attention to examining, both conceptually and empirically, the apparently resilient human belief in free will and agency.

Dr. Mark P. Alavosius received his BA in psychology from Clark University in 1976 and earned his MS (1985) and Ph.D. (1987) in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is an Assistant Professor of psychology in the Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Nevada, Reno and Director of Faculty for off- campus behavior analysis programs. He held faculty appointments in the Behavior Analysis and Industrial/Organizational Program at Western Michigan University and the Behavior Analysis Program at West Virginia University. He is a Trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavior Studies and member of the CCBS Team for accreditation of behavior-based occupational safety programs. His interests are in developing behavioral and instructional systems to improve work performance particularly in the areas of health and safety. Dr. Alavosius has been Principal Investigator on Small Business Innovations Research Grants to develop and test behavioral safety technologies for employers. With over twenty-five years of experience in behavioral approaches to work performance and occupational health & safety, Dr. Alavosius has over 120 publications and conference presentations.

Dr. Robin Rumph is an Associate Professor of School and Behavioral Psychology at Stephen. F. Austin State University. Dr. Rumph received his B.A. in psychology from Hendrix College, M. A. in clinical psychology from University of North Texas, and Ph.D. in educational school psychology from Texas Woman’s University. While attending UNT and TWU, Dr. Rumph worked with Donald Whaley in clinic/school settings that included autism, habit control and adult psychotherapy programs. While studying with Jack Michael and Dick Malott, Dr. Rumph became interested in verbal behavior and PSI. In 1978 Dr. Rumph joined Donald Cook at the Northeastern University PSI center. After returning to Texas in the 80’s, Dr. Rumph established a private practice specializing in the treatment and consultation of children’s behavioral, academic and developmental problems. Dr. Rumph organized the founding of TxABA, serving as president and treasurer. He has been an environmentalist since the 1970’s, working in the Boston office of the Sierra Club, founding and serving as an officer of the Cross Timbers Group of the Sierra Club, and working as a member of the Public Interest Research Group in Michigan . Dr. Rumph joined behavior analysts Chris Ninness and Glen McCuller at SFA in 1998 organizing a research group focusing on relational frame theory and cultural and environmental issues. Dr Rumph with his SFA colleagues have made numerous presentations and published in JABA, Behavior and Social Issues, and the Psychological Record on topics that include relational frame theory, education, statistics, cultural design, environmental and social issues.

Abstract: Compelling evidence indicates that climate changes are accelerating and will, at some point in the next 30 to 50 years, be likely to impact behavior, culture, and natural ecologies in a myriad of negative ways. Nevertheless, warnings of change like those presented by Frederic Wagner in the preceding B. F. Skinner Lecture are frequently met with indifference—or even outright resistance. Such reactions impede efforts to alter the human behaviors that contribute directly to climate change and to prepare for coming cultural changes necessitated by altered environments and depleted resources. A “green behavior deficit” results, the controlling variables of which can be illuminated through behavioral analyses. Yet, relatively little conceptual work in behavior analysis has been done in regards to this complex challenge, and scarcely any empirical work examines behavior change at this scale. Panelists will discuss a variety of possibilities for fruitfully examining the “green behavior deficit” through such concepts as managing externalities, delay discounting, preparedness, habituation, rule-governed behavior, cultural practice analysis, and systems analysis. TBA: Teaching Behavior Analysis

#347 Tutorial

5/25/2009 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. West 301 CD TBA; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Henry H. Emurian, Ph.D.

Programmed Instruction and Interteaching Applications to Information Technology Education Chair: Jessica Singer-Dudek (Teachers College, CU and CABAS)

HENRY H. EMURIAN (University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus)

Dr. Henry H. Emurian is an associate professor of information systems in the College of Engineering and Information Technology at UMBC. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Maryland, and he also holds a graduate degree in computer science. His research and teaching interests focus primarily upon the applications of programmed instruction and interteaching to help students acquire skill and confidence in computer programming, in particular, and information technology, in general. He also maintains an interest in behavioral systems management of confined microsocieties for spaceflight applications through his affiliation with the Institutes for Behavior Resources, Inc. (IBR) in Baltimore. His work has appeared in Computers in Human Behavior, the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, Information Resources Management Journal, Distance Education Technologies, the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, the Behavior Analyst Today, and others. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, Eastern Psychological Association, and the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

