The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Would you rather earn preferred items or get them for free? More technically stated, would you prefer response-contingent reinforcers over response-independent ones (and to further split hairs, if the preferred items are provided response-independently, are they really reinforcers?)?

It turns out that there has been some basic and applied research in this area, and some studies demonstrated participants' general preference for earning reinforcers as opposed to simply getting them for "free."

My guest for Session 201, Dr. Holly Gover, published a review and meta-analysis on this topic in a recent issue of The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, called, "On the generality of preference for contingent reinforcement."

In this episode, we discuss how she became interested in this topic, what motivated her to review this literature, what she learned from this process, and perhaps of most interest to you, what implications these findings have for practice.

Towards the end of the conversation, we changed gears a bit and discussed Holly's work in the area of feeding challenges. She quickly reviewed what is currently known about the assessment and treatment of these problems, as well as the unique approach to resolving feeding issues that she has outlined.

Holly will be presenting on this topic at the upcoming Stone Soup Conference on October 21st (disclosure: the Lake Ridge Community Support Services, host of the conference, is a BOP sponsor, and they are providing listeners with discounted registration when using the promo code, PODCAST).

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask - no, I mean beg you to to listen to Holly's advice for newly-minted BCBAs. I'm not kidding you that this has to be one of the best pieces of advice offered on this podcast. Please do yourself a favor and check it out and let me know if you agree.

OK, here are some links:

• Holly's Vanderbilt University page.
• Holly's Google Scholar page.
• TRIAD - Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• Session 186: Enhanced Choice Model, Adithyan Rajaraman.
• Luczynski and Hanley (2013). Do Children Prefer Contingencies? An evaluation of the efficacy and preference for contingent versus non-contingent social reinforcement during play.
• Luczynski and Hanley (2010). Examining the Generality of Children's Preference for Contingent Reinforcement via Extension to Different Reinforcers, Responses, and Schedules.
• QCABA - Quebec Association for Behaviour Analysis.
• Koffer and Coulson (1971). Feline indolence: Cats prefer free to response-produced food.
• Osborne (1977). The free food (contrafreeloading) phenomenon: A review and analysis.
• Honig & Staddon: Handbook of Operant Behavior (disclosure: Amazon Associates link).

In addition to the Stone Soup Conference, if you're interested in learning more about addressing feeding challenges, my colleague, Jen Farris, is putting together a 10-week mentoring cohort on this topic called Happy, Relaxed, and Eating. This is for a 10-week cohort consisting of 6, 2-hour LIVE virtual meetings and includes 12 CEs. There is also an option for no CEs at a discounted rate. And she is giving podcast listeners a 10% discount. So use the code BOP at checkout, or just tell Jen you heard about it on the podcast.

If you're looking for continuing education on a wide variety of topics,...

Dr. Chris McGinnis joins me in Session 266 to talk about his work in Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics. If you're not sure what that is, don't worry. We go over that right away and learn that this area of work sits in an important and underserved niche: The niche between the general behavioral advice dispensed by pediatricians, and intensive treatment for serious mental health challenges.

In a way, this conversation expands on something that Pat Friman brought up in our most recent interview: The idea that BCBAs are uniquely suited to provide families with this type of care. In order to provide direction to those who are interested in doing just this, Chris recently published Introduction to Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics: A Guide for Behavior Analysts.

In our conversation, we covered:

· His background in Behavioral Pediatrics, including his work at BoysTown (and meeting Pat Friman for the first time).

· The motivation for writing his book.

· The reification of psychological terms (see Skinner '45).

· The myth of the Chemical Imbalance Hypothesis.

· The range of behavior challenges he sees in his practice.

· Thoughts on caregiver adherence.

· The pros and cons of reimbursement practices, including the concierge model he has currently adopted.

· Chris' study of Trauma-Informed Care.

· Permissive vs. Authoritative, and how those related to adolescent mental health.... In other words, why parenting is like The Marshmallow Test.

· Advice for the newly-minted BCBA.

This podcast is brought to you by the following:

• Please welcome our newest sponsor, The New England Center for Children! I am beyond thrilled to partner with one of the oldest and well-respected ABA institutions to help them find staff to continue their mission of supporting individuals with Autism. Learn more about careers at NECC over at necc.org/jobs.
• ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving, walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests!
• HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. When you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb, thereby accessing highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away.
• The Behavioral Toolbox. thebehavioraltoolbox.com is a new education and training site that my colleagues Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni and I have been working on for over two years. We have two courses available: our first course, Ready, Set, Consult! and our newly released course, When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms.

Dr. Bruce Tinor returns to the podcast for an informative conversation about his work as a principal at The Child and Career Developmental Center of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Long-time listeners will recall that Bruce originally joined me in Session 197.

In this podcast, we talk all things alternative ed. Specifically, Bruce gives a quick review of how students find their way to his school, and in doing so, provides a mini-seminar in FAPE (and if you're not familiar with that acronym, you will be shortly). We talk about working in a multidisciplinary setting, how those related services are provided, improving academic skills as a behavioral intervention, and in general, what it's like to be a BCBA and a school principal.

In many ways, this is a podcast about culture and leadership too. Bruce talks about his interview practices and how he supports teachers and staff throughout the day. We also talk about some of the unique Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral practices, how he makes new students feel welcome, his behavioral approach to social-emotional learning, and lots more.

We close the podcast with what I thought was a really special discussion about Bruce being a role model. I don't want to spoil that part of the podcast here. You'll definitely want to listen to it for yourself, so I hope you check that part of the show out.

