Authored By: Angelica Aguirre, PhD, BCBA-D
Minnesota State University, Mankato
The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) made the incredibly difficult decision to move the 2020 Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. to a virtual format due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. This will be my 10th consecutive year attending the annual convention and I was definitely excited to celebrate in a new location. However, the health and safety of all attendees should be and is the main priority of ABAI.
Despite the switch to a virtual format, I am still looking forward to attending the largest behavior analysis conference from the comfort of my home with over 300 sessions, poster presentations, and workshops available. Skinner (1974) defined visual imagining as ‘‘seeing in the absence of the thing seen’’ (p. 91) which can develop through respondent and operant conditioning. I will definitely be engaging in a lot of visual imagining this Memorial Day weekend. I’ll imagine the 10+ reunions with friends and colleagues in the hotel lobby on Friday evening, walking over 10 miles through the hotel and convention center over four days, enjoying late night dinners and bar conversations with old friends and new, attending the Verbal Behavior (VB) SIG business meeting, sneaking in to a few reunions, looking through all the books in the ABAI Bookstore, networking at the Saturday Expo, and going to bed at 3am only to wake up at 7am to attend an early morning session.
For new and returning ABAI convention attendees, looking through program can be a grueling task! As a verbal behavior researcher my convention schedule typically revolves around attending sessions related to Verbal Behavior. If you are like me, look no further! Below you will find direct links to all of the VB-related invited talks, symposia, and posters. If you are interested in attending a business meeting, make sure to stop by the VB SIG meeting on Sunday May 24th from 7-7:50pm EDT.
I hope you all enjoy the FIRST virtual ABAI annual convention. You will definitely find me watching Dr. Alan Kazdin’s Presidential Scholar Address Saturday evening in yoga pants on my couch with a cocktail, but I am hoping those same reinforcing properties will be there as if I were listening at the main exhibit hall in Washington’s D.C. convention center.
B.F. Skinner Lecture Series Paper Session #239
Title: How Children Learn Early Communicative Gestures
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 3-3:50pm EDT
Presenter: Elena Nicoladis (University of Alberta)
B.F. Skinner Lecture Series Paper Session #181
Title: Keys to School Success: Bridging the Outcomes of the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-3 (BTBC-3) to Language Development
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 10-10:50am EDT
Presenter: Ann Boehm (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Title: Recent Advances in Relational Frame Theory: Implications for Education and Clinical Behavior Analysis
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 12-12:50pm EDT
Presenter: Yvonne Barnes-Holmes (Ghent University)
Interest Group: Verbal Behavior SIG
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 7-7:50pm EDT
Title: Three Examples of Autistic Stimulus Control Verbal Behavior
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 10-10:50am EDT
Title: Conditional Discrimination, Derived Relations, and Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Training in Older Adults
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: A Behavioral Approach to Teaching Writing Behaviors
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: Topics in Verbal Behavior: Winners of the VBSIG Research Competition Present Their Findings
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: Assessing and Training Complex Behaviour (Classification and Analogy) Using Relational Frame Theory
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 3-3:50pm EDT
Title: Behavioral and Verbal Behavioral Cusps: Research and Practical Applications
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 3-4:50pm EDT
Title: Research on Imagining and Problem Solving: Investigation into Private Events and Complex Behavior
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 8-8:50am EDT
Title: Teaching the Use of Different Speech-Generating Device Displays to Individuals with Autism During Natural Routines
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 8-9:50am EDT
Title: Stimulus Classes, Transfer of Function, and Verbal Behavior
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 8-9:50am EDT
Title: So What’s the Function? The Application of Behavior Analysis to Ethical Standards and Belief Systems
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 9-9:50am EDT
Title: Investigating Complex Bi-Directional Relations and Joint Attention in Both Monolingual English and English Language Learners
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: Interbehaviorism and Psychological Events as a Field of Interactants: A Possible Future Path for Behavior Science
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: Advances in Increasing Verbal Behavior Children With and Without Developmental Disabilities
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 4-5:50pm EDT
Title: Changing the Unchangeable: Treatment Advances in Relational Frame Theory Can Influence Global Measures of Intellectual and Adaptive Functioning in Children
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 5-6:50pm EDT
Title: Telling Secrets: Behavior-Analytic Investigations of Private Events
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 6-6:50pm EDT
Title: Multiple Exemplar Instruction and its Implications on Rate of Acquisition of Textual, Vocal, and Written Responses and Joint Stimulus Control
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 8-8:50am EDT
Title: Putting the “ACT” in ACTion: Behavior-Analytic Efforts to Improve Applications of Acceptance and Commitment Training
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 9-10:50am EDT
Title: Pushing Language Relations to the Edge: Advanced Investigations of Derived Relational Responding as a Generalized Operant
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 10-10:50am EDT
Title: Expanding the Summit: Advancements in PEAK Relational Training System Applications
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 12-12:50pm EDT
Title: Verbal Behavior: From Private to Public
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 5-5:50pm EDT
Title: Effect of Multi-Step Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention on Three Partner-Directed Communicative Behaviors During Play in Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 5-5:20pm EDT
Title: Relational Autoclitics of Order and the Analysis of Language
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 12-12:20pm EDT
Date/Time: Saturday 5/23 1-3pm EDT
Posters: 103, 105, 107-110
Date/Time: Sunday 5/24 1-3pm EDT
Posters: 89-97
Date/Time: Monday 5/25 1-3pm EDT
Posters: 83-89
Dr. Angelica Aguirre is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She received her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis and Therapy from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She has worked in the field of ABA and autism/learning disabilities for over 12 years. Her research focuses on evaluating basic and complex verbal behavior, private events (i.e., thinking and problem-solving strategies), derived relational responding, and social skills. Her research has been published in a variety of ABA journals and currently sits on the editorial board of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and The Psychological Record. She will start co-editing the Verbal Behavior Matters Blog with Dr. Rocio Rosales beginning this month.