Abstract: Learning to write a computer program can be very difficult for beginners at all ages, and even entering college students are diverse with respect to their computer skills – some are computer champions, while others may have rarely touched a computer. Although skill in computer programming is acknowledged to be valuable for information science students, educators in the discipline recognize that many students select management information systems and other academic majors to avoid or escape the programming demands of a computer science curriculum. In response to these challenges, the work reported in this presentation attempts to improve information technology instruction for college students, evidenced by progressive gains in their knowledge and self confidence, by combining the use of a programmed instruction tutoring system with interteaching as the initial components in a Java computer programming course. The synergistic relationships among programmed instruction, interteaching, and model-based lecturing will be described and demonstrated as they relate to the adoption of multi-media behavioral tactics having the goal of fostering and managing the transition of all students to a common level of mastery and generalizable skill.

TBA: Teaching Behavior Analysis

#553 Invited Presenter

5/26/2009 11:00 - 11:50 a.m. West 301 AB TBA BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Matthew Hancock, MBA

Building Community Support to Increase the use of Applied Behavior Analysis in Urban Public Schools Chair: Denise E. Ross (Chicago School of Professional Psychology)

MATTHEW HANCOCK (Center for Polytechnical Education)

Dr. Matthew Hancock is the Assistant Director of the Center for Polytechnical Education (CPE). CPE is a non-profit school operator whose mission is to prepare elementary and secondary students to be leaders in the 21st century knowledge economy. Under Matt's leadership, CPE has developed an educational model that incorporates evidence-based teaching approaches derived from applied behavior analysis. Matt has a background in applied behavior analysis and cooperative economics. Between 1998 and 2003 Matt worked at the David Gregory School (a former CABAS® school) in New Jersey as an instructor for children with autism. Matt also worked with children with autism under the supervision of faculty from the University of Oviedo. In 2005, Matt received a Masters degree in Cooperative Economics from the University of Bologna, in Bologna Italy. Matt received his Bachelor's degree from Skidmore College in 2001. Matt's current research interests include the application of Skinner's functional analysis of verbal behavior and Israel Goldiamond's nonlinear analysis of behavior to the development of a technology of social change. Matt's publications include a recent book, published in Italy, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Cooperative League of Imola: Compete by Cooperating: The Cooperative District of Imola.

Abstract: While the educational issues that confront students in low-income, urban communities are complex, applied behavior analysis has research-based, data-driven systems of schooling that can help address them. Yet, the widespread use of applied behavior analysis in urban schools has been limited for several reasons. In this lecture, Matt Hancock, Assistant Director of the Center for Polytechnical Education (CPE), will discuss barriers to the widespread use of applied behavior analysis in elementary and high schools serving low-income, urban communities. CPE, a non-profit school operator whose mission is to prepare elementary and secondary students to be leaders in the 21st century knowledge economy, has developed an educational model that incorporates evidence-based teaching approaches derived from applied behavior analysis. CPE's first school, Austin Polytechnical Academy (located in one of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods) has achieved national recognition as a model program. Senator Barack Obama recently called Austin Polytech “the kind of model we'll replicate across the country...” CPE has recently gained approval to open a second school in Chicago: the Career Academy for Advanced Technology. Based on his work at CPE, Matt will also present a useful protocol for collaborating with urban communities to successfully introduce applied behavior analysis into public schools. TPC: Theoretical, Philosophical and Conceptual Issues

#378 Tutorial

5/25/2009 10:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. West 301 CD TPC; Theory BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Michael C. Davison, Ph.D.

The Quantitative Analysis of Behavior Chair: Sam Leigland (Gonzaga University)

MICHAEL C. DAVISON (University of Auckland)

Dr. Michael Davison is Professor of Psychology, Honorary Professor in The Liggins Institute, and Director of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Research Unit, at Auckland University, New Zealand. He has been at Auckland for too many years. He got a Ph.D. from Otago University, NZ, and a D.Sc. from Auckland. He is a Fellow of ABAI and current Chair of the Fellows’ Committee; he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and was awarded their Silver Medal for Research. He served a term as International Director on the ABAI Council, and on the SABA Board. He was given a SABA Award for the International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis in 2004, and the lab he directs will receive the SABA Award for Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis in 2009. He has been on the Board of Editors of JEAB too many times to count, and has also been an Action Editor for JEAB. His interests are in the quantitative experimental analysis of choice and behavior allocation, and in the application of quantitative technologies to questions in Neuroscience. He has had a number of other interests: Potting, self-sufficiency, poetry, recorder music, and he intends, soon, to give up behavior analysis completely and to learn wood turning.

