Over the past decade researchers in behavior analysis have begun to consider the role of the matching law in describing choice behavior in sports. To date this has been examined in baseball, basketball, and football. These sports are amenable to the study of matching in that they provide dichotomous responses and have high frequencies of both responses and reinforcement. Shot selection in hockey presents a unique situation in which reinforcement occurs at a much lower rate, in that a minimal number of goals are scored per game, and there are more than 2 alternatives at each opportunity to shoot the puck. The purpose of this study was to examine response allocation for multiple alternatives in professional hockey. Results indicate that (a) the matching law can be used to describe shot selection when there are multiple alternatives, (b) using hitting the net as the reinforcer instead of goals produces better matching, and (c) matching was not related to success at the team or individual level, which is inconsistent with previous findings.
This collective editorial was developed by the Behavior and Social Issues senior editorial staff, the Board of Planners for Behaviorists for Social Responsibility, and several other leaders in behavior science due to our deep concern that the need for strategic activism over the next months and possibly years, in the United States and beyond, may be extensive. In particular, issues like Black Lives Matter; responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; acknowledgment of, much less the response to, climate change; election controversies, and fears of "civil unrest" are only some of the social and environmental issues that many divided societies are currently struggling to address. The challenges being faced often include profound differences in relational responding among groups, often integrated with obvious differences in socioeconomic resources and levels of privilege. Unfortunately, extensive, potentially helpful empirical and historical data regarding strategic options for addressing these issues and sustaining activist patterns are not widely known, even within behavior science. Given the lack of
This paper reviews research on community efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We conducted a systematic search of the relevant literature, and supplemented our findings with an analysis of review papers previously published on the topic. The results indicate that there have been no peer-reviewed experimental evaluations of community-wide interventions to reduce greenhouse gases involving electricity, refrigeration, or food. The lack of findings limits the conclusions which can be made about the efficacy of these efforts. As a result, we are not accumulating effective interventions, and some communities may be implementing strategies that are not effective. We advocate for the funding of experimental evaluations of multi-sector community interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such interventions would attempt to engage every sector of the community in identifying and implementing policies and practices to reduce emissions. Comprehensive multi-sector interventions are likely to have synergistic effects, such that the total impact is greater than the sum of the impact of the individual components. We describe the value of interrupted time-series designs as an alternative to randomized trials, because these designs confer particular advantages for the evaluation of strategies in entire communities.
In the contemporary behavior‐analytic literature, athletic performance (e.g.,choice of shot or movement) across multiple team sports has been found to correspond with predictions of the generalized matching equation. However, the research in this area has focused primarily on team sports. In the current study the Generalized Matching Equation (GME) was applied to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) performance by examining strike selection as a function of landing significant strikes among fighters from various weight classes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The results suggest that the GME is a good descriptor of strike selection in MMA, an individual sport that is dynamic and fast paced where responding results in immediate feedback from an opponent.
The term behavioral coaching has been used inconsistently in and outside the field of behavior analysis. In the sports literature, the term has been used to describe various intervention strategies, and in the organizational behavior management literature it has been used to describe an approach to training management personnel and staff. This inconsistency is problematic in terms of the replication of behavioral coaching across studies and aligning with Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968) technological dimension of applied behavior analysis. The current paper will outline and critique the discrepancies in the use of the term and suggest how Martin and Hrycaiko's (1983) characteristics of behavioral coaching in sports may be used to bring us closer to establishing a consistent definition of the term. In addition, we will suggest how these characteristics can also be applicable to the use of the term behavioral coaching in other domains of behavior analysis.
As the primary certification organization in behavior analysis, the BACB has published nine ethics-based documents and codes since its inception in 1998. The ethics standards in these publications have served as the basis of ethics education and disciplinary enforcement in applied behavior analysis for over 2 decades. As it is important for developing professions to document their evolution for later historical analysis, the purpose of this article is to describe the development and evolution of the BACB’s ethics-based documents and codes.
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