The Behaviorist Bookclub

Ep. 42- JABA in One Take- Historical context and additional calls to action regarding SEAB & LeBlanc, 2020

Conversion therapy and ABA unfortunately have a past that is intertwined based on the similarities of research lines and methods used. It is important for behavior analysts to be aware of this past, as well as the ongoing issues and topics swirling around this matter. Past a conversation about the harm of the past, however, is a call to future action. Capriottie & Donaldson, 2022 continue the conversation of a retraction vs. an expression of concern by giving some context to the circumstances revolving around the original Reekers and Lovaas publication as well as the retraction process as a whole. In addition, they also focus on action steps that behavior analysts can step and give a great list of future research recommendations. Some research topics include the application of brief habit reversal to pronoun usage and behavioral skills training for corrective feedback to bigoted comments. Encouraging and providing options for research in this area will reduce the response effort associated with starting a new research line. Hopefully, the maintenance of this conversation will lead to real social change within our field.

Capriotti, M. R. & Donaldson, J. M. (2022). “Why don't behavior analysts do something?”¹ Behavior analysts' historical, present, and potential future actions on sexual and gender minority issues. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 19-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.884

Ep.41- JABA in One Take- Call to actions regarding the link between BA and Conversion Therapy

Conversion therapy and ABA unfortunately have a past that is intertwined based on the similarities of research lines and methods used. It is important for behavior analysts to be aware of this past, as well as the ongoing issues and topics swirling around this matter. Past a conversation about the harm of the past, however, is a call to future action. Through the following two articles, Conine et al., 2022 and Capriotti & Donaldson, 2022, these authors focus on calls to action and future behaviors that we as a community can take to support and affirm those in the LGBTQ+ community. Conine et al., 2022 focuses less on the conversation around the retraction and expression of concern, and more around specific action steps that both individuals and professional organizations can take. Some of these actions are things such as position statements and encouraging further research representation. It is important to note that the purpose of this article was not to be read, but rather to be acted upon! Behavior analysts everywhere have a role to play in the continued growth of support for this community. Whether that be proudly displaying a diversity statement or following through with promises made in the past, the only way for true change is a grassroots cultural shift in the practitioners of this science.

Conine, D. E., Campau, S. C., & Petronelli, A. K. (2022). LGBTQ+ conversion therapy and applied behavior analysis: A call to action. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.876

Ep. 40- ABA in One Take- Reinforcing behavioral variability in manding

Let’s finish this week strong with a discussion of the concept of variability as it directly relates to manding. The concept of variability is one that perhaps needs to be framed with the disclaimer that… A behavior analyst should not contingently reinforce variability unless the acquisition of variability increases the quality of life of the client being served. If a client and an Analyst agree to target variability, one is left confused on where to start. After all, variability seems more like a concept than a behavior. The purpose of this article is to operationalize and give a review over variability literature and provide some operational definitions for this concept. In addition to clarifying the concept, the author makes some strong arguments on why we need to be reinforcing and encouraging variability, especially in the context of functional communication training and the reduction of problematic behavior.

Silbaugh, B.C. (2021). Some Dimensions of Mand Variability and Implications for Research and Practice. Analysis Verbal Behavior, 37(1), 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-021-00144-7

Ep. 39- ABA in One Take- Intraverbal acquisition; The addition of sensory modalities to a learning channel

In our accidental two-part series, we explore a little discussed topic in verbal behavior. The concept of learning channels and the role of stimulus equivalence training. A learning channel is essentially the classification of a prompt or task based on the types of sensory modalities that it encompasses. For example, holding up a laminated card and saying, “What is this?” would be an example of a HearSeeSay learning channel. However, there may be evidence to support that the addition of different sensory modalities within a learning channel can increase the acquisition speed of an intraverbal target. These authors attempt to demonstrate this by comparing acquisition speeds of traditional learning channels and learning channels with additional sensory modalities. In a slightly complicated article, the authors dovetail the discussion into a very practical takeaway and makes suggestions for the teaching of intraverbals for kids or adults who have Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Thakore, A., Stockwell, A., & Eshleman, J. (2021). Learning channels: The role of compound stimuli in the emergence of intraverbal relations in children on the autism spectrum. Analysis Verbal Behavior, 37(1), 97–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-020-00142-1

Ep. 38- ABA in One Take- Advanced verbal behavior; Naming and stimulus equivalence

Stimulus equivalence theory is one of those things that behavior analysts either love or hate. In fact, one of my favorite behavior analysts that I have met had the stimulus equivalence paradigm tattooed on their arm. Personally, I love it, because I think it gives us as behavior analysts the answer to the question of generative language development. Is it the whole answer? Probably not, but it is at least a start. In this article, the continue the exploration of stimulus equivalence by comparing the acquisition of match to sample tasks when common and individual naming is taught. Naming is when a stimulus is given a “name” such as naming a pencil “pencil”. The reason this concept is important is because there is some evidence to support that an individual must be able to name a stimulus before acquiring symmetry, transitivity, and reflexivity. This article explores all of these topics, with some great practical steps for the behavior analyst at the end! I hope you enjoy.

