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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.

In the latter years of his life, Dr. Jose Martinez, the founder of ABA Technologies. Inc., and the driving force behind the creation of the School of Behavior Analysis at Florida Tech, was heard to utter the title of this blog in every one of his presentations relating to the influence of antecedent conditions on behavior, “Antecedents have last names.”

“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.”

Exploring the discourse in the field of applied behavior analysis

“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 

“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 

“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