• Say 'hi' to Bruce on LinkedIn.
• Whole Group Responding (Interview with Dr. Bill Heward).
• Using Behavioral Contracts (Interview with Drs. Jill Dardig and Bill Heward).
• Back to School with PBIS (Interview with Elissa Johnson).
• How to Get Better Results (Interview with Dr. John Austin).
• Improving Classroom Management (Interview with Dr. Jeannie Donaldson).
• When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms (asynchronous course from thebehavioraltoolbox.com).

This podcast is brought to you by the following:

• How to ABA...The Bx Resource Membership saves you time, lends you support, and helps you keep up with your CEUs. It's a growing library of resources, materials, programs, datasheets, assessments, and how-to videos to help you tackle any ABA program with ease. It also includes live CEUs each month, live mentorship sessions, a full library of CEUs (60+, enough for recertification), and a community of fellow behavior professionals where you can ask questions when you need support. Join us at howtoaba.com/join.
• The New England Center for Children! I am beyond thrilled to partner with one of the oldest and well-respected ABA institutions to help them find staff to continue their mission of supporting individuals with Autism. Learn more about careers at NECC over at necc.org/jobs.
• ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving, walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests!
• The Behavioral Toolbox. thebehavioraltoolbox.com is a new education and training site that my colleagues Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni and I have been working on for over two years. We have two courses available: our first course, Ready, Set, Consult! and our newly released course, When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms.

In the 20th installment of the Inside JABA Series, I'm joined by Drs. Brennan Armshaw, Manish Vaidya, and Sachen Mehta. As always, I'm also joined by JABA Editor in Chief, Dr. John Borerro. In this episode we discuss a fantastic paper that is out in the summer issue of JABA titled, “Surface electromyography-based biofeedback can facilitate recovery from total knee arthroplasty.”

In brief, this study that examined a novel treatment approach for rehabilitating patients following knee replacement surgery. And guess what, they used simple behavioral techniques to radically improve physical therapy outcomes!

Orthopedics is something that's been on my mind lately as I am recovering from a broken metacarpal bone in my hand. It's probably something of interest to others who have either had orthopedic problems themselves, or who have taken care of hose who have.

However, even if you're not interested in orthopedics, I encourage you to really dig into this episode because it's just a great case study of applying our science to a novel problem that affects millions of people .

As always, there are no advertisements in the Inside JABA Series shows, but I will mention that if you would like to get a CEU for listening to this episode an answering series of questions related to its content, you can find out how to do just that by clicking here.

So if you would like to learn from your favorite podcast guests, especially while you're on the go, check out what we have to offer over.

I should also mention that there are discounts available for multiple event purchases. I recently crunched some numbers and found out that CEU customers, on average, save almost $100 when they leverage these discount codes.

Here are the links to resources mentioned in the podcast:

• Armshaw, Vaidya, and Mehta (2024). Surface electromyography-based biofeedback can facilitate recovery from total knee arthroplasty.
• Vaidya and Armshaw (2021). Surface electromyography and gamification: Translational research to advance physical rehabilitation.
• Inside JABA 9: Applied and Translational Research in Healthcare.
• The Institute for Behavior Science and Technology in Rehabilitation.
• Comprehensive Orthopedics and Rehabilitation.
• Brennan's WVU faculty page and LinkedIn.
• Manish's LinkedIn page.

My friends over at ABA Inside Track - Robert Parry-Crews, Diana Parry-Crews, and Jackie Macdonald, got together for our third annual year-in-review collaboration.

And suffice to say, what a year it has been. In this episode, we discuss the events of 2020, both in the world of Behavior Analysis and beyond. We spoke at great length about the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the provision of services, as well as how Behavior Analysis responded to the challenges of racism, policing, and the like. Finally, we round out the episode by honoring the memories of some of the pioneers in our field who passed away in 2020.

So grab a beverage of choice, put your earbuds in, and join us in kicking 2020 to the curb and look forward to a hopefully more reinforcing 2021!

Here is a very likely incomplete list of links to things we discussed:

• Previous Year in Review Shows:
  • 2018 Year in Review.
  • 2019 Year in Review.
• Cox, Plavnick, and Brodhead (2020). A Proposed Process for Risk Mitigation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• LeBlanc, et al. (2020). The Role of Compassion and Ethics in Decision Making Regarding Access to Applied Behavior Analysis Services During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Response to Cox, Plavnick, and Brodhead.
• BOP Covid-19 Facebook Banter Part 1.
• BOP Covid-19 Facebook Banter Part 2 (140 comments!).
• Session 116, Wendy Machalicek on Telemedicine.
• Session 13, Megan Miller on Telemedicine.
• Session 113, The Behavioral Economics of Toilet Paper with Derek Reed.
• Session 114, Keep your kids learning at home with Amy Evans.
• Session 121, Coping in Quarantine with Russ Harris.
• Session 128, Mary Jane Weiss.
• Session 120, Listening to Perspectives that Matter (please check out if you missed this one!!!).
• ABA Inside Track 128, Diversity and Inclusion with Adrienne Bradley and Kat Jackson.
• Session 124, Behavior Analysis and policing with John O'Neill.
• Session 138, More on policing with Tina Long and Officer Joe Schlenz.
• BACB Podcast on global certification changes.
• Operants fall issue with Adithyan Rajaraman re: Online instruction.
• In Memoriam:
  • Jack Michael.
  • Jose Martinez-Diaz.
  • Patricia Krantz.

On a final note, I'd be remiss if I didn't say how grateful I am for everyone who listens to and supports the show. I was raised to not discuss money in public, but the pandemic has cut the revenue of my consultation practice by more than half, and despite that, we managed to get through the worst of it because of the support from the audience. So whether you've purchased CEU's, subscribed to the membership community, patronized my wonde...