Abstract: What is the quantitative analysis of behavior? How do we parse a piece of verbal or nonverbal behavior to determine whether it was, or was not, a member of this operant class? Which should come first, the behaviors or the class definition—or should these co-develop dynamically? This talk is a personal and idiosyncratic view of what I think are, or should be, the topographies that satisfy this class and be reinforced by the scientific community. In particular, I will go to some pains to make clear that “quantitative” is not an alternative to “experimental” (thus, the better term for what I want to do is the “Quantitative Experimental Analysis of Behavior”)—because there does exist a non-experimental quantitative analysis of behavior, about which I shall wonder. What are the benefits of a quantitative approach relative to other approaches—is it better, or just harder? How might we convince audiences that are quantitatively unsophisticated that there are reinforcers to be gained from such behavior? Can this be done by giving invited talks at ABAI on the quantitative analysis of behavior?

TPC: Theoretical, Philosophical and Conceptual Issues

#508 Invited Presenter

5/26/2009 9:00 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. West 301 CD TPC BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D.

Values, Verbal Relations and Compassion: Facing Global Challenges Using Modern Behavioral Principles Chair: Sam Leigland (Gonzaga University)

STEVEN C. HAYES (University of Nevada, Reno), Sam Leigland (Gonzaga University)

Dr. Steven C. Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 32 books and over 400 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the APA, of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology and of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy. He was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Psychological Science, which he helped form and has served a 5 year term on the National Advisory Council for Drug Abuse in the National Institutes of Health. In 1992 he was listed by the Institute for Scientific Information as the 30th “highest impact” psychologist in the world. His work has been recognized by the Exemplary Contributions to Basic Behavioral Research and Its Applications from Division 25 of APA, the Impact of Science on Application award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.

Abstract: Toward the end of his life B. F. Skinner became somewhat pessimistic about whether behavioral science suggested that human beings can or will act to save the world. In this talk I consider the reasons for that pessimism in light of modern developments in the analysis of human language and cognition. The key to our future as a human species is to link long and short term reinforcers for the individual to those for the group. I argue that we can indeed strengthen this linkage if we apply our knowledge about the features of human language that have been unearthed by modern behavior analysis. Empirically validated behavioral methods now exist to rein in the repertoire narrowing influences of modern human culture. In the same way that Skinner once claimed that behavior analysis is the “very field” of purpose we can now declare, and support scientifically, the idea that behavior analysis is becoming the very field of love, compassion, and community. It is these processes, treated as natural events, that are essential to our ability to face global challenges in the modern world.

VRB: Verbal Behavior

#41 Tutorial

5/23/2009 2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. West 301 CD VRB; Applied Behavior Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: James E. Carr, Ph.D.

Verbal Behavior Applications in Developmental Disabilities: Current Evidence and Methodological Recommendations Chair: Caio F. Miguel (California State University, Sacramento)

JAMES E. CARR (Auburn University)

Dr. Jim Carr is an associate professor of psychology at Auburn University. His current research interests include verbal behavior, analysis and intervention in developmental disabilities, the behavioral treatment of tic disorders, and college teaching methodology. Dr. Carr has published over 100 articles, chapters, and book and is currently an associate editor of Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. He was the 2002 recipient of the B. F. Skinner New Researcher Award by Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Carr received his Ph.D. in 1996 from Florida State University and previously served on the psychology faculties at Western Michigan University (1999-2008) and University of Nevada-Reno (1996-1999).

