A case study in the misrepresentation of applied behavior analysis in autism: The Gernsbacher lectures

This is the published version, reproduced here with permission from the publisher. This article is also available electronically from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686987/.I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their life. (Tolstoy, 1894) This article presents a case study in the misrepresentation of applied behavior analysis for autism based on Morton Ann Gernsbacher's presentation of a lecture titled “The Science of Autism: Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions.” Her misrepresentations involve the characterization of applied behavior analysis, descriptions of practice guidelines, reviews of the treatment literature, presentations of the clinical trials research, and conclusions about those trials (e.g., children's improvements are due to development, not applied behavior analysis). The article also reviews applied behavior analysis' professional endorsements and research support, and addresses issues in professional conduct. It ends by noting the deleterious effects that misrepresenting any research on autism (e.g., biological, developmental, behavioral) have on our understanding and treating it in a transdisciplinary context

Sidney W. Bijou: The Illinois Years, 1965–1975

This is the published version, reproduced here with permission from the publisher. This article is also available electronically from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2591757/.Sidney W. Bijou is among the founders of behavior analysis, but the record of his contributions is incomplete. It has not systematically described his contributions beyond his tenure at the University of Washington (1948–1965). The purpose of this paper is to describe his contributions over the course of the next decade—his years at the University of Illinois (1965–1975). I begin by reviewing his education and training, contributions at Washington, and why he left and moved to Illinois. Then, I describe his Illinois years: his appointments, colleagues, and service; the Child Behavior Laboratory; grant funding and publications; further service, awards, and recognition; and influence on his colleagues, students, classroom teachers and research supervisors, and visiting scholars. Bijou is modest about his contributions at Illinois, but he advanced the field in many ways over the course of the decade, especially the careers of his colleagues and students

Reference Citations in B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior

This is the published version, reproduced here with permission from the publisher. This article is also available electronically from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748462/.Abstract not available for this item

B. F. Skinner's contributions to applied behavior analysis

Our paper reviews and analyzes B. F. Skinner's contributions to applied behavior analysis in order to assess his role as the field's originator and founder. We found, first, that his contributions fall into five categorizes: the style and content of his science, his interpretations of typical and atypical human behavior, the implications he drew from his science for application, his descriptions of possible applications, and his own applications to nonhuman and human behavior. Second, we found that he explicitly or implicitly addressed all seven dimensions of applied behavior analysis. These contributions and the dimensions notwithstanding, he neither incorporated the field's scientific (e.g., analytic) and social dimensions (e.g., applied) into any program of published research such that he was its originator, nor did he systematically integrate, advance, and promote the dimensions so to have been its founder. As the founder of behavior analysis, however, he was the father of applied behavior analysis

A Quantitative Analysis and Natural History of B. F. Skinner’s Coauthoring Practices

This is the published version, reproduced here with permission from the publisher. This article is also available electronically form http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22532732.This paper describes and analyzes B. F. Skinner's coauthoring practices. After identifying his 35 coauthored publications and 27 coauthors, we analyze his coauthored works by their form (e.g., journal articles) and kind (e.g., empirical); identify the journals in which he published and their type (e.g., data-type); describe his overall and local rates of publishing with his coauthors (e.g., noting breaks in the latter); and compare his coauthoring practices with his single-authoring practices (e.g., form, kind, journal type) and with those in the scientometric literature (e.g., majority of coauthored publications are empirical). We address these findings in the context of describing the natural history of Skinner's coauthoring practices. Finally, we describe some limitations in our methods and offer suggestions for future research

Trends in women's participation at the meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis: 1975-2005

We examined women's participation, relative to men's, at the annual meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA) between 1975 and 2005. Among our findings are upward trends in female presenters across formats (e.g., posters), types of authorship (e.g., first authors), and specialty areas (e.g., autism). Where women have attained parity, however, they are still often underrepresented, given their percentage of membership. Women also participate less than men as sole and invited authors and discussants and in the domains of basic research and conceptual analysis, but participate more than men in the applied domain. Data from the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis show parallel but delayed trends toward parity in basic and applied research, whereas data from The Behavior Analyst show only modest gains in the conceptual domain. We discuss the gender disparities in ABA's more prestigious categories of participation (e.g., invited addresses) and across its content domains, as well as in science in general, and the role of social and cultural factors in producing the disparities and how behavior analysts might aid in correcting them

Improving Social Interactions Between Learning Disabled Adolescents and Teachers: A Child Effects Approach

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.This study investigated whether LD adolescents could be taught to change their classroom behavior in ways that would effect how their teachers treated them and whether they could be taught to generalize positive changes in their interactions with teachers. Six LD junior high students were taught three social skills: initiating positive interactions, responding to requests, and recruiting attention for individual help. The students were successful in learning the social skills in the training session; however, they did not exhibit these skills on a consistent basis in their classroom. Teachers perceived the subjects' classroom behavior as more appropriate

Interactions Between Teachers and Learning Disabled and Non-Learning Disabled Adolescents

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.A number of recent studies with learning disabled children have suggested that they may have poor social skills; however, research with LD adolescents in school settings has reported few differences in LD and non-LD student-teacher interactions . In this study, an observational measurement system was used to examine interactions of LD students and their teachers and to compare these interactions with those of their normal peers . The students' perceptions of their classroom interactions were also assessed. No significant differences between LD student-teacher and NLD student-teacher interactions were observed . In addition, LD and NLD students exhibited similar perceptions of their interactions with their teachers

Adding interventions to mass measles vaccinations in India.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the impact on mortality of offering a hypothetical set of technically feasible, high-impact interventions for maternal and child survival during India's 2010-2013 measles supplementary immunization activity. METHODS: We developed Lives Saved Tool models for 12 Indian states participating in the supplementary immunization, based on state- and sex-specific data on mortality from India's Million Deaths Study and on health services coverage from Indian household surveys. Potential add-on interventions were identified through a literature review and expert consultations. We quantified the number of lives saved for a campaign offering measles vaccine alone versus a campaign offering measles vaccine with six add-on interventions (nutritional screening and complementary feeding for children, vitamin A and zinc supplementation for children, multiple micronutrient and calcium supplementation in pregnancy, and free distribution of insecticide-treated bednets). FINDINGS: The measles vaccination campaign saved an estimated 19 016 lives of children younger than 5 years. A hypothetical campaign including measles vaccine with add-on interventions was projected to save around 73 900 lives (range: 70 200-79 300), preventing 73 700 child deaths (range: 70 000-79 000) and 300 maternal deaths (range: 200-400). The most effective interventions in the whole package were insecticide-treated bednets, measles vaccine and preventive zinc supplementation. Girls accounted for 66% of expected lives saved (12 712/19 346) for the measles vaccine campaign, and 62% of lives saved (45 721/74 367) for the hypothetical campaign including add-on interventions. CONCLUSION: In India, a measles vaccination campaign including feasible, high-impact interventions could substantially increase the number of lives saved and mitigate gender-related inequities in child mortality