The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

I had the honor of conducting two interviews at the Behavior Analyst Leadership Council's 2020 virtual conference back in April. In Session 126, I'm sharing the first one of those conversations, and it is with a name that should be familiar listeners, and that's Dr. Antonio Harrison (@onecoachdoc). Antonio, as many listeners will remember, was instrumental in pulling together and facilitating Session 120, which was the roundtable discussion with four other African American men and Behavior Analysts in the wake of the George Floyd killing. Today's episode was actually recorded before Session 120, and Antonio and I discussed topics that were important but admittedly lighter by comparison. Specifically, we discussed his introduction to ABA, how growing up in adverse circumstances actually developed some helpful skills, why Bill Belichick is the best football coach in history, (perhaps I'm adding my input here ;-), and how he maintains a high level of productivity. That said, I think the most important lesson is the part of our discussion where he talks about how he's made inroads in applying Behavior Analytic interventions in novel settings, such as coaching football. I think that anyone who is considering making a move to practice outside the area of ASD will benefit from this segment of the interview. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time, and here are some links to some of the papers, podcasts, resources, etc... that were brought up: Antonio's current podcast, "Thank you. I love you. I'm sorry." Antonio's Twitter and Instagram feeds. Normand and Cohn (2013). Don't Wag the Dog: Extending the Reach of Applied Behavior Analysis. Harrison and Pyles (2013). The Effects of Verbal Instruction and Shaping to Improve Tackling by High School Football Players. Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn. This podcast is sponsored by the following: The 2020 New Hampshire Association for Behavior Analysis Virtual Conference! NH ABA is only a handful of years old, but for a smallish state, our conference has punched above its weight. The 2020 event will be no exception. This year's speaker list includes Drs. Solanday Forte, Deb Grossett, Bridget Taylor, Alyssa Wilson, Camille Kolu, and Emily Sandoz. NH ABA also acknowledges that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in financial burdens on many Behavior Analysts, so they've decided to use a values-based registration fee, which means that while there are suggested registration fees, you can participate in the event for a lot less if that's appropriate to your financial situation. For more information, check out nhaba.net, and I hope that you choose to join us virtually on September 26th! My friends at Praxis CET have two great ACT and RFT classes coming up that seem really cool (Understanding and Using Relational Frame Theory for Behavior Analysts with Drs. Siri Ming and Tom Szabo and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Parents with Drs. Lisa Coyne and Evelyn Gould). These are live, online courses, where participants can ask questions, get feedback, etc... on the spot. For more information, go to www.praxiscet.com/bopod. If you check it out and decide to enroll, use the code OBSERVATIONS to save some $$$ at registration. Lastly, I want to mention the BOP membership program; think of it as a DIY Patreon… It's been running for a few years now, and it costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. The best part is that members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments. You just get right to the interview.Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly.

In Session 125, I had the opportunity to speak with Drs. Corina Jimenez-Gomez and Chris Podlesnik. While we spent a good deal of time discussing translational works in Behavior Analysis and covered important topics like resurgence, renewal, relapse, and generalization. We also discussed things like the ABAI Science Blog - which I highly recommend checking out, and what it's like to find a job as a Behavior Analytic power couple! We discussed a several of studies and resources, and I've done my best to list them here: Wathen, S. N., & Podlesnik, C. A. (2018). Laboratory models of treatment relapse and mitigation techniques. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice. Podlesnik, C. A., Kelley, M. E., Jimenez‐Gomez, C. & Bouton, M. E. (2017). Renewed behavior produced by context change and its implications for treatment maintenance: A review. JABA. Briggs, A. M., Fisher, W. W., Greer, B. D. Kimball, R. T. (2018). Prevalence of resurgence of destructive behavior when thinning reinforcement schedules during functional communication training, JABA. Meuthing, C., Call, N., Pavlov, A., Ringdahl, J., Gillespie, S., Clark, S., Lomas Mevers, J. (2020). Prevalence of renewal of problem behavior during context changes, JABA. Stokes, T. F. & Baer, D. M. (1977). An Implicit Technology of Generalization, JABA. Mace, F. C. & Critchfield, T. S. (2010). Translational Research in Behavior Analysis: Historical Traditions and Imperative for the Future, JEAB. Cheney and Pierce, Behavior Analysis and Learning, 5th Edition. I also clipped this graphic that will help with the discussion (taken from the Podlesnik, et al. article listed above). This podcast is sponsored by the following: The 2020 New Hampshire Association for Behavior Analysis Virtual Conference! NH ABA is only a handful of years old, but for a smallish state, our conference has punched above its weight. The 2020 event will be no exception. This year's speaker list includes Drs. Solanday Forte, Deb Grossett, Bridget Taylor, Alyssa Wilson, Camille Kolu, and Emily Sandoz. NH ABA also acknowledges that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in financial burdens on many Behavior Analysts, so they've decided to use a values-based registration fee, which means that while there are suggested registration fees, you can participate in the event for a lot less if that's appropriate to your financial situation. For more information, check out nhaba.net, and I hope that you choose to join us virtually on September 26th! 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. Lastly, I want to mention the BOP membership program; think of it as a DIY Patreon… It's been running for a few years now, and it costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. The best part is that members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments. You just get right to the interview.Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly.