Abstract: Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior has proven useful for conceptualizing and developing language interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities. In recent years, a number of procedures (hereafter referred to as the “verbal behavior approach “) inspired by this analysis have been packaged and disseminated for the treatment of early childhood autism. Although the verbal behavior approach is conceptually sound and supported by modest literature on teaching individual verbal operants, no outcome research currently exists to directly support its intensive, long-term application. Furthermore, more than a few applied studies in the verbal behavior literature have methodological shortcomings that preclude confident conclusions regarding their effects. In this tutorial, I will briefly summarize the state of the evidence for common procedural elements of the verbal behavior approach, as well as its large-scale application. I will then describe and illustrate the types of evidence needed to ensure that the dissemination of the verbal behavior approach better corresponds to the existing empirical database.

VRB: Verbal Behavior

#42 Invited Symposium

5/23/2009 2:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. West 301 AB DEV; Experimental Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Martha Pelaez, Ph.D.

The Bigger Picture from Infancy to Evolution: Genes, Development, and Behavior Analysis Chair: Martha Pelaez (Florida International University) Discussant: Susan M. Schneider (Florida International University)

Discussant Dr. Susan Schneider’s involvement in behavior analysis goes back to high school when she wrote B. F. Skinner, never dreaming that he would reply. They corresponded through her master’s degree in mechanical engineering (Brown), her engineering career, and her stint in the Peace Corps. At that point Schneider gave in to the inevitable and committed to a career in behavior analysis, obtaining her Ph.D. in 1989 (University of Kansas). Her pioneering work in the experimental analysis of behavior includes several firsts: applying the generalized matching law to sequences, and demonstrating operant generalization and matching in neonates. Her 25+ publications also cover the history and philosophy of behavior analysis and the neglected method of sequential analysis. Schneider has long championed the inclusive, behavior analysis-friendly developmental systems theory approach to nature-nurture relations, culminating in reviews in 2003 (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior) and 2007 (The Behavior Analyst). She co-founded and was the first Chair of the SIG that preceded the current Dissemination of Behavior Analysis SIG. In that vein, she is currently writing a trade book: Shaping Destinies: Nature-Nurture and the Unexpected Science of Consequences.

Abstract: In evolution's indelicate dance, behavior leads as well as follows genetic change--and infancy is an individual and theoretical proving ground tougher than Dancing with the Stars. What with rapid physical, behavioral, emotional, sexual, and social development, hormonal and neurophysiological changes, genetic differences, immediate early genes being turned on and off, and learning's accelerating trajectory, the scientific challenges can present a blooming, buzzing confusion. Further, it's easy to show that both behavior and biology stem from the pas de deux of 100% genes and 100% environment; we can “can “ the simplistic square dance in favor of the higher exponentials. So where do operant learning and classical conditioning fit in? Pioneering behavior analysts showed how operant contingencies help shape infant babbling and language acquisition, songbird song learning, and filial imprinting, to name a few examples. That was just the beginning. As for evolutionary beginnings, even Darwin and Lamarck recognized the driving power of behavior change, one of the ultimate engines of diversity. The symposium participants will spell out the choreography, with a focus on illuminating the starring role behavior analysis can play in the next frontier of nature & nurture.

“The Trilling Wire in the Blood… “: What Can We Mean by Nature and Nurture in the First Place? PAUL THOMAS ANDRONIS (Northern Michigan University)

Dr. Paul Thomas Andronis, Professor of Psychology at Northern Michigan University, (B.S. Biology, M.S. Zoology, Western Illinois University), received his Ph.D. in Biopsychology from The University of Chicago, working under Israel Goldiamond. He was the recipient of a U.S.P.H.S. Physiological Psychology Training Fellowship, the Joseph Kelly Memorial Award in Biopsychology, and a U.S.P.H.S. Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowship in Psychiatry. He was appointed to the faculty in Clinical Psychiatry at the Chicago Osteopathic Medical School where he founded the section on Behavioral Medicine, before returning to Chicago as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Behavioral Medicine in the Departments of Psychiatry and Gastroenterology, and Instructor in Biopsychology (teaching the ethology course previously taught by the late Eckhard Hess, now with an explicit focus on relations between the phylogeny and ontogeny of behavior). Dr. Andronis currently serves as Coordinator of Northern Michigan’s Behavior Analysis option for psychology majors, supervises the behavior analysis practicum, directs the NMU Behavior Analysis Research Laboratories (pigeon, fish, and human), and teaches courses in both behavior analysis and biopsychology. His ongoing research on the nonlinear emergence of complex repertoires from simpler components guides his interests in both widespread applications of behavioral technology to important behavior problems, and the role of biological variables in the genesis of novel patterns of behavior.

