Facebook Leads to Divorce

Russell Clayton
Lead Author and Doctoral Student
University of Missouri
School of Journalism

The University of Missouri recently reported on the results of a new study that suggests a link between Facebook use and divorce.  The study, headed by Russell Clayton, a doctoral student at the MU School of Journalism, surveyed Facebook users from 18-82 years of age and asked them to "describe how often they used Facebook and how much, if any, conflict arose between their current or former partners as a result of Facebook use."  

The survey results suggests that Facebook use is positively correlated with relationship conflict.  Moreover, the study found that excessive Facebook use is a significant predictor of "emotional and physical cheating, breakup and divorce."  

So what specifically is going on here? The researchers note that "the more a person in a romantic relationship uses Facebook, the more likely they are to monitor their partner's Facebook activity more stringently, which can lead to feelings of jealousy."  This jealousy, they suggest, is a major factor in inducing later conflict.  

Lastly, for new relationships (i.e., three years or less), this effect was particularly apparent.  The authors suggest that these couples are still discovering things about their partner, or, in their own words, the relationships "are not fully matured."

From a behavior analytic perspective, we might say that healthy relationships are established when both people have acquired a robust shared or interpersonal history of behaving with respect to one another.  It is through sufficiently shared histories that two individuals can come to predict the behavior of one another, or "know what the other person is thinking" without having to say anything.  

Most people who have been in a long-term relationship or marriage could attest to such a phenomena.  In fact, a recent unpublished Master's Thesis from the University of Nevada, Reno's Behavior Analysis Program touches on this very phenomenon in an experimental laboratory setting. 

However, it may not be enough to simply predict the behavior of your partner, since this says nothing about the quality of behavior predicted.  Moreover, additional factors seem to be at play in the Facebook case, such as the histories of each partner before the relationship began.  

Nevertheless, the virtual nature of the stimuli which occasion so much of our behavior in the 21st century are more dynamic than ever before in human history.  Behavior analysts have much they could contribute towards understanding how this new virtual environment impacts our behavior and our relationships with others.

Drones and Behavior Analysis: From Pizza Delivery to Autonomy

A "DomiCopter" Drone

Fox News, among several other news outlets, recently reported on ongoing research by Domino's pizza to deliver your food to your doorstep via drone technology -- specifically an "octocopter" like the one pictured to the right.  The article states the following:

Heavily branded as the DomiCopter, the current prototype can deliver two large pizzas in about ten minutes within a four mile radius of the store. While future versions could hypothetically use GPS coordinates to deliver the pie, the existing model is piloted from the ground by someone experienced in drone flight.

T + Biscuits, the creative agency with which Domino's is working on this project, has noted the ease with which food can be delivered via drone given the absence of roads and traffic lights.  However, much more testing is in the works and no plans have been announced to role out pizza drones to neighborhoods any time soon.

So what does this have to do with behavior analysis? Well...the spring 2012 issue of The Behavior Analyst featured Rachlin's article titled "Making IBM's computer, Watson, human." Watson, of course, was the name of the computer who beat two former Jeopardy! champions in 2011, and has since been touted for its ability to learn and form hypotheses like a human.  Rachlin outlines a list of features that Watson would need to truly be "human," which is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Rachlin's article was followed by responses from other prominent behavior analysts, one of which came from Bill Hutchison, titled "The central role for behavior analysis in modern robotics, and vice versa." Hutchison expands on Rachlin's prediction of an inevitable "Watson II" that is even more humanlike by noting the following: 

...behavior analysts have a vital interest in extending their analysis further, because it suggests that the inexorable evolutionary process that plays out both in the real world and in accelerated virtual reality is destined to produce robots that will displace humans at the top of the pyramid, just as all previous species have been displaced.

It sure seems like "DomiCopters" are meant to do exactly what Hutchison predicts -- to displace humans.  However, delivering pizzas is hardly the "top of the pyramid" and human-controlled drones are hardly robots. 

The Taranis Drone

Enter the Taranis drone, which is Britain's revolutionary new drone  that is supersonic, stealth, and uses it's own computers "to perform manoeuvres, avoid threats, and identify targets."  Though the drone will need human authorization to attack a target, Noel Sharkey, a specialist in autonomous systems at Sheffield University was quoted as saying "This is a very dangerous move.  Once it has been developed, who knows what new governments who inherit the technology will do with it."

