The Fuzzy Concept of Applied Behavior Analysis Research

Critchfield, Thomas S.; Reed, Derek D.

doi:10.1007/s40614-017-0093-x

Cited by 63 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 160 publications

(172 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, the goals, procedures, and metrics for success in this study were all designed with this in mind. Though this inherently limits the generality of the study, this investigation was an attempt to ameliorate a real clinical need and further advance a behavioral understanding of a critical social problem, a fundamental principle of applied behavior analysis and applied sciences (Critchfield & Reed, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams

McConnell

Sassi

Carr

et al. 2020

J of App Behav Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Patient disruption during dental visits can impede treatment and may result in invasive approaches to care. The current study evaluated the efficacy of graduated exposure with and without extinction to decrease disruption during dental treatment for 4 young men with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Modified functional analyses confirmed that disruption was maintained by escape from dental demands for all four young men. Initial treatment consisted of graduated exposure, whereby exam steps were initially removed and then gradually reintroduced as disruption remained low; throughout this phase, disruption resulted in a break from the exam. During the subsequent treatment phase, graduated exposure procedures continued and extinction for disruption was added. Graduated exposure alone did not result in sufficient treatment effects; however, the addition of extinction resulted in greater reductions in disruption and increases in exam completion for all 4 young men, and treatment effects generalized to a dental clinic setting.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams

McConnell

Sassi

Carr

et al. 2020

J of App Behav Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some would likely deem the findings obtained from the laboratory-based research we have reviewed herein irrelevant because, as Critchfield and Reed (2017) state, the setting is artificial, the participants may be selected at least partially for convenience, and/or the behavior under study bears only partial similarity to that seen in everyday circumstances. Nevertheless, the relevant experiments may illuminate mechanisms that matter in everyday settings and clinical interventions.…”

Section: Construct Validitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Related to Anxiety: Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding and Experimental Psychopathology Research on Fear and Avoidance

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans have an unparalleled ability to engage in arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR). One of the consequences of this ability to spontaneously combine and relate events from the past, present, and future may, in fact, be a propensity to suffer. For instance, maladaptive fear and avoidance of remote or derived threats may actually perpetuate anxiety. In this narrative review, we consider contemporary AARR research on fear and avoidance as it relates to anxiety. We first describe laboratory-based research on the emergent spread of fear-and avoidance-eliciting functions in humans. Next, we consider the validity of AARR research on fear and avoidance and address the therapeutic implications of the work. Finally, we outline challenges and opportunities for a greater synthesis between behavior analysis research on AARR and experimental psychopathology.

show abstract

“…Basic research seemed to slip into the sins of scholasticism, to the point of being labeled the "esoteric analysis of behavior" (Poling 2010, p. 8). Applied behavior analysis, which was supposed to provide the social justification for basic behavioral research, can seem so constricted in its methodological practices as to exclude problems of great social significance from its oeuvre (Cataldo 2017;Critchfield and Reed 2017;Friman 2017;Hyten 2017), focusing more and more on smaller and smaller segments of the population (Axelrod et al 2012;Federov in press). According to Applied Behavior Analysis' (ABA) founding article (Baer et al 1968) the term "applied" refers not to any particular procedure but the degree to which the behavior in question is "socially important."…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Audaciously under the Dome: Behavior Science in Systems and Society

Hantula

2019

Perspect Behav Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Operant research was never about counting key pecks, lever presses, switch closures, or keyboard taps. These easily indexed, convenient, sometimes arbitrary responses were adopted as a means to yield data that could tell us something about matters that were more grand and important than a relay pulse. The title of Skinner's (1938) seminal The Behavior of Organisms was criticized by contemporaries as an immodest overreach (Finan 1940; Hilgard 1939), but a more unassuming title such as "The Lever Pressing of the Rat" might quickly have relegated the book to dusty university library stacks and antiquarian bookstores. Instead, the book remains in print to this day 1 because it was big, bold, and brash, and set the occasion for a science that could and would handle anything the world might throw at it, taking us from rats to human behavior (Skinner 1953) and from lever presses to language or in Skinner's (1957) terms, verbal behavior. Other audacious extrapolations inspired by this work followed. A five-page paper describing the behavior of three pigeons (Herrnstein 1961) led to the matching law (Herrnstein 1970); a six-page report of choices by six pigeons (Ainslie and Herrnstein 1981) gave us the hyperbolic discount function. Both the matching law and hyperbolic discount function now challenge rational choice theory and the foundation of neoclassical economics (Herrnstein 1990) and helped usher in behavioral economics (Furrebøe and Sandaker 2017). The hyperbolic discount function spawned research in a wide range of topics from quotidian behaviors such as choices for consumer items (Fagerstrøm and Hantula 2013; Oliveira-Castro and Marques 2017) or employment (Schoenfelder and Hantula 2003) to serious social problems such as substance abuse (Green and Myerson 2019; Mitchell 2019). Indeed, work on discounting has become so sophisticated that discount functions can predict treatment

show abstract

The Fuzzy Concept of Applied Behavior Analysis Research

Cited by 63 publications

References 160 publications

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams

Functional analysis and generalized treatment of disruptive behavior during dental exams

Related to Anxiety: Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding and Experimental Psychopathology Research on Fear and Avoidance

Audaciously under the Dome: Behavior Science in Systems and Society

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About