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There is another question to be answered before considering the question in the title of this commentary: “What is a free operant, anyway?” It is an expression that sometimes appears in talks and articles, but it isn’t as common

“Sometimes the phenomena of interest are not presently observed, and this is especially true with human behavior. Many people are interested in love, feelings, thinking, perceiving, and remembering, and those are things which are not presently observed. So, the problem that faces us is how do we deal with these phenomena that aren’t presently observed?

“Consciousness is nothing more than a word evoked by many different behaviors under different circumstances. We should not allow ourselves to debate “what is consciousness” or “what is the nature of consciousness” because there is no resolution to such a debate.” Hank Schlinger Jr, PhD, BCBA-D

Today we are joined by Dr. Ramona Houmanfar, Dr. Matthew Lewon, Dr. Bethany Contreras, as well as two students. I have been excited to speak to this program for the plethora of opportunities they are offering, not only to their students but, the behavior analytic community at large. Listen today to learn about the faculty, research, practicum opportunities, and the student experience. You will not be disappointed. 

A Florida Tech grad student describes how behavior analysis is more than just working with autism

Behavior analytic principles go beyond the standard clinical and organizational behavior change. In this course, Dr. Lattal compares the traditional and behavioral definitions of wisdom, reviews the goals of behavior analysis, and discusses how to teach wisdom. These topics are then combined to define the wisdom factor and how that affects behavior analytic practice.

Discusses the meaning of the term analysis both generally and within behavior analysis.

Emotions are as much a part of the analysis of behavior as observed behavior. T.V. Joe Layng, PhD

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.

Translational research typically is understood as the line of research that tries to take findings from basic research and then translates its applications in the applied field of behavior analysis. However, translational research can also take socially significant interests from the applied field and instigate research in the basic field. Translational research helped show that findings from non-human animal research could generalize to humans as well as create behavioral technology.

If you are taking this course, you probably are acting in a position where OBM is needed. Though you may think of a consultant, either internal or external, when you hear of OBM, it is an essential skill for those who are in charge of other behavior analysts like BCaBA’s and RBT’s. Learning OBM will aid in achieving results from your employees or team as well as being able to manage yourself better.

In this course, Dr. Eb Blakely and Dr. Hank Schlinger describe function-altering operations and detail how function-altering interpretations can be used to explain the effects of respondent and operant conditioning. Other examples of function-altering operations including observational learning and imprinting are then described. The presentation concludes with a discussion on the implications of taking a function-altering approach to explaining behavior in applied and conceptual contexts.

“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

Public shaming may be seen as justifiable, whether it be through bully shaming, child shaming, or even dog shaming. Social media has risen to be the most prevalent medium in which to shame others. Judges, schools, parents, and others use it as a consequence to punish behavior; however, there may be additional side effects from using shame.

“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