Research

My training was in experimental psychology, with a specialization behavior analysis focusing on fundamental principles of conditioning, learning, and behavioral pharmacology. However, over time my scholarship interests have expanded to also include translational and applied research in the areas of behavior analysis, behavioral pharmacology, and teaching. My research is grounded in behavior analysis (BA); the study of behavior as a natural science that emerged from the psychology of learning (the subdiscipline within psychology concerned with the study of classical and operant conditioning). Today, behavior analysis has two main branches: the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) and applied behavior analysis ( ABA). EAB is the basic science of this field and over many decades has accumulated a substantial and well-respected empirical research literature identifying fundamental principles of behavior. This literature provides the scientific foundation for ABA, which is (a) an applied science that develops methods of changing behavior and (b) a profession that provides services to meet diverse behavioral needs (what some might refer to as behavioral technology). The philosophy of radical behaviorism provides the conceptual and theoretical foundation for both branches of the science and for my work.

As a faculty member, I find it difficult to separate my teaching and scholarship activities and I have been fortunate to be in academic environments where they not only complement one another, but also supplement one another. Early in my career, this work almost exclusively involved basic research in the experimental analysis of behavior (often with clear applied implications) conducted with nonhuman subjects (monkeys, pigeons, and rats), but in recent years my efforts have expanded to include translational research as well as applied research conducted with human participants. The principle intent of the research programs in my Laboratory for the Analysis of Behavior (LAB) has been to provide students an opportunity to use the knowledge, skills, and abilities they acquire in their coursework. While working in my lab students are exposed to full research process, from thinking about a problem and designing studies to collecting and analyzing the data and reporting their findings to others. Through this process, my goal is to help students develop general research and technical laboratory skills that will benefit them once they leave my lab and pursue further study or enter the workforce.

Students working in my Laboratory for the Analysis of Behavior (LAB) have contributed to many different types of projects. Projects conducted with rats have included basic and translational research questions with theoretical importance in the experimental analysis of behavior and behavioral pharmacology (choice, discriminative functions of drugs, and resistance to change) as well as examinations of the behavioral pharmacology of nutraceuticals (Kava Kava, St. John’s Wort, and Valerian) and animal models of psychopathology (ADHD, Depression, and Anxiety). Studies conducted with human participants have included basic laboratory studies of judgment and decision-making and behavioral pharmacology (drug discrimination and reinforcer efficacy), translational projects involving contingency management interventions (for smoking reduction in college students), and applied research exploring pedagogy in higher-education. Most of the students who work in my lab contribute to multiple projects and I encourage them to gain research experiences that span the basic to applied continuum. In this way, the students can begin to think critically about the connections between research with nonhumans and humans in addition to what they’ve learned about other disciplines and subfields within psychology, including biology and neuroscience as well as biological, clinical, cognitive, and health psychology.