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Applied Behaviour Analysis

� Is a science devoted to the understanding

and improvement of human behaviour.

� But other fields have similar intent…

� What sets ABA apart?

� The answer lies in its focus, goals and

methods…

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Science

� Applied behaviour analysis is an applied

science.

� What is the purpose of Science?

� Description

� Prediction

� Control

Basic Characteristics of Science

� Description

� Collection of facts about observed events

that can be quantified, classified, &

examined for possible relations with other

known facts

� Often suggests hypotheses or questions for

additional research

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Basic Characteristics of Science

� Prediction

� Relative probability that when one event

occurs, another event will or will not occur

� Based on repeated observation revealing

relationships between various events

� Demonstrates correlation between events

� No causal relationships can be interpreted

Basic Characteristics of Science

� Control› Highest level of scientific understanding

› Functional relations can be derived

� Specific change in one event (dependent variable)….

� Can reliably be produced by specific manipulations of another event (independent variable)…

� And the change in the dependent variable was unlikely to be the result of other extraneous factors (confounding variables)

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Basic Characteristics of Science

� Control (continued)

� Events can only really be “co-related”

� Nearly impossible to factor out all other

possible “causes”

A Definition of Science

� Science is a systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena – as evidenced by description, prediction and control – that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its prime directive, experimentation as its basic strategy, replicationas its necessary requirement for believability, parsimony as its conservative value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience.

(Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007)

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Determinism

� Assumption upon which science is predicted

� Presumption that the universe is a lawful and

orderly place in which all phenomena occur

as the result of other events

� Events do not just occur at will

� Events are related in systematic ways

Empiricism

� Practice of objective observation of

phenomena of interest

� What all scientific knowledge is built

upon

� “Objective” is the key to gaining a better

understanding of what is being studied

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Experimentation

� Basic strategy in most sciences

� Controlled comparison of some measure

of the phenomenon of interest

(dependent variable) under two or more

different conditions in which only one

factor at a time (independent variable)

differs from one condition to another

Replication

� The repetition of experiments to

determine the reliability and usefulness

of findings

� Includes the repetition of independent

variable conditions within experiments

� Method by which mistakes are

discovered

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Parsimony

� The idea that simple, logical

explanations must be ruled out,

experimentally or conceptually, before

more complex or abstract explanations

are considered

� Help scientists fit findings within the

field’s existing knowledge base

Philosophic Doubt

� The continuous questioning of the

truthfulness and validity of all scientific

theory and knowledge

� Involves the use of scientific evidence

before implementing a new practice,

then constantly monitoring the

effectiveness of the practice after its

implementation

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Behaviour Analysis

� Behaviour analysis is comprised of three major branches� Behaviourism

○ Philosophy of the science of behaviour

� Experimental analysis of behaviour (EAB)

○ Basic research

� Applied behaviour analysis (ABA)

○ Development of a technology for improving behaviour

○ Can only be understood in the context of the philosophy & basic research traditions & findings

Historical Background

� Psychology in the early 1900s was dominated by the study of states of consciousness, images and other mental processes.

� Introspection (observing one’s own thoughts and feelings) was the primary method of investigation.

� There was also a large belief that genetics predetermined all behaviour.

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Watson and Behaviourism

� John B. Watson- First to advocate that focus should shift towards observable behaviour

� He stated that the objective study of behaviour as a natural science should consist of direct observation of the relationships between environmental stimuli (s) and the responses (R) they evoke (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007)

Watson and S-R Psychology

� Watson’s claims that environment is more important genetics do not seem controversial in 2007, but back in 1913, they were controversial!

� Watson made some extreme claims which exaggerated the ability to predict and control human behaviour –these claims are still be levelled at behaviourists today!

� The behaviourism that underlies contemporary behaviour analysis is different from the S-R paradigm.

� Nevertheless, Watson’s contributions were of great significance – he made a strong case for the study of behaviour as a natural science on a par with the physical and biological sciences.

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Watson and S-R Psychology

� “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

Ivan Pavlov

1927 in Russia ….

� Pavlov noticed that his dogs salivated in presence of doors opening – not natural so how did this happen?

� Discovered the first links of behaviour change and pairing through something he called ‘classical conditioning’

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Pavlov continued…

� Classical Conditioning: repeated pairing of an unconditioned stimulus (food) with a neutral stimulus (bell) results in the development of a conditioned stimulus (bell) , which can itself elicit the conditioned response (salivation).

B.F. Skinner

� The experimental branch of behaviourism

started in 1938 with the publication of B.F.

Skinner’s The Behaviour of Organisms.

� It was within this book that Skinner defined

two types of behaviour: respondent and

operant

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Skinner continued…

� Skinner accumulated significant evidence that behaviour

is changed less by the stimuli that precede it (although

context is important) and more by the consequences

that immediately follow it.

