ABA this week
02/15/26-02/21/26
Scholarly publications
Includes peer reviewed journals within and adjacent to behavior analysis
(Starred journals available to BCBAs through the BACB portal)
Behavior Analysis in Practice
2/18 Wolgemuth, J.R., St. Peter, C.C., Giovagnoli, R. et al. Introduction to “Embracing Qualitative Research in Behavior Analysis: Lessons of Qualitative Research in/and Practice”—Part 1, Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives. Behav Analysis Practice (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-026-01156-2
(Open access) An introduction to the “Theory and Methodology” section of the special issue on qualitative research
Journal of Organizational Behavior Management * Volume 46, Issue 1 (5 articles, 0 open access)
Most intriguing: An evaluation of selected and non-selected feedback packages on performance
When participants chose the source, content, and timing of feedback, their performance improved and they preferred their chosen feedback
Perspectives on Behavior Science
2/18 Vaidya, M. Fruits of Consensus: Continued Improvement in the Analysis of Verbal Behavior. Perspect Behav Sci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-025-00489-7
The author discusses 3 recent articles: one on changes in RFT, one on theory of mind, and one on word order
2/19 King, H.C. Quantifying Interaction Effects in Operant Relapse: An Introduction to Isobolographic Analysis. Perspect Behav Sci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-026-00493-5
The author discusses how contingency changes and context changes can influence relapse. He introduces the term “isobolographic,” which (according to Google) comes from pharmacology
2/20 Lewon, M., Domjan, M. Toward a Modern View of Pavlovian Conditioning in Applied Behavior Analysis. Perspect Behav Sci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-026-00494-4
(Open access) The authors argue that Pavlovian conditioning is not separable from operant conditioning. Interestingly, we recently highlighted an interview with Skinner where he speculated that there were very few true Pavlovian responses
Behavior and Social Issues
2/17 de Carvalho, L.C., de Souza Gois, N., Gonçalves, F.L. et al. Comparing Independent and Interdependent Group Contingencies: A Systematic Replication. Behav. Soc. Iss. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42822-025-00242-4
In a replication, the authors compared independent and interdependent group contingencies on the math skills of twenty 4th graders in Brazil. Results included: no change for low performers, improvements in both conditions for average performers, and improvements in the interdependent contingency for high performers
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
2/19 Kranak, M.P., Cantu-Davis, K., Neely, L.C. et al. On Terms: Is There a Problem With “Problem Behavior”? A Bibliometric Prevalence Analysis. J Autism Dev Disord (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-026-07248-w
(Open access) The authors examine the literature for language used to label targets for deceleration. Problem behavior dropped sharply in 2024 and appears to have been largely replaced with challenging behavior, which the authors attribute (at least in part) to increasing stakeholder involvement
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
2/19 Heterogeneity in the Links of Psychological (In)Flexibility Subprocesses and Well-being: Idionomic Insights from an Experience Sampling Study
(In press) (Open access) Something about Stoics and non-Stoics? Anyway, flexibility is correlated with well-being
Book publications
Textbooks, handbooks, manuals, or mass-market
Upcoming:
Personal Narratives on the Behavior Analysis of Human Language and Cognition:
Stories from Around the World, Harte et al. (Eds.) (Jul 2026)
WAVE Prosocial Assessment and Curriculum, Rehfeldt & Dixon (Pre-order)
Digital Technologies in Behavior Science: Theoretical and Practical Applications, Crone-Todd, Hantula, Layng (Eds.) (Pre-order Feb 25, 2026)
AIM Navigators, Dixon (Pre-order)
Promoting Language for Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Verbal Behavior Guide for Practitioners, Vladescu & Kissamore (Eds.)
Navigating Ethics in Behavior Analysis: Dealing with Gray Areas, Carr
Podcasts
ABA Inside Track
Role Playing Games in Behavior Analysis w/ Danielle Yang and Our Therapeutic RPG Demo
All Things Behavior
Comparing Manipulations to Enhance Stimulus Salience during Intraverbal Training with Mary Halbur and Tiffany Kodak
Blogs
Generally these are produced by professionals
ABAI
From Tidy Rooms to Entangled Forests: Bringing Behavior Analysis to Environmental Work
A guest post from someone who designs environmental interventions
Licensing & professional organizations
ASAN
Take action to protect disability rights!
Business world
Autism services, behavioral health, etc.
Inside Caron’s move to formalize gambling disorder treatment
Everything is gambling now. Behavior analysis has a history with gambling. There may be a near-future cohort of newly-minted gambling addicts. Will we be ready to treat a short-term wave of gambling addiction?
Accidentally behavior analysis
A mainstream news article that relates to behavior analysis
What You Have in Common With a Pigeon and Why It’s Causing Problems for You, NYT
In one experiment, a pigeon pecked the light thousands of times an hour. The light distracted the birds so much that they went hungry.
How silly of these birds!
The author is being a bit tongue in cheek: he’s saying that we are like the silly birds. He’s describing schedule-induced behavior. We’ve written before about schedule-induced wheel running (activity anorexia) that can lead to death in rats. The author here attributes the effects of social media on humans as a similar case, and attributes the effect to dopamine. He almost got there.
Continuing education
UPCOMING:
BehaviorLive has free events: 2/24, 2/25, 2/26, 2/28
Flashback
An error from Skinner
Infamously, Skinner wanted to be a writer. The aspiring author in him comes out in Walden II, but also in some of his rhetorical flourishes in his more academic work. In Contingencies of Reinforcement (2013 BF Skinner Foundation edition) p. 64, Skinner mentions a well-known myth of the “vomitorium.” As the story goes: Romans ate excessively, only to vomit in the vomitorium, so that they might continue to eat.
It’s true that Romans had “vomitoriums” – these were wide exits in coliseums that vomited out large numbers of people when events ended. These were not rooms where Romans vomited.
But it’s true: Seneca and Suetonius wrote contemporaneously about political leaders who vomited so that they could eat more food. Indeed, according to Seneca: “they vomit that they may eat, and eat that they may vomit.”
BUT. We suspect that this is not true. Herodotus wrote that the Persian emperor Xerxes, in response to a flood, ordered his men to whip the sea. This is probably not true, but meant as an insult.
Further, we have a behavioral reason to believe that Roman rulers were not generally vomiting in order to eat. Conditioned taste aversion is a behavioral phenomenon wherein becoming ill from a food can cause that food to become aversive, sometimes permanently, from just one event. While it’s not impossible – for example, in bulimia nervosa – it does seem unlikely that this was a common behavior.
Thanks for the list.