Andy Lattal, PhD

Anday Lattal Headshot

Andy Lattal is Centennial Professor of Psychology at West Virginia University, where he has taught and mentored 45 doctoral students since 1972. Andy’s research, covering a host of topics across the discipline’s spectrum, has appeared in more than 180 research articles, chapters, and edited books. A past Editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, he currently serves in editorial capacities for eight professional journals. Andy has been recognized with several teaching and research awards, and for his professional service with the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis’s awards for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis and for the International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Lille in France and in 2019 will be a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science in residence at Osaka Kyoiku University in Osaka, Japan.

Posts by this Author

+
War planes in the air

Rules, Contingencies, and the Battle of Britain

The distinction between contingency governed (or “shaped”) and rule-governed behavior is an old saw for most behavior analysts. Like most dichotomies, this one doesn’t hold up under careful analysis. Behavior that is shaped by its consequences gives rise, at least with humans, to rules that can impact future actions along the lines that originally were shaped.
Published in Blog posts
+
Women gathered at a restaurant

As Useful as a Third Ear

When I was a graduate student in clinical psychology, lo those many years ago, I was assigned Theodore Reik
Published in Blog posts
+
Terminology with looking glass

The Term DRO

Bad or Possibly Redeemable Label?A procedure in which each target response postpones a scheduled reinforcer most often is described in both the basic and applied research and practice literature as a differential-reinforcement-of-other-behavior schedule, or DRO.
Published in Blog posts
+
Woman sleeping with a mask on

Covid-19 Dreamin’

I, like many people of my age, am gravely concerned about getting infected by the coronavirus and coming down with a devastating-to-deadly case of COVID-19.
Published in Blog posts
+
Girl with deer at temple

Praying Deer

For the past six months I have had the pleasure of living in the beautiful city of Nara, Japan, during a sabbatical leave to conduct research at nearby Osaka Kyoiku University with my fine colleague Professor Hiroto Okouchi. Among the many beautiful sights of Nara is a 1300- acre park.
Published in Blog posts
+
Boy with a cupcake and ice cream cone

Are Bigger Reinforcers Better?

 When it comes to reinforcement, it is difficult to say. We can measure how “good” a reinforcer is in different ways.
Published in Blog posts
+
Honk More - Wait More

Honk More—Wait More

The following article appeared recently in the New York Times. It describes how police in Mumbai, India, undertook an experiment to control the excessive blowing of car horns by drivers caught in what must be nightmarish traffic in that largest of Indian cities.
Published in Blog posts
+
Happiness

Happiness

Happiness pervades modern life. It is a major topic of talk-show interviews, best-selling books, psychotherapeutic interactions, everyday gossip (“How can she really be happy with him?”), and personal ruminations. Poets, cartoonists, and novelists have done as good a job as psychologists in understanding it.
Published in Blog posts
+
Natural A-B-A (Reversal) Designs

Natural A-B-A (Reversal) Designs

The A-B-A, or reversal, design is one of the most recognized, single-case experimental designs in both research and practice (although in practice, the return to baseline is followed by a return to the treatment, or B, phase). In non-experimental settings, A-B, or non-reversal designs, occur often.
Published in Blog posts
+
Parents with children misbehaving in the car

Getting to the Cause of Things

“Why did Johnny just throw the mother of all temper tantrums?” is a question many of you have asked and been asked, in some form or another. The response to this question, under scrutiny, may have been different. The perpetrator may have been different. The circumstances may have been different. But the general form of a question about the cause of an event or action is something with which we…
Published in Blog posts
+
Graphic of people connected by a grid on concrete

Engineering Safe Behavior in a COVID-19 Environment

Social distancing to many public health leaders and politicians is the COVID-19
Published in Blog posts
+
Obstacle course with triggers

What Does it Mean to Say Ours is “A Science of Behavior?"

Every behavior analyst (hopefully) has learned that ours is a science of behavior. We do not learn that ours is a science of the individual or a science of the person. Why is that? Are we not, however, concerned with people, you may ask? Are we not concerned with the human condition? Are we not humanists? Of course, we are, but in very special ways. In the words of a famous t-shirt logo, “…
Published in Blog posts