Narrow down the results
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.
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Kudos for One of the Home Team
… Kudos for One of the Home Team Kudos for One of the Home Team ABA Technologies is pleased to share that one of its own, Dr. Darnell Lattal , will be the 2019 recipient of the … Network’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual meeting of the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) , in Chicago, Illinois this May. A long list of notable behavior analysts has preceded her as a recipient of this … economies in classrooms and institutions at a time where there were very few indeed. She participated in Civil Rights in Alabama and violence reduction policies at a national level, invited to the White House for the passage of the Brady Bill, …
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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.
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As Useful as a Third Ear
When I was a graduate student in clinical psychology, lo those many years ago, I was as
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Covid-19 Dreamin’
I, like many people of my age, am gravely concerned about getting infected by the coronavirus and coming down with a devast
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Praying Deer
For the past six months I have had the pleasure of living in the beautiful city of Nara, Japan, during a s
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Are Bigger Reinforcers Better?
When it comes to reinforcement, it is difficult to say.
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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. I personally have always preferred Charles Shultz’s (the creator of the comic strip “Peanuts”) rather structural definition of happiness as “a warm puppy.”
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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.
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Engineering Safe Behavior in a COVID-19 Environment
Social distancing to many public health le
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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?
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Dissing Ability
Ability becomes a trait, a universal, unchangeable something the person (or pigeon) carries from situation to situation.
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Catch-Up Contingencies
Ever heard the expression “closing the barn door after the cows are out?” It basically means coming up with a solution Leaving the barn door open that is too little, too late, to work.
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When Punishment is a Reinforcer
The behavior of punishing. When behavior is reinforced it becomes more likely the next time, and the next, often in an ever-escalating spiral.
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Obsessing Over OCD in these Days of COVID-19
The current hygienic practices of many of us blurring the lines between normal and OCD, I imagine that it also might be disconcerting to someone suffering from OCD to see personal behavior patterns for which there were at least mild societal and social punishers become not only acceptable but also necessary.
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