The killing of George Floyd and others by police officers seems to have caused considerable reflection on how policing occurs in the United States. We first covered this topic in Session 73 in my interview with Dr. Amy Smith Wiech, and if you're interested in this topic, I would suggest going back and checking that one out. That episode aside, I think many of us in America are trying to come to grips in terms of how these events continue to happen. It is with this in mind that I'm delighted to be joined by Dr. John O'Neill to talk more about this issue. John is the Founder and Director of Research at the Contextual Behavioral Science Institute, where he and his colleagues have published behavior analytic research on many law enforcement-related topics, such as training practices at police academies and the unintentional discharge of firearms. In this conversation, we get into a lot of the difficult topics surrounding policing in America. Specifically, we discuss things like racism, gun ownership, de-escalation training, and much more. While we certainly didn't solve "all the problems" in our society, I think the interview really highlights just how complex law enforcement is, and that there are unfortunately no easy answers to our current predicament. Our conversation was aided by the contribution of questions from the Behavioral Observations Membership group. The membership is the podcast's DIY Patreon if you will, where for a small monthly fee, members can submit their questions to guests, get early, commercial-free video access to these interviews, and participate in occasional Zoom calls with guests. In fact, John has agree to join us in the next hangout so if this topic piques your interest and you'd like to speak with him directly, consider signing up! One final thing I'd like to say about this episode and some of the recent shows that I've put out over the last few months. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I've been trying to cover subjects like this one, that seem to be more topical in nature. If you have a chance, let me if this is something you'd like to see more of. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the following: The ABA Marketing Minute with Rich Brooks. Digital marketing guru and two-time guest Rich Brooks and I have teamed up to provide listeners with 60-second micro-lessons in digital marketing. You'll hear the first installment later in this broadcast, so I won't spoil it here. If you're interested in marketing your practice on social media or Google, or if you want to give your website a makeover, I highly recommend working with Rich and his awesome team over at Flyte New Media. Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. The new book by Brett DiNovi and Dr. Paulie Gavoni, Behavioral Karma: 5 Scientific Laws of Life and Leadership. It's available for pre-purchase right now. I've gotten a sneak peek at some of the content and look forward to reading the book in its entirety.

