JEAB, November '92: What's in it for the JABA reader?
Mine one JEAB article a month for schedule or choice ideas you can test in your next case.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The author read every article in one issue of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
He picked out findings about reinforcement, choice, and motivation.
Then he wrote a short guide showing BCBAs how to turn those lab facts into everyday procedures.
What they found
Basic studies on variable-ratio schedules and concurrent choice gave clear hints for applied work.
For example, thin schedules can keep skills strong while reducing the need for constant rewards.
The essay argued that reading one JEAB article a month could spark better interventions.
How this fits with other research
Winett et al. (1991) said the same thing earlier: we still need human lab work to prove principles work.
Contreras et al. (2022) updated the idea by adding client values and clinical skill to the mix.
Twyman (2025) built a full roadmap—pilot, adapt, scale—to move any ABA finding into real classrooms.
Normand et al. (2022) later showed that using ABA jargon does not scare parents off, so you can share JEAB terms freely.
Why it matters
You do not need a rat lab to use basic science. Pick one JEAB article each month. Link it to a current case. Try the schedule or choice arrangement in your next session. This habit keeps your practice fresh and evidence-based.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A basic researcher usually can supply a story linking his or her experiments to events and con- cerns outside the laboratory, and is sometimes called upon to do so in proposals to funding agencies or in communicating with academic deans and other colleagues whose training is in other fields. It seems that such linkages are not obvious to most observ- ers-perhaps their plausibility is tenuous if tested against the realities of the wooly world outside the laboratory. Also, basic research questions often have developed out of their own logic, and have elab- orated their own priorities and even their own new specialized terms, which may decrease the ease of recognizing their relevance to applied settings. The present essay is an attempt to use a recent issue of JEAB as a prompt for discussing some ways in which a few JEAB articles might be relevant to JABA readers and for trying to sketch some ways in which the research agendas of basic and applied researchers might be brought into closer relation.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1993 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1993.26-269