home-image
Mitt seminar
Ukjent bruker
Onsdag 16:00 - Torsdag 13:00
Forseminar (Veslefjellhall 2 og 3)
How to investigate different research questions within behavior analysis
Erik Arntzen OsloMet - storbyuniversitetet
 

Sammendrag:

The seminar is focusing on how different research questions are investigated. Such an examination involves a systematic and comprehensive process. The seminar will discuss the following topics: identification of the research question, reviewing the existing literature, asking the research questions (developing hypotheses), research methods, selecting participants, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of results, conclusions and interpretation, recommendations for further research, dissemination, and ethical considerations.
Onsdag 16:00 - 16:15
Presentasjon #1
Introduction
Erik Arntzen Oslo Metropolitan University
Onsdag 16:15 - 17:15
Presentasjon #2
Teaching the History of Behavior Analysis
Edward K. Morris University of Kansas
 

Sammendrag:

Teaching the history of behavior analysis can be approached in many ways. One is to embed history in courses on the field’s discipline and subdisciplines and practice. Another is to teach courses on the histories of the discipline and subdisciplines and practice. Still another is to teach a stand-alone course that includes these approaches and more (e.g., their integration, relations with other sciences, the influence of history and culture). The purpose of this presentation is to foster teaching a stand-alone course. It has four sections. The first addresses structural considerations: course titles, catalog descriptions, curricula, certification, and accreditation. The second addresses contextual considerations: purposes of teaching history; distinctions between history and historiography; and starting points in selecting textbooks. The third and main section addresses functional considerations: course content organized by topics and their required and recommended readings. The fourth discusses how the course might be revised by eliminating topics, expanding topics and subtopics (e.g., the behaviorisms, philosophy of science) and adding topics and subtopics (e.g., institutional history; diversity, inclusion, and equity). Given the field’s continuing development as a science, system, and practice and the rapid growth in its number and variety of its members, its history is becoming its common core and a means of teaching it. The course elucidates the field’s integrity; incorporates the entirety of its community of students, scientists, scholars, and practitioners; and advances in its coherence as a cultural practice.
Onsdag 17:30 - 18:00
Presentasjon #3
Issues concerning estimating count from interval-based observation
Marie R. Aunemo Oslo Metropolitan University
 

Sammendrag:

The PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) is an evidence-based behavior management program for classrooms that has demonstrated positive effects on students’ classroom behavior and academic achievement. To investigate the effect of the PAX GBG in Norwegian primary schools, we will use direct observation, namely partial interval recording and momentary time sampling, on students' motor and vocal disruptive behaviors, on-task behaviors, and teachers’ corrective or affirmative feedback to the students. This presentation discusses over- and underestimating occurrences of behaviors of long and short duration in interval-based data collection and a possible way to correct for the estimated occurrences.
Onsdag 18:00 - 18:30
Presentasjon #4
Exploring the possibilities of remote caregiver training for children with fragile X syndrome
Katerina Monlux Oslo Metropolitan University
 

Sammendrag:

Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) are at a higher likelihood of displaying aggression, self-injury, and property destruction than children with other developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The most frequent interventions for behavior of this type in this population are pharmacological treatments, whereas behavioral approaches, such as functional communication training (FCT), are rarely implemented. Concurrently, caregiver-mediated interventions delivered via telehealth have become increasingly utilized to expand the reach of behavioral approaches to children with developmental disabilities. This set of studies was designed to evaluate whether caregivers of children with FXS can be successfully coached to implement FCT via telehealth in their own homes and whether this intervention can decrease aggression and self-injury in boys with FXS. These studies provide compelling evidence for the feasibility of telehealth-provided caregiver FCT to decrease aggression and self-injury in boys with FXS using single-subject and group design methods. They will be described from the initial hypothesis to conclusion with an emphasis on ethical considerations.
Torsdag 09:00 - 09:30
Presentasjon #5
Research in behavior analysis – can inductive methods / single case designs as well as hypothetico-deductive methods / group designs be justified?
Steffen Hansen Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
 

Sammendrag:

Behavior analysis studies phenomena that we become familiar with through the senses – this through observations (empirical and experience-based) – SINGLE CASES (i.e., facts derived from data) – and through experiments (empirical) – SINGLE CASE DESIGNS. The scientific foundation is thus positivistic, that is, based on sensory experience (empiricism) and valid knowledge (truth).

Behavior analysis's answers to issues about human behavior – observable events and private events (i.e., thinking, self-talk, problem solving and visual and auditory imaginings – complex human behavior/verbal behavior/stimulus equivalence) have thus scientifically been inductively derived (i.e., the extrapolation and generalization of documented scientific findings).