Abstract: Nature/nurture debates typically focus on the extent to which the behavior of organisms is best accounted for by the phylogenetically determined innate physiology and anatomy of the organisms themselves, or by proximal formative processes of nurture. Disputes arise because some behavior seems to be a rather direct result of physical architecture (behavior called “instinct “), and not the result of historical processes during the individual organisms’ lifetimes (behavior described as “learned “). Aristotle argued for the priority of final (teleological) causes, presaging Darwin’s selection by consequences. My paper argues that this may in fact be an adequate resolution for the nature/nurture question, particularly when we extend the selection metaphor from evolutionary theory to operants and proximal behavioral histories. The rich variety of behavior in nature suggests that we abandon overarching statements about causes of behavior and examine the particulars. The behavior analytic approach should integrate what we have learned from biology with our hard-fought knowledge of how the environment contributes to behavior under complex historical conditions. Examples from nonhuman animals in their natural ecologies, as well as humans enthralled in cultural contingencies, reveal the usefulness of this approach.

On Heritability and Inheritability: How Behavior Contributes to Genetic Expression DAVID S. MOORE (Pitzer College and Claremont Graduate University)

Dr. David Moore received his B.A. in psychology from Tufts University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in developmental and biological psychology from Harvard University. Since completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the City University of New York, he has been a professor at Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges. From 2004 - 2006, he was on a leave of absence in New York City, teaching and conducting research at Yeshiva University and Sarah Lawrence College. His theoretical work has explored the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to human development, and his book The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture, “ the subject of a review in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, was recently translated into Japanese and was nominated for the Cognitive Development Society's Best Authored Volume award. In 2007, Moore gave a B. F. Skinner Address about nature-nurture relations at ABA, and was pleased to be invited back to participate in this symposium. A developmental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist with research expertise in the development of perception and cognition in fetuses, newborns, and older infants, he has published numerous articles and book chapters on infants' abilities to “mentally “ rotate visual images, to perceive numerical quantities, to categorize infant-directed speech, and to integrate visual and auditory information.

Abstract: Behavior geneticists have traditionally sought evidence that genes contribute to behavior, whereas behavior analysts have traditionally sought to understand behavior's more proximal causes. Now, decades after advocates of a systems view of development began arguing that insight into the origins of behavioral characteristics would require an understanding of how genes and non-genetic factors interact during development, studies have demonstrated that epigenetic mechanisms allow some behaviors to influence genetic expression. Indeed, genes and behavior influence each other bidirectionally. In contrast to traits that behavior geneticists have found to be heritable, epigenetic characteristics are genuinely inheritable (i.e., passed from generation to generation); thus, behaviors produced in one generation can influence genetic activity in subsequent generations, influencing descendants' behaviors, as well. Remarkably, studies combining the methods of behavior analysis and molecular biology have produced results consistent with the predictions of developmental systems theorists. This talk will critically analyze behavior geneticists' heritability statistic (which doesn't really mean what it sounds like it means), present data on how parental behaviors can influence genetic expression in offspring, and consider the implications of these findings for our understanding of evolution.

Sex Differences in Development: Contributions from Inherited Experiential Resources CELIA L. MOORE (University of Massachusetts Boston)

Dr. Celia Moore was introduced to the study of animal behavior as an undergraduate at the University of Texas, where E. J. Capaldi was her primary mentor and major influence. She took his undergraduate Comparative Psychology and graduate Learning Theory courses, so had an early exposure to evolution and behavior steeped in the learning tradition. Capaldi introduced her to rats and research with a summer project, and to evolutionary biology by suggesting she take courses with R. K. Selander. The combination flourished, perhaps because of her experience growing up on a small farm. When Daniel Lehrman visited campus to give a guest lecture, the decision was quickly made to apply to his graduate program. She did her doctoral dissertation on parental behavior in ring doves under Lehrman¹s direction, where she developed a strong fascination with developmental inquiry. She took a position at the University of Massachusetts Boston shortly after graduate school. She has remained in this position, except for a visiting appointment at the University of Illinois, working with Janice Juraska. This collaboration brought her long-standing interest in the role of learning and experience in species-typical development to the cellular level of analysis.

