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“Reinforcement is a verbal operant. Our challenge is to identify which verbal operant it is at any given time.” Hank Schlinger Jr, PhD, BCBA-D

Reinforcement and its law was a major contributor to the advances made by behavior analysis. However, there is so much more that should be learned regarding contingencies. A better understanding of environmental factors of behavior has aided analysts in analyzing behavior as well as creating treatments for their clients. Antecedent events are just as important as consequences because they directly relate.

“A lot of people get queasy when thinking about this; we’re considering an individual with an established set of preferences and related utility for reinforcers associated with those preferences, and then we want to start manipulating those preferences. Well, some people think that’s not a good idea—preferences are what preferences are.”

“For a lot of the populations that we work with, it is difficult to extract very clear, very useful information on what sort of things might function as reinforcement for them.” Dr. Iser DeLeon, PhD, BCBA Abstract 

No news is not good news. There is no improvement without feedback. Janis Allen, BA

“Identifying reinforcers is absolutely essential when we are working on acquisition. In order to teach someone a new behavior, we need to be able to reinforce that behavior when it occurs.” Dr. Meagan Gregory, BCBA  Abstract 

Interdisciplinary teams devise and implement educational plans for children with special learning challenges. Sometimes, these involve a behavior analyst. Whether you are a behavior analyst thinking about working in schools, currently working in schools, or working alongside a school’s behavior analyst, you know schools have teams of several people who contribute to each child’s education plan.

“Reinforcement is probably the most important concept to understand if we’re going to understand how to change someone’s behavior.”  Meagan Gregory, PhD, BCBA Abstract 

Why do people make bad choices? The answer can be found within the schedules of reinforcement that are occurring for that person. Bud Mace provides a refreshing review of all the simple and combined schedules of reinforcement. He further explains different features of combined schedules and how those can be understood through analyzing behavioral results.

Perhaps you work in a clinical setting, where you have provided reinforcement to a client for an appropriate behavior consistently in a group setting. Eventually, another client consistently included in the group begins to emit the same behavior in response to the client receiving reinforcement.

We start knowing our work is important when other people tell us. Janis Allen, BA   

“You can develop a highly effective treatment that works beautifully in a well-controlled space, but if that intervention is not practical and is not something that people are willing to do, it simply will not be adopted.”  Iser G. DeLeon, PhD, BCBA-D Abstract 

Behavior analysis? OBM? These are questions you or incoming students of OBM may have. In this course, Dr. Wine gives an overview of behavior analysis, what it is, some of the terminology used, how behavior is measured, and how to increase and decrease certain behaviors. These concepts can be applied to any environment, including organizations, to improve performance. 

All children are capable of learning new and more adaptive ways of behaving. So, we don’t write children off and remain continuously optimistic that children can develop new patterns of behaving that are prosocial and are going to lead to their success in a mainstream environment F. Charles ""Bud"" Mace, PhD, BCBA-D

Skinner’s Verbal Behavior may be a difficult read for some. The content is complex but unpacks all aspects of verbal behavior. One can gain a lot of insight from his book if completely understanding it. In part 1 of this analysis, Mark Sundberg explains how language is typically measured and how Skinner suggests language should be measured, and in what units to measure it.