Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis (MABA)

The Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis (MABA) is a regional affiliate of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. MABA is a membership organization promoting scholarly interchange in behavior analysis through its annual convention. The annual convention also allows for the dissemination of the science of behavior analysis to the public and to professional behavior analysts residing in the Midwestern United States.
      The 22nd annual Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis convention was held October 20th – 22nd, 2022 in St Louis, MO at Live! by Lowes in Ballpark Village, which featured an outstanding speaker lineup. The 2022 MABA president, Stephan Walker (St. Cloud State University), began the conference with opening remarks. After opening remarks, speaker Timothy Vollmer (University of Florida) gave the first symposium, during which he discussed “Knowing What We Do Not Know”. This was followed by Suzanne Mitchell (Oregon Health and Science University), who presented a symposium entitled, “Assessing Willingness to Exert Effort Using a Discounting Framework”. Claudia Dozier (University of Kansas) then gave a presentation entitled, “Synchronous Schedules of Reinforcement: Recent Translational & Applied Research”.
      The afternoon began with Matt Normand (University of the Pacific), who presented “Change Behavior, Change the World”, which was followed by Rick Blevins (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) whose talk was entitled, “Understanding Primary Reinforcement is Just Not Enough to Explain the Misuse of Nicotine”. Kathryn Kalafut (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology) presented a symposium on “Animal Welfare and Behavior Analysis.” The academic sessions ended with our Forrest J. Files Student Award winners presenting on their research. Javid Rahaman (University of Nebraska Medical Center) won the applied project award and Chivon Niziolek (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology) won the basic research project award.
      With the sudden passing of David Jarmolowicz, attendees were able to participate in an informal memorial discussing their favorite memories of Dave. The memorial was followed with a poster session. This year’s convention featured posters representing work conducted at different institutions. Three awards were provided: Grace E. Bartle (University of Kansas) won the Best Overall Poster Award, Tadd D. Schneider (University of Kansas) won the Best Basic Research Poster Award, and Isacc J. Melaonson (University of Nebraska Medical Center) won the Best Applied Research Poster Award.
      The second day of the convention began with Christina Alligood (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology) presenting on “Behavior Analysis as an Animal Care Tool in Zoos and Aquariums.” This was followed by Tara Fahmie (University of Nebraska Medical Center) who presented on “Rethinking the Safety of Functional Analyses” and Travis Smith (Kansas State University) presenting on “A Rodent Model of a Reinforcer Pathology: Intermittent Access to High Fat/Sugar Diets Increases Impulsive Choice and Reinforcer Efficiency.”. The conference concluded with President-Elect, Tyler Ré (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology) announcing the location and speaker list for the 23rd annual MABA Conference.
      We are looking forward to the upcoming 2023 convention, which is slated to be held October 5th – October 7th in Kansas City, MO at the Intercontinental Kansas City at the Plaza. The conference will again include addresses on both basic and applied behavior-analytic research and theory. Students and faculty are encouraged to present posters on their research or theoretical efforts. In addition, 1-2 students are annually awarded with the Forrest J. Files student researcher award to help offset travel costs.
      The current president of MABA is Dr. Tyler Ré (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology). More information about MABA, the annual convention, student awards, registration information, and joining our email list can be found at the organization’s website: http://www.midamericanaba.com or by contacting the Operations Coordinator: at midamericanaba@gmail.com.