Abstract: Development is a constructive process that requires enduring, multi-leveled connections among the heterogeneous elements that constitute nature and nurture. Developmental systems theorists have the data to show that explanations of species-typical outcomes can be found without invoking endpoints (e.g., genetic plans) that preexist in the initial state. An expanded view of inheritance that includes heterogeneous resources--including learning and other forms of experience--is a key part of such explanations. Sex differences in behavior provide opportunities to examine the processes that lead to divergent endpoints in organisms with few or no genetic differences at conception. (Sex is not always determined genetically.) Over the past three decades, researchers have identified quite a diverse array of contributors to reliably divergent developmental pathways. Some contributors arise from endogenous processes in the developing organism (e.g., nerve-muscle interactions and biased sensory innervation in the pudendal system) and some are generated by the mother as a ubiquitous part of the early environment of her offspring. For example, tactile stimulation from licking and grooming in rats is reliably present and reliably different for the two sexes--and turns out to entail operant involvement. Small differences in the availability of resources may be magnified in development to produce large differences in developmental outcome.

VRB: Verbal Behavior

#532 Special Event

5/26/2009 10:00 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. West 301 CD VRB/TPC; Theory BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: William M. Baum, Ph.D.

Behavior Analysis of Rule-Governed Behavior: Contrasting Views Chair: Matthew P. Normand (University of the Pacific)

WILLIAM M. BAUM (University of California, Davis) HANK SCHLINGER (California State University, Los Angeles) CARMEN LUCIANO SORIANO (University Almería, Spain)

Dr. William M. Baum received his A.B. in psychology from Harvard College in 1961. Originally a biology major, he switched into psychology after taking courses from B. F. Skinner and R. J. Herrnstein in his freshman and sophomore years. He returned to Harvard University for graduate study in 1962, where he was supervised by Herrnstein and received his Ph.D. in 1966. He spent the year 1965-66 at Cambridge University, studying ethology at the Sub-Department of Animal Behavior. From 1966 to 1975, he held appointments as post-doctoral fellow, research associate, and assistant professor at Harvard University. He spent two years at the NIH Laboratory for Brain, Evolution, and Behavior, and then accepted an appointment in psychology at University of New Hampshire in 1977. He retired from there in 1999. He currently has an appointment as Associate Researcher at University of California – Davis and lives in San Francisco. His research concerns choice, molar behavior-environment relations, foraging, and behaviorism. He is the author of a book, Understanding Behaviorism: Behavior, Culture, and Evolution.

Dr. Hank Schlinger earned his B.S. and M.A. in Psychology from Southern Methodist University in his hometown of Dallas, Texas, and, after living in Europe (mostly Germany) for three years, enrolled in the Ph.D. program in behavior analysis at Western Michigan University where he received his Ph.D. (with Jack Michael), and then completed a two- year post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology (with Al Poling). Hank was a tenured, full professor in the Psychology Department at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts, when, finally fed up with long, gray, dark winters, he moved to Los Angeles, in part to pursue his musical interests (see www.hankschlinger.com). He is now Director of the Graduate ABA Program in the Psychology Department at California State University, Los Angeles. In addition to his scholarly work in behavior analysis, Hank has written and spoken on a variety of topics outside behavior analysis, including behavior problems in children, consciousness, intelligence, evolutionary psychology, and theory and methodology in psychology. He is dedicated to promoting and disseminating the science, theory and practice of behavior analysis. He lives with his wife, Julie Riggott, an editor and writer, in the quiet, serene hills of Burbank, California.

Dr. Carmen Luciano is Full Professor of Psychology (1995-present) at the University of Almeria, Spain, following a long period at the University of Granada from 1979 to 1994. She received her doctoral degree from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid in 1984. She got a Post-doc-Fulbright fellowship at Boston University and the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (USA) to do research on the emergence of novel behavior in 1985. She has published over 100 papers and 50 chapters/books. She has graduated 18 students and has been the director of the research group in Experimental and Applied Analysis of Behavior since 1986. Among the most relevant aspects of her publications are those related to emerging new and complex verbal behavior, the research conducted on transformation of functions related to several complex behavior and those focused in the analysis of clinical methods defining the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with several books on this advanced approach to Clinical Psychology, (the ACT case-studies book in 2001, the ACT book with Kelly Wilson in 2002, and the ACT book focused on Pain with Dahl, Wilson and Hayes in 2004.