In the fourth edition of the Inside JABA Series, I am joined by Drs. Dorothea Lerman, Linda LeBlanc, and Matt Normand to discuss the forthcoming JABA Special Series on Telehealth and Public Health. Linda and Matt are no strangers to this podcast, but this is Dorothy Lerman's first time on the show, so by way of introduction, she is currently a Professor of Behavior Analysis at the University of Houston - Clear Lake, where she directs a master's program in behavior analysis and serves as Director of the UHCL Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Additionally, she has published more than 80 research articles and chapters, served as Editor-in-Chief for The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavior Analysis in Practice and has secured more than $2 million in grants and contracts to support her work. In this episode, we discuss the motivation behind commissioning this special series, what exactly a special series is (and how it is different than a special issue and special section), the previous work in these two overlapping areas that has been published in past editions of JABA, the topics of some of the submitted papers for this special series, research questions for future work, and much more. While I believe the entire episode has value, the second half of the conversation - the part where we talk about what we do and don't yet know about telehealth, probably has the most direct relevance to practitioners right now. That's not to take away the importance of applying Behavior Analytic principles towards things like obesity, proper infant positioning, and the like, but nearly all Behavior Analysts have had to transition to remote work in some shape or form. To that end, I hope you find that portion of the show particularly informative. As always with these Inside JABA Series podcasts, there are no commercials other than to say that if you find this information helpful and want to earn CEU's for listening to the show, then head over to behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus, and follow the prompts from there. I should also note, 50% of the proceeds from all the Inside JABA Series Podcasts go towards supporting the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. If you're in a pinch and need more than a few CEU's there are volume discounts available for all the continuing ed offerings, of which we have over 20 and counting. We mentioned quite a few studies during the conversation, and I tried my best to jot them all down while we were chatting and have the links below. As always, feel free to contact me if I've missed any. The Control of Eating; Ferster, Nurnberger, and Levitt (1962). A Three-Dimensional Program for the Treatment of Obesity; Stuart (1971). The Consecutive Controlled Case Series; Hagopian (2020). Conducting Functional Analyses of Problem Behavior via Telehealth; Wacker, et al. (2017). Less is More: Psychologists Can Learn More by Studying Fewer People; Normand (2016). Telemedicine and ABA, an Interview with Dr. Wendy Machalicek (2017/2020). Telehealth resources from the Council of Autism Service Providers. There were quite a few more papers that were discussed that will be in the forthcoming issue of JABA, so if you're not already subscribed, please consider doing so.

"Does anyone have a social story for [insert challenging situation here]?" Chances are if you're like me, you've seen this question on the various ABA Facebook groups. Very often, the responses to questions like these generate some controversy, or at the very least, arguing over the empirical support for the use of Social Stories and other story-based narrative interventions. One of these types of Facebook threads popped up a month or two ago, and in response to it, I saw a post from Dr. Justin Leaf from the Autism Partnership Foundation. In it, he described his own research in this area, which casts doubt on the utility of these types of interventions. To be up front with my own biases, I've often been skeptical of Social Story based interventions as well, and thought it would be interesting to discuss this further with Justin. We recorded this podcast episode a while back at the height of the quarantine, so you'll likely hear various background noises from both of our households, though I don't think they detract from the overall sound quality. Our conversation will no doubt generate some controversy, so please feel free to add your thoughts or commentary at Facebook.com/behavioralobservations or right in the comments section of the show notes. Here are the links to the resources we discussed: Justin's appearance on ABA Inside Track. The Facebook post that started this conversation off. Leaf, et al. (2019). A Critical Review of Social Narratives. The Autism Partnership Foundation's free RBT course. Google Scholar results for the Teaching Interaction Procedure. Clinical Judgement, the book Justin co-authored with Ronald Leaf and John McEachin. This session of Behavioral Observations is brought to you by: The ABA Marketing Minute with Rich Brooks. Digital marketing guru and two-time guest Rich Brooks and I have teamed up to provide listeners with 60-second micro-lessons in digital marketing. You'll hear the first installment later in this broadcast, so I won't spoil it here, but let's just say the message should parallel a lot of what we should strive for in our clinical practice. If you're interested in marketing your practice on social media or Google, or if you want to give your website a makeover, I highly recommend working with Rich and his awesome team over at Flyte New Media. The Behavioral Observation Podcast's own Continuing Education offerings. As of this writing, there are over 20 podcasts that are available for continuing education. With discounts available for multiple event purchases and the ability to learn while driving, walking the dog, and so on, there's never been a better time to get caught up with your continuing education. And while I'm promoting the stuff on my website, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the membership program. Think of it as a DIY Patreon… Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. For example, this interview has been available to members for two months. Members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of these introductory comments. You just get right to the interview. Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests so where you can interact with them directly. For more information, check out behavioralobservations.com/membership.

