Defining behavior-environment interactions: translating and developing an experimental and applied behavior-analytic vocabulary in and to the national language.

The authors built the first Finnish-English dictionary of behavior-analytic terms. They started with Skinner’s 1957 book and added words from journals and training manuals.

Next they ran focus groups with Finnish BCBAs, teachers, and parents. The team kept or changed each word until everyone agreed it felt natural and stayed true to the science.

Direct word-for-word translation failed. For example, the Finnish word for "punishment" carries a moral tone, so the team picked a colder legal term.

They ended up with 400 terms, each paired with a one-sentence example from everyday life. The list is now free on the Finnish ABA association website.

Hackenberg (2018) also wrestled with jargon, but inside English. He sorted token-economy studies into plain buckets like "backup reinforcer type." Both papers show that tidy language helps practitioners share work across settings.

Newman et al. (2021) tested whether the type of reinforcer matters. Their data remind us that translated terms must still point to real variables, not just pretty words.

Dallery et al. (2013) pushed ABA online to reach more people. Tavassoli et al. (2012) push ABA across languages for the same reason: wider reach demands clearer talk.

If you train staff or caregivers who speak another language, hand them a bilingual term list before you teach procedures. Check that each word matches local usage and still tracks the variable you plan to measure. Good translations stop drift and keep your data clean across cultures.