Abstract: The proper analysis of verbal stimuli commonly called “rules” or “instructions” continues to be a subject of debate among behavior analysts. In this panel, three prominent behavior analysts will each briefly present their analysis of rules and rule-governed behavior. A moderated discussion among the panel members will follow, along with an open question and answer period with the audience.

SQAB: Society for the Quanititative Analysis of Behavior

#12 Special Event

5/23/2009 1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. North 120 D EAB; Experimental Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Timothy A. Shahan, Ph.D. SQAB Tutorial: Conditioned Reinforcement Chair: Marc N. Branch (University of Florida)

TIMOTHY A. SHAHAN (Utah State University)

Dr. Timothy A. Shahan received his Ph.D. in Psychology from West Virginia University in 1998. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Vermont for a year, and then a Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Hampshire until 2003. He is presently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Utah State University. Dr. Shahan’s research focuses on conditioned reinforcement, observing/attending, behavioral momentum, stimulus control, choice, and extensions of quantitative analyses of behavior to animal models of drug taking. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dr. Shahan currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst, and also regularly serves as a grant reviewer for NIH study sections. He was the 2006 recipient of the B. F. Skinner Young Researcher Award from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association.

Abstract: The notion that stimuli associated with primary reinforcers may themselves come to function as reinforcers has served a central role in the analysis of behavior and its applications outside the laboratory. However, a long history of research has raised the possibility that stimuli associated with primary reinforces may have their effects by some other means. This tutorial will provide an overview of the concept of conditioned reinforcement, review the role of conditioned reinforcement in quantitative theories of choice, and discuss remaining questions about how putative conditioned reinforcers have their effects.

#40 Special Event

5/23/2009 2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. North 120 D EAB; Experimental Analysis

SQAB Tutorial: Cue Competition in Pavlovian Conditioning Chair: William L. Palya (Jacksonville State University) BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Steven C. Stout, Ph.D. STEVEN C. STOUT (Jacksonville State University)

Dr. Steven Stout earned a Master’s in experimental psychology at Northeast Louisiana University where he specialized in the study of drug reinforcement and Hull-Spence models of learning. His doctorate is from Texas Christian University, where under the directorship of Mauricio Papini, he investigated the separate contribution of after- reinforcement and after-nonreinforcement factors to the reinforcement omission effect in rats and pigeons. Dr. Stout worked as a postdoctoral fellow under the sponsorship of Ralph Miller. With Dr. Miller, Dr. Stout has investigated determinants of cue interaction versus cue facilitation in Pavlovian preparations and co-authored a mathematical implementation and extension of Miller and colleague's extended comparator hypothesis. He then taught at Valdosta State University. He now teaches at Jacksonville State University where he has become involved in the application of behavioral principles to primary and middle school education.

Abstract: In recent decades researchers in the field of Pavlovian conditioning have focused on how conditioned responding to a target conditioned stimulus (CS) is affected by the presence of nontarget CSs. A common observation is that target and nontarget CSs compete for control over conditioned responding in the sense that their response potentials are inversely correlated. In the three and a half decades since the theoretical model of Rescorla and Wagner inspired a wealth of research into cue competition, investigators have uncovered a number of interesting empirical regularities. Unfortunately, the dissemination of these regularities to a wider community outside associative learning circles has been obscured by the tendency of Pavlovian investigators to discuss their research in a heavily theory-laden language. The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce undergraduates to the field of cue competition who have been otherwise put off by constructs such as positive and negative associations, memorial representations, and comparator processes. In particular, I will consider what happens to conditioned responding when nontarget CSs are presented before, interspersed among, or after the target CS-US pairings, and whether those nontarget CSs are discrete or contextual. Conditions under which cue competition, or its opposite, cue facilitation, are observed will be discussed.

#70 Special Event

5/23/2009 3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. North 120 D EAB; Experimental Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: William M. Baum, Ph.D.