Russ Harris and I recorded this episode about three or four weeks ago, when the world's troubles centered around the challenges with Covid-19 related stay-at-home measures. It's amazing how fast things have changed since then! In light of the social upheaval as people in the United States and beyond come to grips with tragic examples of racism and injustice, getting irritated by one's family members pales in comparison in terms of personal suffering. I had briefly thought to shelve this episode in light of this contrast, but the more I thought about it, I believe that the suggestions and thoughts that Russ shared on this episode will be helpful nonetheless. Please check out behavioralobservations.com for this episode's shownotes!

Since the killing of George Floyd, I've had colleagues approach me with suggestions on how to address the issue of police brutality and racism on Behavioral Observations. To be honest, none of the suggestions were entirely satisfying. As a white guy living in one of the whitest states in America - someone who has not had any mistreatment based on his skin color - other than condemn the actions of those police officers, sharing my thoughts on this event (as well as the broader topic of racism and police brutality) would not only ring hollow, but not be appropriate for the moment. In other words, I realized that I lacked personal perspective with this issue, and while I may have some thoughts on the matter, those thoughts are more or less academic in nature. So after wracking my brain for a few days on what I could do to leverage the BOP platform for good, I came upon the idea for this show: For Session 120, I want to take myself out of the podcast altogether, and turn it over to a panel of African American men who are also our colleagues in Behavior Analysis. The goal of the show would be for both me and the BOP audience to simply listen rather than talk. I reached out to Dr. Antonio Harrison to see if he would be interested in facilitating this discussion, and thankfully he agreed. We then recruited Shawn Capell, Pierre Louis, Larry West III, and Kirk Kirby to participate in the panel. From there, I stepped out of the rest of the production process. As of this writing, I haven't even listened to the final product yet because I want to experience this conversation as an audience member would. As such, I'm ready to learn more about the experience of African American men in our country and I hope you are too. If you find value in this episode, please share it with as many friends and colleagues as possible. I'm hoping this episode is also disseminated beyond the field of Behavior Analysis as well. Lastly, if you have the means to do so, please consider donating to the group, Black Applied Behavior Analysts, (in case you're wondering, I have and will continue to put my money where my mouth is). Thanks for listening!

Providing feedback to staff members is essential for delivering quality services, but doing it effectively is easier said than done. That's why I'm excited to share this conversation I had with Dr. Natalie Parks from BehaviorLeader.com. Natalie, along with co-authors Adam Ventura, Erica Crowley, and Dennis Uriarte, just published "Feedback F!@# Ups and How to Avoid Them," and in Session 119, we really dive deep into this topic. Natalie describes some best practices for providing feedback, including how to do so in the current digital-meeting age. We also talk about how to provide feedback to the "difficult" staff member, as well as how to incorporate the feedback process in staff on-boarding procedures. If you find this topic interesting, I suggest heading over to BehaviorLeader.com and click on the Featured Products button, and order a copy for yourself. There's also a 5-Day "Fix Your Feedback" Challenge on their website as well, which sounds like a lot of fun! If you find this episode helpful and would like to get a supervision CEU for it, click here to get more info. You'll also find CEU's on many more topics there, and bulk-purchase discounts are available if you're a procrastinator like me ;-) Lastly, I'd like to mention that I've been running a membership program for the podcast for a few years now; think of it as a DIY Patreon… It costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews, often weeks or months before they are published. The best part is that members get the raw conversation itself. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments, and sometimes, some bloopers, re-takes, and do-overs. Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly. So if you'd like to learn more, head to BehavioralObservations.com/membership.