Granerud, G., & Arntzen, E. (2021). Naming of stimuli in equivalence class formation in children. Analysis Verbal Behavior, 37(1), 77–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-021-00143-8

Ep. 37- ABA in One Take- Teaching tacting to early intervention kiddos

Breaking from lag schedules, this week ends with an analysis of different tacting procedures and how each can lead into generalization and maintenance for the child. Specifically, these authors looked at the difference between teaching tacting with and without a verbal stimulus paired with the nonverbal antecedent. The phrase “What is this?” is common in tacting but may lead to adverse outcomes such as faulty stimulus control or a lack of generalization. Therefore, these authors sought to compare tacting methods with and without the question, while simultaneously doing extensive testing on naturalistic generalization and maintenance, in order to determine if either method, or DTT as a whole was able to generalize to the natural environment. This podcast will be a great listen for all my early intervention folks out there who are constantly teaching tacting, manding, and intraverbals. I know that I am constantly teaching those skills, and to dive into an article that not only dives into the procedures for those skills but answers the generalization question was quite refreshing!

Ep. 36- ABA in One Take- The beautiful practicality of the lag schedule, P.2

To continue and end our short series on lag schedules, I present you with this article from the Analysis of Verbal Behavior Journal. This article focuses on a clinical application of the lag schedule and how it would look to actually implement this in practice. The target behavior is variability in social responses when asked some form of the question, “What do you like to do?” This article extends the research by focusing on multiple different questions, maintenance data, as well as showing the applied nature of the schedule. I think that this is a good example of clinical research, but not without limitations. We will dive into those limitations in depth, as well as the strengths of the methods. I hope that after listening to both these episodes on lag schedules, you will be able to not only understand the pros and cons of putting one into place, but also the how and why of when to use it clinically.

Ep. 35- ABA in One Take- The beautiful practicality of a lag schedule- Part 1

We are going to start out the week right by diving into a little discussed topic in ABA. That is Lag Schedules. Lag schedules are a way to increase the variability in responses garnered from a learner. A lag schedule 2 for example, would only reinforce the learner if the response given was different than the two prior responses. One of my favorite things about a lag schedule is that it does not extinguish behavior. At all times, a response can be reinforced, as long as it is different from the number of responses noted in the lag schedule. This study on the lag schedules examines both the value of rules and groups in the application of lag schedules. They specifically target category responding, which is a common early intervention skill. Overall, I think this is a great reintroduction into the world of lag schedules if you are like me and haven’t used them since the first semester of grad school!

Ep. 34- ABA in One Take- How knowledge of metaphysics can assist the practitioner

In what is I think the strangest topic we have covered so far; we dive into the topic of metaphysics and its application to behavior analysis. One of the advantages of not having a JABA issue to review is that I get to pick and choose what articles I want to cover. I debated a while about this topic, but finally I just decided to go for it! I am no philosopher, but the topics covered in this analysis were fascinating and really changed my perspective on the debate between mentalism and behaviorism. It also helped clarify some assumptions that I always had but did not know where they came from. Why is that important? Every single day we are in the process of selling our worldview (determinism) to a caregiver, child, staff member, someone who most likely has grown up with an anti-deterministic worldview. By better understanding all the different views out there, we can better modify our language to promote a healthy and honest discussion about the topics that are truly giving pause to those we are trying to elicit buy-in from. Working through this article (and podcast) I hope will give you some of the same clarification that it gave me while having those discussions.

Ep. 33-One Less Lonely Practitioner- Staff Training and Buy-In

Another One Less Lonely Practitioner episode since you all seem to like it so much! In this episode, we talk to Kaitlyn, a BCBA based in New Jersey in an interesting role. Her role involves minimal actual clinical work and is solely focused on the training of direct care staff as they go to implement procedures in behavior change programs. With her background in severe behavior married to this new OBM style position, she definitely has a lot of actionable advice for the everyday Analyst. We discuss the differences between severe behavior and skill acquisition, the struggles of training staff, and different actionable procedures to follow to ensure staff fidelity and buy-in. At the end, we even sprinkle in a little bit of imposter syndrome and discuss what it was like to go from the clinical work to a training role. I had a great time discussing these topics with Kaitlyn, and I hope you will enjoy and learn a little bit as you listen!