Behavioral analysis, by definition, thus RARELY examines issues that are based on a hypothetico-deductive approaches – GROUP DESIGN / RCT STUDIES. The hypothetico-deductive approach deals with hypothesis testing, and the hypotheses / research questions that are desired to be falsified / accepted are not always grounded in fundamentally sound scientific findings (e.g., the mental events and constructs studied in cognitive psychology – "cognition" , "intelligence", "memory", and “language acquisition device”).

With this in «mind», can we still justify both (1) an inductive- / single case design approach and (2) a hypothetico-deductive- / typical group design approach to answer research questions in behavior analysis?
Torsdag 09:30 - 10:00
Presentasjon #6
Behavior analysis’ long and bumpy way
Børge Holden Innlandet Hospital
 

Sammendrag:

Behavior analysis is nearly 100 years old, and until a few decades ago, research was dominated by animal experiments. Nevertheless, extrapolations to human affairs, even cultural design, were made, as in Skinners Walden Two (written in 1945) and Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971). Analyses and recommendations were based on speculations and basic behavioral principles mostly tested on animals. Both books were highly controversial, and I will discuss how successful they were, not least for behavioral analysis in general. In the meantime, Skinner published Science and Human Behavior in 1953. The scientific base was equally thin, but the book was down to earth, practical, and far less controversial. I ask whether its potential as a guide to developing treatment for complex behavior, was utilized. Where could behavior analysis have been if the cards had been played differently, and what can that say about our present and future?
Torsdag 10:15 - 10:45
Presentasjon #7
The laboratory—an important part of the real world
Per Holth Oslo Metropolitan University
 

Sammendrag:

This presentation deals with relations between behavioral phenomena described in psychology and everyday speech on the one hand and relevant issues for behavioral analysis on the other. Many small and large problems in the world, from eating problems, phobias, substance abuse problems, lack of skills, persistent depression, and low self-esteem to major social problems such as population growth, famine, air pollution, climate crisis and war, are examples of behavioral problems. An ever-present challenge is to ensure the application of the behavioral science we already have, but there are also still gaps in our basic knowledge. Many behavioral phenomena have been described, but not explained, in traditional psychology. Some examples are joint attention, attribution errors, and confirmation bias. These are described, and examples of relevant behavior-analytic research questions outlined.
Torsdag 10:45 - 11:15
Presentasjon #8
Investigations of research questions in behavior analysis
Monica Vandbakk Oslo Metropolitan University
 

Sammendrag:

Behavioral analysis is concerned with operationalizing what is to be investigated to have a clear basis for observation (observable phenomena). It is also important to carry out measurements to know how things are before and after systematic environmental influences (manipulation of the environment to investigate whether there is lawfulness). Such environmental influences are called tests or experiments. To verify the effect, the behavioral analysis is concerned with experimental control and with certain requirements for reliability and validity. This affects the procedure when investigations are to be carried out, and it can occasionally lead to challenges in balancing methodological rigor to ensure experimental control, with the well-being of the individual. Among the arsenal of research methodologies, reversal designs emerge as a crucial tool in achieving experimental control. A reversal design, often referred to as an A-B-A-B design, involves systematically introducing and withdrawing an intervention to observe its effect on behavior. The scientist wants to demonstrate internal validity and the parents/clinicians want the effect of the treatment to last, not concerned with ruling out confounding variables. This gap in interest between the behavior-analytic researcher and the clinician can influence how investigations of research questions are conducted, and how well the science and the clinician work together and develop new knowledge. The presentation will address these challenges and suggest some solutions.
Torsdag 11:15 - 11:45
Presentasjon #9
Left to play alone
Kjetil Viken Innland Norway University of Applied Sciences
 

Sammendrag:

This contribution offers some thoughts on why profiles from other, related, disciplines seldomly refer to behavioral analysis in their work.

This claim is based on the works of many scholars and publications, exemplified by Robert Sapolsky and Andrew Huberman, and perhaps some others. It is also discussed why the contributions of these scholars, and other significant ones in related fields to behavior analysis, are not a predominant part of what we do in behavior analysis, and furthermore why behavior analysis oftentimes is left out when these scholars are talking about the same matters we are investigating.
Torsdag 12:00 - 13:00
Presentasjon #10
Panel discussion
Edward K. Morris University of Kansas
Marie R. Aunemo Oslo Metropolitan University
Katerina Monlux Oslo Metropolitan University
Steffen Hansen Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
Børge Holden Innlandet Hospital
Per Holth Oslo Metropolitan University
Monica Vandbakk Oslo Metropolitan University
Kjetil Viken Innland Norway University of Applied Sciences