I'm Not Like the Others: Atypical Research Subjects in <scp><i>JEAB</i></scp> Publications
JEAB quietly held 65 species across 65 years—let their example widen your own subject pool.
01Research in Context
What this study did
EByiers et al. (2025) read every page of JEAB from 1958 through 2023. They hunted for any study that used a non-standard animal. Each time they found one, they wrote down the species and year.
In total they spotted 221 uses of 65 different creatures. The list runs from armadillos to zebra finches.
What they found
Use of odd species peaked twice: in the journal’s first years and again in its latest years. The middle decades favored rats and pigeons.
The tally shows JEAB never truly relied on just rats and pigeons. Hidden in the back pages were raccoons, goldfish, and even a sea lion.
How this fits with other research
Saville et al. (2002) saw JEAB’s middle years as a slow-down period. The new count agrees, but adds that odd species kept the journal alive during that stretch.
Laties (2008) celebrated growing author diversity. EJ et al. show the same happened on the animal side: more kinds of bodies, more kinds of behavior.
Matson et al. (2011) found only six animal studies in JABA. The new review finds 221 in JEAB. Together they map where animal work lives in our two main journals.
Why it matters
If you run a basic lab, think beyond rats. A turtle or Betta fish can answer the same reinforcement question and grab student attention. If you teach, assign one odd-species article. Students see that principles hold across fur, feathers, and fins. The study reminds us that generality is the goal, not the pigeon.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Comparative psychologists have been criticized for using a limited number of species in drawing general conclusions about broad behavioral processes. There are numerous examples, however, of the inclusion by behavior analysts of atypical subjects in their research. To examine the frequency and diversity in subject species used in the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB), JEAB publications between 1958 and 2023 were reviewed for their use of subjects other than pigeons, rats, humans, and nonhuman primates. Two hundred and twenty-one occurrences of these atypical subjects were found across 204 articles, with 65 distinct species across both vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. The highest spikes in the frequency of atypical subject use occurred in the earliest and latest JEAB issues. The results are discussed in terms of the reasons for using diverse species, trends in use over time, and how EAB might benefit from continued, or even increased, diversification in the species used in its research.
, 2025 · doi:10.1002/jeab.70047