Training behavior technicians to become behavior artists through the teaching interaction procedure

Abstract

In his 1985 lecture, Richard Foxx outlined several traits that distinguished behavior technicians from behavioral artists. He argued that these distinguishing factors made the difference in whether a behavior change proved successful or not. These features have added to the growing body of work around compassionate care in behavior analysis. This study demonstrates that Foxx's skills of behavioral artistry can be taught to a selection of three behavior technicians, demonstrating that technicians are able to learn the topographical behaviors of behavioral artistry through the teaching interaction procedure. A multiple baseline design across three participants was used. Data from this study demonstrates that all three participants showed improvement in their ability to engage in three components identified as part of Foxx's behavioral artistry.