Grounding applied animal behavior practices in the experimental analysis of behavior

J Exp Anal Behav. 2022 Sep;118(2):186-207. doi: 10.1002/jeab.789. Epub 2022 Aug 31.

Abstract

Some of the earliest applications outside the laboratory of principles derived from the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), such as the pioneering work of Keller and Marian Breland, involved animals. This translational tradition continues to the present as EAB-related behavior principles are applied with increasing frequency to behavior management and training practices with animals in nonlaboratory settings. Such translations, and those populations to which they are applied, benefit from a rigorous experimental analysis of practices that are promulgated in popular outlets. These translations both affirm the generality of those principles and serve as goads for laboratory and field research that can further articulate extant principles, develop new ones, and refine methods of application and assessment. This review considered several areas of basic EAB research and contemporary applied animal behavior (AAB) practices in relation to one another: (1) response establishment and maintenance, (2) response reduction and elimination, (3) chaining and conditioned reinforcement, and (4) discriminative stimulus control. Within each topic, a selection of processes and procedures in both EAB and AAB work were reviewed in relation to one another.

Keywords: animal learning; animal training; applied animal behavior; applied behavior analysis with animals; experimental analysis of behavior.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal*
  • Reinforcement, Psychology*