This week, we are going to break down and have a conversation about acceptance and commitment therapy/training. Tarbox et al., wrote a great paper explaining a little bit about ACT and how it fits into the behavior analytic lense. However, such a large topic results in a large paper, so we are going to break this article up into two podcasts. This next part goes into some of the common criticisms of ACT and how ACT is baked into the task list!

Tarbox, J., Szabo, T. G., & Aclan, M. Acceptance and Commitment Training Within the Scope of Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis. Behavior Analysis Practice 15, 11–32 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00466-3

This week, we are going to break down and have a conversation about acceptance and commitment therapy/training. Tarbox et al., wrote a great paper explaining a little bit about ACT and how it fits into the behavior analytic lense. However, such a large topic results in a large paper, so we are going to break this article up into two podcasts. The first one goes over how the basics of ACT work and how it fits into the seven dimensions of behavior analysis.

Tarbox, J., Szabo, T. G., & Aclan, M. Acceptance and Commitment Training Within the Scope of Practice of Applied Behavior Analysis. Behavior Analysis Practice 15, 11–32 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00466-3

This fun article covers another application of behavioral skills training. This time, these researchers take to the college campus to try to help Frat and Sorority members pour accurate servings of beer. It seems like they hit quite a few roadblocks, and we are here to talk about them! This is a fun one, and another great application of our science past our little bubble.

Strickland, M. A., & Kohn, C. S. (2022). Behavioral skills training to teach college students to free-pour standard servings of alcohol. Behavioral Interventions, 1– 17. https://doi.org/10.1002/bin.1873

*Correction- I thought that this article was from Behavior Analysis in Practice, but it is from Behavioral Interventions.

During this podcast, we break down an interesting article from Behavior Analysis in Practice. Aciu et al., 2021 looks at the application of behavioral skills training to CPR. What I found fascinating about this article was the focus on a topic that was outside of our behaviorist bubble, so during this chat we focus on what this article did right, and what could be improved on regarding dissemination efforts.

Aciu, J-L. A., Vladescu, J. C., Marano-Frezza, K. E., Reeve, K. F., & Gravina, N. (2021). Teaching hands-only CPR using behavioral skills training. Behavioral Interventions, 36(4), 1– 16. https://doi.org/10.1002/bin.1820

*Correction- I thought that this article was from Behavior Analysis in Practice, but it is from Behavioral Interventions.

Well, we wrapped up another volume of JABA. 19 articles and about 304 pages of research. Tune in for this episode to catch my best of, and to hear my thoughts on the can’t miss articles that came out this winter.

The rise of remote CEU opportunities has been exponential. Most analysts I know get their CEUs from online webinars or podcasts. However, there has been little research in effective telehealth training, especially in more complex topics, such as the set up and application of the functional analysis. These researchers evaluate a completely remote option for training, and then take feedback to adjust their methodology mid paper!

Lloveras, L. A., Tate, S. A., Vollmer, T. R., King, M., Jones, H., & Peters, K. P. (2022). Training behavior analysts to conduct functional analyses using a remote group behavioral skills training package. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 290-304. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.893

I have never been shy about my love of the trial based functional analysis. I think it’s a great tool and a great way to quickly identify a function. This article applies this methodology to behavioral feeding and compares it to the more traditional extended FA. There findings are interesting, so I would check this one out!

Andersen, A. S., Hansen, B. A., & Peterson, K. M. (2022). An evaluation of trial-based functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 264-289. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.888

Bilingual learners present specific challenges for language development. For example, what are the most efficient way to introduce new words so that they become usable across a variety of settings? These authors examine the different ways to introduce new tacting language to the learner to promote generalization across the other verbal operants.

Cortez, M. D., da Silva, L. F., Cengher, M., Mazzoca, R. H. & Miguel, C. F. (2022). Teaching a small foreign language vocabulary to children using tact and listener instruction with a prompt delay. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 249-263. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.885

I am a huge fan of research that I feel like I can use right away to help improve my life. This article is exactly that. It focuses on the speech disfluencies that occur when speaking. That is the ums, the ahs, and any other phrases that serve as fillers. These authors examine the effects of awareness training on these disfluencies, and then uses a component analysis to determine what the most effect aspects of the training are.

Papers like these always excite me, because it really dives into some of the big questions of the field. This study tries to answer the question of, what happens to a behavior function following a medication change? Does the function go away? If a behavior is motivated by escape, did the risperidone get rid of the escape function? Or, just in general, did all behaviors decrease. It is a hard to answer question, with a myriad of consequence depending on the answer. These authors do a solid job of getting us started in this article!