You may recall that a few months back, I interviewed Dr. David Cox (@davidjcox_). In our discussion, we spent a fair amount of time talking about the literature on the use of psychedelics for the treatment of a variety of behavioral and mental health challenges. I recently got the opportunity to extend this conversation with Dr. Matthew Johnson (@Drug_Researcher). Matt Johnson is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at John Hopkins University, and he's been a leading figure in this area of research for over 15 years. His expertise in this area is so well regarded that he's been sought out by media outlets such as (takes deep breath): The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, Daily Mail, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Vogue, Whole Living, The Washingtonian, Scientific American, Nature, Vice, Insider, Inverse, Healthline, Psychology Today (pause to inhale...) 60 Minutes, CNN's Wolf Blitzer Situation Room, Fox Business News' Kennedy, the Dr. Oz Show, PBS' Retro Report, Labyrint (television show in the Netherlands), Spectrum News NY1, the BBC World Service, NPR's Morning Edition, NPR's Kojo Nnamdi Show, New Zealand Radio, and Newstalk Radio Ireland... just to name a few. Matt has also been featured in a special episode of The Tim Ferriss Show on this very topic. As such, I'm a little more than humbled to chat with him on Behavioral Observations! In our chat, we did a quick overview of Delay Discounting, talked about decision making with condom usage, and the behavioral economics of cannabis. As an aside, we've done quite a few shows on Behavioral Economics. Here's a quick list of them if you want to get really up to speed: Session 17, A Behavioral Economics Primer, Derek Reed. Session 114, The Behavioral Economics of Toilet Paper, Derek Reed. The aforementioned David Cox episode. Session 11: Obesity, Food Insecurity, Behavioral Economics, and Mindful Eating, Erin Rasmussen. Session 2: Science and Pseudoscience, Steve Lawyer. Back to this show, Matt and I spent a large part of our chat discussing his groundbreaking work in the area of psychedelics. We really get into the weeds, as it were, of how these studies are done, and discuss everything from recruiting participants, the timing of these trips, how participants are supported through their experiences, bad trips, transformative experiences, hypothesized mechanisms of action, what these treatments will look like in five years, and much, much more. And before I forget, here are some links to additional readings that we referenced: MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948). Article on Hypothetical Constructs. Rasmussen and Newland (2009). Quantification of the Anti-Punishment Effect in Humans Using the Generalized Matching Equation. Hopkinspsychedelic.org, a clearing house of all the cool research that's being done at JHU. We close with a fun discussion of the concept of impulsivity. In Matt's view, as a psychological construct, the term isn't very useful, and we get into how he came to that conclusion. This episode is brought to you by: 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. Like Batman, she works alone, which means that when you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb and get 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. Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Lastly, I'd like to mention something I don't bring up all that frequently. I have a membership program for the podcast; think of it as a DIY Patreon… It's been running for a few years now, and it costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. The best part is that members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments. You just get right to the interview. Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly.

You may recall that in Session 112 I chatted with Kelle Rich about, among other things, the upcoming Verbal Behavior Conference. In these pre-pandemic times, the event was supposed to be held in Austin, Texas. However, in anticipation of the stay-at-home orders, quarantines, and so forth, Kelle wisely shifted this event to the online space. So VBC 2020 became a virtual conference, and was executed as scheduled on April 2nd and 3rd. I had the pleasure of moderating the speakers' panel, and I thought it would be fun to share it with you here. This was indeed an august group, and featured Drs. Barbara Esch, Anna Petursdottir, Caio Miguel, Pat McGreevy, David Palmer, and Mark Sundberg. VBC 2020 VIRTUAL PANEL During the panel, we made some references to the speakers' earlier presentations. But don't worry, there's enough context in the Q and A, so I don't think you'll have a problem understanding what we're talking about. The one exception to this is that in Dr. Barbara Esch's presentation, she talked extensively about the book, Enjoy Old Age: A Practical Guide, by Skinner and Vaughn, and I asked her some questions about it, so if you hear a reference to "the book," that's what we were talking about. I should also note that due to the video conferencing software, the audio - though listenable - is far from podcast quality. I apologize in advance for that, and encourage you to give the show a listen nonetheless, as there are a lot of fun exchanges, anecdotes, and lessons from all the panelists. Lastly, I'd like to thank Kelle Rich and her team at the Central Texas Autism Center for asking me to be a part of this fun event! This podcast is brought to you with support from The Essential for Living curriculum. If you are looking for a curricular alternative for children and adults with limited repertoires, especially those without an effective, efficient method of speaking, seriously consider Essential for Living. From now until May 31, you can use the coupon code 'efl420' to receive $20 off the regular price of the Essential for Living handbook. Since we're on the subject of marketing, I also want to let you know about the Behavioral Observations Podcast Membership Program. Think of this as a DIY Patreon program where members get access to ad-free videos of podcast interviews, oftentimes weeks (months in some cases) before they're publicly released. We also hold occasional special events in which I will bring previous guests from the show into a Zoom hangout, and members can have some direct Q & A. For more information about this, click here.