Join us for the 2017 SEABA Conference, October 19-21 in Savannah GA!
Program Chair Kim Frame is arranging a fabulous lineup of invited speakers.
The following speakers are confirmed:
Kelly Banna, Millersville University
Ronnie Detrich, The Wing Institute
Education is a Public Health Problem: How Behavior Analysis Can Help
In their seminal paper Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) described the distinguishing feature of applied behavior analysis as producing socially important outcomes in socially important settings. It can be argued that there are few contexts and outcomes that are more socially important than those associated with education. Level of education predicts a wide variety of socially important outcomes including health, SES status, and incarceration. Given the scope of the impact of education, it may be fruitful to conceptualize it as a public health problem. Historically, behavior analysis has primarily been involved in special education with relatively little contact with general education. This talk will describe the public health model of prevention, review the current status of behavior analysis in education, and suggest ways in which we can have greater impact. Education is a specific culture with its own values (reinforcers) and norms (range of acceptable behavior). If we are to increase our impact, we must first understand the culture by acting as cultural anthropologists. Once we understand the culture then we can more effectively engage with educators. The implication is that we may have to change some of our behavior including our language and re-conceptualize our dissemination efforts.
Nicole Dorey, University of Florida
Wild about preference assessments: Using preference assessment across different taxonomic groups
It is widely acknowledged that environmental enrichment (EE) plays an important role in promoting the welfare of captive animals. The most common approach to evaluating EE strategies for captive animals is direct observation of behavioral measures over time. Although this method can be valuable it can also be time consuming and may not always be practical; as a result caregivers may rely only on non-systematic or subjective methods, without quantitative analysis to assess enrichment efficacy (Watters, et al. 2009). Therefore, caretakers may benefit from an alternative method of enrichment evaluation that is both efficient and reliable, when observational evaluations are not possible. Using paired-preference assessments, an alternative method for evaluating enrichment, allows the animals to choose directly which enrichment strategy they prefer. This method allows the caregivers to collect data on these preferences, but it could improve the welfare of the animal if an animal is found to strongly prefer an EE item (eg. Mason et al., 2007) and all help with the goal of most facilities to increase the animal’s behavioral choices and decisions within their own environment. In this presentation I will discuss some of the research my colleagues and I have collected assessing the utility of preference assessments for identifying potential enrichment items across multiple taxonomic groups.
Don Hantula, Temple University
David Jarmolowicz, University of Kansas
Andy Lattal, West Virginia University
A Case History in Behavior-Analytic Humor
Out of that hotbed of behavior analysis in the 1950s, Columbia University, came what is perhaps the most famous cartoon in our history. In it, two rats in a chamber are looking at one another and the one pressing the lever says, “Boy, do we have this guy conditioned, every time I press the bar down he drops a pellet in.” Anyone who has ever conducted an experiment, worked with a client, or taught someone can relate to the cartoonists’ message of reciprocal control between subject and experimenter, client and therapist, and teacher and student. The topic of this presentation is the story behind that cartoon. It begins at Columbia in the time period noted above and takes several digressions into the history of didactics, apparatus, and conceptual issues in behavior analysis to flesh out the story’s details. A major part of the story is the lead cartoonist, one Henry Mazzeo, who carved out a small piece of behavior-analytic history for himself with his witty, insightful commentary based on one his undergraduate courses.
Jay Moore, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
John B. Watson’s Classical S-R Behaviorism
John Broadus Watson was born in rural South Carolina in 1878 and died in New York City in 1958. In between, he held academic positions at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University, where he excelled as a researcher and scholar, and executive positions at J. Walter Thompson and William Esty advertising companies, where he excelled as a businessperson. He was married twice, with two children from each marriage. This presentation will examine such notable features of Watson’s career as the background to his 1913 “Behaviorist Manifesto,” the background to his research with Little Albert, and the relation between his classical S-R behaviorism and B.F. Skinner’s behavior analysis.
Carol Pilgrim, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Carole Van Camp, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Measuring Physical Activity in Children
Physical activity is linked to better health outcomes for all individuals; as such, the Center for Disease Control have recommended that children engage in 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day. In this presentation I will describe research focusing on a) identifying objective, reliable, and practical measures of physical activity including (direct observation, pedometers, accelerometers, and heart rate monitors), b) determining individualized criteria MVPA, and c) evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to increase physical activity.
Thank you 2017 Conference Sponsors!
