CCBT's Dr. Arnold reviews the 7 key features of applied behavioral analysis (ABA)

1. The Seven Principles of Applied
Behavior Analysis
Kevin D. Arnold, Ph.D., ABPP
CCBT
September 2016

2. Defining ABA
• Grew Out of Experimental Behavior Analysis
– Pigeons and Rats
• Application of EBA to Real Life Problems
– Often targeted to individuals with DD
– Utilized frequently in Education
– Famous Names: Baer, Skinner, Pennypacker,
Cooper, Heron, Heward, Kazdin

3. Goal of This Introduction
• Review the Meaning of the 7 Defining
Principles of ABA
• Give an Understanding of Where ABA came
from

4. Basic Assumptions of “Applied”
• Difference is Emphasis on
– Social Relevance rather than Scientifically
Convenient
– Goal of Variable Manipulation to Improve a
Behavior (Rather than Examine the Variables
Effect Alone)

5. Applied
• Shift from Importance to Theory toward Importance to
Society or Social Environment
• Compare
– How many times can I get a rat to press a bar vs.
• How many grams of food can I get a malnutritioned
child to eat
• Relevance is based on the Subject of the Study
– Visual scanning of someone in a lab, vs visual scanning of
someone who is partially sighted in a low-light room
• Applied asks the Question: How Important is what is
being studied to the person we are working with?

6. Behavioral
• Behavioral Approach lines up with Pragmatic Intentions
• Focuses on Behaviors, not Words (Unless Verbal
Behavior is the Relevant Target)
• Measurement of Behaviors in Applied Settings requires
Measuring the Observer’s Behaviors, Usually through
Reliability Measures (agreement, kappa)
• Often Behaviors Might Change because of Conditional
Changes not Immediately the Target of the ABA
(Withholding Social Attention is the “experimenter”
not the child, but the child’s behaviors might change as
a result of the change of the experimenter.

7. Analytic
• Key is Showing the Procedure Controlled the
Behavior
• Two Key Designs to Show Control:
– A-B-A or Reversal/Withdrawal Designs
– Multiple Baseline
• Over Behaviors
• Over Settings
• Over Interventions (Tangible with Attention, Tangible
Alone, Attention Alone)
• Case of “Danny”

8. Analytic
• Determination of Impact
– Some NonParametric Tests
– Visual Inspection of Data
– Replication of Similar Effects over Behaviors or
Days

9. Technological
• Techniques have been defined
– Not Play Therapy, but All the Variables that Make
up Play Therapy
• Can the Techniques Described be Replicated?
• Description of Various Contingencies to
Targeted Reactions
– What will be done with B1, B1’

10. Conceptual
• Use Existing Concepts to Explain Outcomes
– Fading
– Social Rewards
– Prompting
– Thinning
– Sampling

11. Effective
• Effects have Practical Value
• Not Theoretical Importance, rather Social
Relevance
• Ask Before Hand “How Much Does it Need to
Change”

12. Generalizability
• Durability—Behavioral Change After ABA
• Across Settings (Generalizes)
• May Require Reintroduction of ABA
• Replication over Settings
• Use of Respondent Conditioning for Inhibitory
Learning