Hutchison noted the following in The Behavior Analyst: 

Rachlin has demonstrated how the existence of intelligent robots might stimulate thoughtful humans to adopt more effective understanding of our own nature. Behavior analysts also have much to gain from participating in the development of computer and robotic models of operant behavior: We can express and test our formulations more effectively, we can prove the sufficiency of our formulations to others, and we can play important roles in the development of valuable applied technology. The technology seems destined to threaten human well-being in the future, but that prospect should encourage more rather than less participation by behavior analysts.

What your participation in this endeavor will look like, only you can decide.  However, I will leave you with some guiding thoughts -- If Jane Goodall's finding that humans are not the only tool users put into question the very meaning of "human," might the evolution of autonomous computer systems put into question the very meaning of "behavior"?  For that matter, might such systems put into question the meaning of "organism"?  

What's new with the Dissemination of Behavior Analysis group.

The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) has, for decades, served as the flagship organization for the promotion of behavior analysis in all of its forms, including basic research, theory and philosophy, and applied work.  Founded in 1974, ABAI has grown to an organization of 6,300 members worldwide, while affiliated chapters (e.g., state chapters) have a total membership of approximately 14,000.

As ABAI has grown, so has its Special Interest Groups or "SIGs."  Today ABAI has 35 SIGs that represent specializations as diverse as autism, business, sustainability, and robotics.  Today, we will focus on one such SIG -- the Dissemination for Behavior Analysis SIG (DBA).

Originally created in 2007 by Josh Pritchard, PhD, BCBA-D, along with Melissa Nosik, Megan Miller, Corey Robertson, and Amanda Kelly, the group has been headed by Amanda Kelly, PhD, BCBA-D since 2012.  The mission of DBA is "to disseminate the science of human behavior to the public at large through the use of easy to understand explanations of what exactly this science is, and help society realize the potential of this science as well as dispel myths that detract from its positive image."  I recently had a chance to chat with members of the group to provide an update on what the group has been up to since their most recent meeting at the 2013 ABAI conference in Minneapolis last week.  

Among the many things happening with the group, Ben Witts, the vice chair of DBA, is currently putting together a TED-ED animated series illustrating how respondent conditioning applies to dating.  For those of you unfamiliar with TED-ED, the site is "an extension of TEDs mission of spreading great ideas."  TED-ED serves as a forum to bring together talented individuals with professional animators to create engaging educational videos easily disseminable to the public online.  DBA also has plans in the works for several other TED-ED topics, all related to socially significant behavior that we would all do well to increase in our own lives.

DBA has also received nominations for their B. F. Skinner Journalism Award, which "was created in 2009 with the goal of encouraging journalists and authors to write books and articles on the natural science approach to behavior which are targeted at the general population."  The past award was given to David H. Freedman for his article "How to Fix the Obesity Crisis" published in the Scientific American.  According to the DBA website, the article "looks at how a behavior-based approach to the growing problem of obesity may help in curbing its undesirable effects."  DBA will soon announce the winner of this year's award and will also post a video interview with the winner on the DBA website.

DBA also conducted a survey regarding misconceptions of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the results of which were reviewed during the meeting.  They noted that many find ABA synonymous with autism services and discrete trial training.  In addition, many believe that ABA is used only to reduce problematic behaviors and has little use for skill acquisition or adaptive behavior more broadly.  Finally, the survey found that many believe ABA is outdated.  Clearly DBA has their work cut out for them in dispelling these myths.  A cursory glance at this very blog along with the 35 SIGs of ABAI would be a great start in de-validating such misconceptions.

To get involved in the DBA-SIG and do your part in dispelling myths of ABA, please visit the DBA website, which contains a wealth of information on behavior analysis with talks, conference updates, the B.F. Skinner Journalism Award, and much more.

Turns out Behavioral Science is Popular!

I just wanted to give a "thanks" to all of the wonderful visitors to this blog!  Traffic has been growing exponentially.  So far, only four days into June, we have surpassed the number of visitors for April and May combined!  Without giving specifics, this number is in the thousands.  Behavioral science is alive and well :)

How wordless storybooks benefit your child.