SQAB Tutorial: Dynamics of Choice Chair: Michael C. Davison (University of Auckland)

WILLIAM M. BAUM (University of California, Davis)

Dr. William M. Baum received his A.B. in psychology from Harvard College in 1961. Originally a biology major, he switched into psychology after taking courses from B. F. Skinner and R. J. Herrnstein in his freshman and sophomore years. He returned to Harvard University for graduate study in 1962, where he was supervised by Herrnstein and received his Ph.D. in 1966. He spent the year 1965-66 at Cambridge University, studying ethology at the Sub-Department of Animal Behavior. From 1966 to 1975, he held appointments as post-doctoral fellow, research associate, and assistant professor at Harvard University. He spent two years at the NIH Laboratory for Brain, Evolution, and Behavior, and then accepted an appointment in psychology at University of New Hampshire in 1977. He retired from there in 1999. He currently has an appointment as Associate Researcher at University of California – Davis and lives in San Francisco. His research concerns choice, molar behavior-environment relations, foraging, and behaviorism. He is the author of a book, Understanding Behaviorism: Behavior, Culture, and Evolution.

Abstract: This tutorial examines the centrality of choice to the understanding of behavior. By re-examining the concept of reinforcement and relating it to behavioral allocation, the dynamics of choice may be seen as the process of shifting allocation. Skinner’s assertion that the law of effect is not a theory was correct, even if his theory of reinforcement was incorrect. Research of the last forty years suggests that the events called “reinforcers “ affect behavior in two ways: induction and contingency. Reinforcers induce activities related to them by life history or phylogeny, and reinforcers add value to the situations in which they occur. By linking particular activities with particular results, contingencies both constrain behavior change and add value to those activities. Seen this way, the dynamics of choice may be construed as optimization, a tendency to move toward the highest value possible. These dynamics may be seen sometimes on a short time scale and sometimes on a longer time scale. Some recent research by Davison and Aparicio and myself, as well as some earlier experiments, support these ideas.

#87 Special Event

5/23/2009 4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. North 120 D EAB; Experimental Analysis BACB CE Offered. CE Instructor: Joel Myerson, Ph.D.

SQAB Tutorial: Cognitive Aging: A Behavior Theoretic Approach Chair: Celia Wolk Gershenson (University of Minnesota)

JOEL MYERSON (Washington University)

Joel Myerson’s convoluted career path began at the University of Michigan. An ardent science fiction fan, he switched from art to psychology after deciding the most important thing he could do with his life was contribute to the development of space travel. The way to do that, he reasoned, was by becoming a scientist, and the only science he was interested in was psychology. As a graduate student at Arizona State University, he trained monkeys for NASA, and was well on the way to fulfilling his dream. Unfortunately, the effort to turn A. S. U. into Fort Skinner in the desert failed shortly after he arrived, and most of the behavioral faculty left, ending the NASA contract. Fortunately, Peter Killeen decided to stay, and Joel became his student. After a series of post-docs and teaching positions, he and his wife Sandy Hale ended up at Washington University. Since 1992, Joel has been a Research Professor, collaborating with Sandy on cognitive aging research and doing behavioral economics research with Len Green. As Seneca the Younger wrote, “non est ad astra mollis e terris via “ (especially if you are afraid to fly), but you can still accomplish a lot in St. Louis.

Abstract: As people get older, their behavior on many different kinds of tasks tends to become slower, less accurate, and more variable. I will describe a theoretical framework that focuses purely on the behavior emitted by younger and older adults performing response-time and memory span tasks. Our findings support some distinctions in the cognitive psychology literature but not others, and our approach provides empirical bases for deciding which distinctions need to be made and which do not. For example, data on age-related behavioral slowing support the distinction between verbal and visuospatial processing, with the latter being much more sensitive to the effects of age. Within the verbal and visuospatial domains, however, there is little support for distinguishing between different kinds of information-processing operations, at least from an aging perspective. Similarly, data on age-related declines in working memory are also consistent with greater effects of age on memory for visuospatial information, but within each domain performance on simple span tasks declines as rapidly as performance on complex span tasks. Finally, the increased variability in older adults’ performance turns out to be an indirect consequence of the fact that they are slower, and not a direct effect of aging at all.