� The essential formulation for this notion is S-R-S,

otherwise known as the ‘Three Term Contingency’

� Did not replace S-R model (we still salivate when

hungry and smelling food), however, it did account for

how other behaviours are learned.

Skinner and Experimental Analysis

� Respondent Behaviour� reflexive behaviour that is elicited by stimuli that

immediately precede them, it is involuntary (think of temperature change and goose bumps, shinning light in your eye, knee jerk reflex test)

� Unlearnt and unconditioned – born with this.

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Skinner and Experimental Analysis

� Operant Behaviour� behaviour that is selected, maintained, and

brought under stimulus control as a function of its consequences

� Each person’s repertoire of operant behaviour is a product of his history of interactions with the environment (Cooper, Heron, and Heward 2007)

Operant Behaviour

� Operant behaviour is selected by its consequences

� Behavioural consequence is an environmental change that follows a behaviour and alters the future probability of the behaviour.

� Unlike respondent behaviour, whose form and basic functions are predetermined, operant behaviour can take a virtually unlimited range of forms

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Operant Conditioning

� Refers to the process and selective effects of consequences on behaviour.

� A functional consequence is a stimulus change that follows a given behaviour in a relatively immediate temporal sequence and alters the frequency of the type of behaviour in the future.

� “In operant conditioning we ‘strengthen’ an operant in the sense of making a response more probable/frequent or ‘weaken’ an operant in the sense of making a response less probable/less frequent” (Skinner, 1953).

First Study of Human Operant Conditioning

� Fuller (1949)� 18 year-old boy with severe developmental

disabilities. � Described in the language of the time as a

‘vegetative idiot’, he lay on his back unable to roll over.

� According to attending physicians, he had not learned anything in the 18 years of his life.

� A new behaviour was taught in only 4 sessions of operant conditioning.

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Applied Behaviour Analysis

� During the 1950s and early 1960s researchers used the

methods of the experimental analysis of behaviour to

determine whether the principles of behaviour

demonstrated in the laboratory with nonhuman subjects

could be replicated with humans.

� These early researchers clearly established that the

principles of behaviour are applicable to human

behaviour, and they set the stage for the later

development of Applied Behaviour Analysis.

Applied Behaviour Analysis continued…

� 1960s – researchers began to apply principles of behaviour to improve socially significant behaviours.

� Late 1960s & early 1970s – University programmes in Applied Behaviour Analysis were started.

� 1968 – Journal of Applied Behaviour Analysis.

� 1968 – the dimensions of ABA were described.

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Defining Characteristics of ABA

� Applied

� Behavioural

� Analytical

� Technological

� Conceptually systematic

� Effective

� Generality

(Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968)

Applied

� ‘The applied in applied behaviour analysissignals ABA’s commitment to affecting improvements in behaviours that enhance and improve people’s lives.’ (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007)

� This means that we as practitioners only select socially significant behaviours to change.

� Large emphasis on improving daily life for individual

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Behavioural

� The behaviour chosen for study must be in need of improvement: behaviour analysts conduct studies of behaviour not studies about behaviour

� The behaviours must be measurable

� When changes in behaviour are observed during an investigation, it is necessary to ask whose behaviour has changed.

Analytic

� A putative functional relation is demonstrated between the manipulated events and a reliable change in a measurable dimension of the targeted behaviour.

� Demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and non occurrence of a behaviour. (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007)

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Technological

� ‘The written description of all procedures used in the study is sufficiently compete and detailed to enable others to replicate it’ (Cooper, Heron and Heward, 2007)

Conceptually Systematic

� ‘Behaviour change interventions are derived from basic principles of behaviour’ (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)

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Effective

� ‘Improves behaviour sufficiently to produce practical results for the participant’

(Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)

Generality

� ‘Produces behaviour changes that last over time, appear in other environments, or spread to other behaviours’ (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007)

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Some additional characteristics of ABA

� Accountable

� direct and frequent measurement enables

behaviour analysts to detect their successes and,

equally important, their failures so they can

immediately make changes to interventions in an

effort to change failure to success.

Some additional characteristics of ABA

� Public

� “everything about ABA is visible, public and

explicit….ABA entails no mystical or metaphysical

explanations; there are no hidden treatments,

there is no magic”

(Heward, 2005)

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Some additional characteristics of ABA

� Doable

� Although ‘doing ABA’ requires far more than

learning to administer a few simple procedures,

classroom teachers, parents, coaches, workplace

supervisors, and sometimes the participants

themselves are able to implement the

interventions found effective in many ABA studies

with the guidance and supervision of an

experienced behaviour analyst.

Some additional characteristics of ABA

� Optimistic

� ABA’s peer reviewed literature provides a large

evidence base for the success in, for example,

teaching students who had previously been

deemed ‘unteachable’ prior to intervention.

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Definition of ABA

Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is the

science in which tactics derived from the

principles of behaviour are applied to

improve socially significant behaviour and

experimentation is used to identify the

variables responsible for the improvement of

behaviour.

Cooper, Heron & Heward (2007)