The University of Waterloo recently reported the results of a study that suggests reading wordless storybooks to toddlers may enrich their language development more than books with words.  They note the following:

Daniela O'Neill
Professor of Psychology
University of Waterloo

Too often, parents dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun,” said the study’s author, Professor Daniela O’Neill. “But these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear, especially as they transition to school.

So what kind of talk is "really important for children to hear"?  According to Dr. O'Neill, the mothers were much more likely to ask questions to the child about the pictures in the story such as "Where do you think the squirrel is going to go?" or elaborate on the story in other ways by linking elements of the story to real-life experiences such as "We saw a squirrel this morning in the back yard."  

Mothers reading books filled with text were much less likely to provide such an enriched langage environment for their children.  The authors of the study note that "Books of all kinds can build children's language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways."

Though longitudinal language development data was not included in the university report, the results are encouraging and worthy of further exploration.  One would be hard-pressed to deny that such an enriched language environment would not accelerate language development.  

In behavior analysis, research in generative instruction may be relevant to the present work.  For example, Axe and Sainato (2010) published a study in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) that employed "matrix training" with four preschoolers with autism.  One axis of the matrix contained six actions, while the other axis contained six pictures.  The children were explicitly trained to follow instructions to combine actions and pictures along the diagonal and then tested for the emergence of untrained combinations of pictures and actions.  Two of the children responded according to the untrained relations immediately, while the two others required further training to show the additional relations.  One could argue that finding ways to nurture such relational repertoires could be an avenue into behavioral research that dovetails nicely with Dr. O'Neill's.

However, at least one study, by Dittlinger and Lerman (2011) also published in JABA,  suggests that combining pictures when teaching sight-word reading may actually hinder word acquisition in children with autism.  While O'Neill's study was not investigating word acquisition, Dittlinger and Lerman's study do suggest that pictures are not universally facilitative of language development, depending on the aspect of development targeted for study.  

Nevertheless, behavior analysts would do well to familiarize themselves with O'Neill's line of work, particularly those interested in Relational Frame Theory.  You can visit Dr. O'Neill's faculty page at the University of Waterloo here.

Linked-UP Academy Creating New School for Developmentally Disabled Children

C.E.O. of Linked-UP Academy, LLC

Rachel Albone-Bushnell, C.S.P., M.S.A.T.

School Psychologist/Early Interventionist

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Rachel Albone-Bushnell, a CEO of Linked-UP Academy, LLC, about the goings-on of her company, which is co-run with Christina DeChello also a CEO.  Theirs is a home-based program based in Fairfield County, CT.  Linked-Up Academy "is committed to providing resources and support for children, birth to five, with autism."

Rachel and Christina are also working hard to raise money to create a school dedicated to "enhancing the quality of life for children with developmental disabilities and learning disorders."  The mission of the school is explicitly based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).  They describe the school below.

C.E.O. of Linked-UP Academy, LLC​

Christina DeChello, B.A.

Developmental Specialist/Early Interventionist

At Linked-UP Academy, LLC School the ABA programs will begin with a comprehensive functional assessment of the child's language, play, and social repertoires. The VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program, Sundberg, 2008) or ABLLS (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills, Partington & Sundberg, 1998) tool will be used to identify core language deficits that prevent children from communicating and listening effectively, engaging in basic play, and socializing with peers and adults. 

For children birth to five years of age at Linked-UP Academy, LLC School, The Carolina Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers or Preschoolers will be used to determine where each child functions developmentally in comparison to same age peers.

To read more about Linked-Up Academy LLC, visit their company website at www.linkedupacademy.com, which has a wealth of information for potential clients.  You can also read more about the proposed school here.  Also, be sure to follow Linked-Up Academy on Facebook and on their BeyondAutism blog.

BxSci21 a "Daily Pick" on Bloggers.com

I was informed this morning that Behavioral Science in the 21st Century is featured as a "Daily Pick" on Bloggers.com.  Stop by and check out all of their interesting bloggers, and don't forget connect to the BxSci21 page here and become a follower!