ABA this week
11/09/25-11/15/25
Scholarly publications
Includes peer reviewed journals within and adjacent to behavior analysis
(Starred journals available to BCBAs through the BACB portal)
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis * Volume 58, Issue 4 (16 articles, 1 open access)
Most intriguing: Patterns of HIV viral suppression in a clinical trial evaluating a contingency management intervention
Contingency management can increase medication adherence, which can improve treatment of HIV. This is so useful, it should probably appear in a different journal
Behavior Analysis in Practice
11/10 Hollins, N.A., Perez, B.C., Kolb, R.L. et al. Before the Potty Party: Preparing Practitioners for Toilet Training. Behav Analysis Practice (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01105-5
(Open access) Examining overlooked aspects of potty training, such as readiness, prerequisite skills, and parent participation
11/11 Oliveira, J.P., Grey, H.C., Jones, S.H. et al. Effects of Behavioral Skills Training on Board Certified Behavior Analysts Implementation of Trial-Based Functional Analyses. Behav Analysis Practice (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01125-1
BST was used to teach TBFA to BCBAs and IWPG (it work pretty good)
11/12 Vogel, P., Kurumiya, Y., Mahoney, A. et al. Teaching Practitioners in Australia Culturally Responsive and Compassion-Based Functional Assessment Interviewing Skills. Behav Analysis Practice (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01121-5
3 practitioners in Australia were taught assessment skills, which maintained for up to 3 months
Shanahan, C., Pentland, B., McNulty, A. et al. A Systematic Review of Social Validity Trends in Behavior Analytic Research on Major Neurocognitive Disorder. Behav Analysis Practice (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01095-4
Published articles that used behavior analysis to treat dementia had a lower rate of reporting of social validity measures than other types of articles
Behavioral Interventions *
11/12 Workman, Brittney N., and Samantha L. Hardesty. 2025. “ Factors Impacting Data Reliability: Rate and Total Behaviors,” Behavioral Interventions: e70059. https://doi.org/10.1002/bin.70059
Number of behaviors tracked, as well as frequency of behaviors tracked, can impact the accuracy of data collection for new practitioners
Perspectives on Behavior Science
11/14 Cox, D.J. Verbal Frontiers: Combining Words in the Wild, Computational Modeling, and Behavior Analysis to Explore Verbal Communities. Perspect Behav Sci (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-025-00484-y
Describing how data collection and modeling can reveal information about verbal communities that was previously inaccessible
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior
11/12 Bloh, C., Bacon, L., Begel, B. et al. Comparing Human Video Modeling to Animated Video Modeling for Learners with Autism. Analysis Verbal Behav (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40616-025-00224-y
(Open access) Conversational skills were taught with either live action or animated video models; neither was clearly superior, which implies that either could be effectively used
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
11/11 Exploring the Fundamental Processes Underlying Interventions Designed to Promote Athletes’ Performance and Well-being: A Contextual Behavioral Science Perspective
(In press) The field of “sports psychology” is, as the authors put it, “midelevel.” They attempt to elucidate scientific principles from RFT and CBS in order to establish a scientific foundation
Book publications
Textbooks, handbooks, manuals, or mass-market
Upcoming:
Digital Technologies in Behavior Science: Theoretical and Practical Applications, Crone-Todd, Hantula, Layng (Eds.) (Pre-order Feb 2026)
Promoting Language for Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Verbal Behavior Guide for Practitioners, Vladescu & Kissamore (Eds.) (Pre-order)
Navigating Ethics in Behavior Analysis: Dealing with Gray Areas, Carr (Pre-order)
AIM Navigators, Dixon (Pre-order)
Recent:
2025
Podcasts
ABA Inside Track
Episode 326 - Difficulty During Transitions (Fall 2025 Listener Choice)
Blogs
Generally these are produced by professionals
PFA
From Bakery to Behavioral Breakthroughs: A Conversation with Theresa McMillan
An interview with a woman who is such a fan of PFA that she named her business “HRE Bakery”
Licensing & professional organizations
Business world
Autism services, behavioral health, etc.
Bad news for funding?
This year:
Nebraska cut its RBT rate in half
Indiana capped hours and years of service (seemingly in violation of mental health parity)
Idaho is changing how they administer funds, presumably to cut them
And now:
Colorado and North Carolina are cutting rates
And in medicine, which is often ahead of ABA by months or years:
“Downcoding,” wherein payers automatically pay less for a claim based on [???], has become such a concern that some insurers are explicitly claiming to soften their policies
Accidentally behavior analysis
A mainstream news article that relates to behavior analysis
Judge dismisses Macalester alum’s lawsuit over college’s animal testing in psychology labs, Pioneer Press
A Macalester alum donated $100 to the school, then claimed in court that he was deceived over their animal lab practices (the school notes on its website that it has operant chambers in its labs).
“[...] Macalester continued to use “Skinner-inspired animal laboratories” as part of its introductory psychology courses, the judge’s order read.
In the 1920s, psychologist B.F. Skinner invented what would become known as “Skinner boxes,” which often involve starving rats or pigeons to motivate them.”
The article is evenhanded, and the use of the word “motivate” is probably the right one.
Continuing education
UPCOMING:
BehaviorLive is back to posting free events: 11/19, 11/20 (SUP), 11/25
Flashback
Jim McConnell: of flatworms and men
In the 1976 book Psychological Research: The Inside Story, our friend Jim McConnell relates a very Zig Engelmann-like origin story about the effects of advertising. He relates many interesting anecdotes, such as being part of a 1958 government committee on “persuasion,” and a fascinating look into his form of therapy that (thankfully?) never materialized:
Chemical injections of memory soup. That's what I want.