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The Basic Importance of Applied Behavior Analysis

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Abstract

We argue that applied behavior analysis is relevant to basic research. Modification studies, and a broad range of investigations that focus on the precipitating and maintaining conditions of socially significant human behavior, have basic importance. Applied behavior analysis may aid basic researchers in the design of externally valid experiments and thereby enhance the theoretical significance of basic research for understanding human behavior. Applied research with humans, directed at culturally-important problems, will help to propagate the science of human behavior. Such a science will also be furthered by analogue experiments that model socially important behavior. Analytical-applied studies and analogue experiments are forms of applied behavior analysis that could suggest new environment-behavior relationships. These relationships could lead to basic research and principles that further the prediction, control, and understanding of behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada

    W. Frank Epling

  2. Department of Sociology, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9, Canada

    W. David Pierce

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  1. W. Frank Epling
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  2. W. David Pierce
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Epling, W.F., Pierce, W.D. The Basic Importance of Applied Behavior Analysis. BEHAV ANALYST 9, 89–99 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391932

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