Pioneer profiles: An interview with Don Baer.
Baer’s legacy: rigorous experimental designs and explicit generalization strategies remain core to effective ABA practice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wesolowski (2002) is a one-on-one interview with Don Baer. He tells how he shaped ABA’s core rules.
The talk covers his push for tight single-case designs and making skills last in new places.
What they found
Baer says good ABA needs two things: clear graphs and a plan for real-world use.
He warns that pretty data mean little if the child can’t use the skill at home or school.
How this fits with other research
Schaal (1996) shows moms were already running ABA in the 1950s. Baer’s call for parent training is not new—it’s the field’s root.
Dickson et al. (2005) explain Skinner gave the ideas, but Baer built the checklist that turns ideas into applied studies.
Burney et al. (2025) later use open-ended interviews to question pure numbers. Baer’s 2002 words remind us stories still serve the same aim: better practice.
Laposa et al. (2017) track how Baer-level rigor became today’s BCBA exam—his standards now gate the profession.
Why it matters
You still write A-B designs because Baer said ‘show the effect.’ You still probe in the park because he said ‘show it lasts.’ Read this short interview to remember why those habits exist, then teach your RBTs the reason behind the graph paper.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This is an interview with Donald M. Baer. The interview includes discussion of his education at the University of Chicago, his work at the University of Washington and the University of Kansas, events that influenced his career, and his perspectives on various issues. His accomplishments include developing the standards for the practice of applied behavior analysis, creating an empirical research base for language training for people with severe disabilities, initiating procedures that led to generalized imitation, formulating experimental designs for applied behavioral research, and devising procedures for generalization and maintenance of behavior.
The Behavior analyst, 2002 · doi:10.1007/BF03392053