Applied Animal Behavior SIG

By Lindsay Mehrkam, Erica Feuerbacher, Laura Perkins, Kimberly Truong, and JoAnna Platzer

The mission of the Applied Animal Behavior (AAB) SIG is to promote applied animal behavior analytic research, set high standards in methods and techniques of animal training, support those in the applied animal behavior field, and promote the well-being of animals in applied settings wherever they are found. This year, the AAB SIG celebrates its 31st year!

Throughout 2023, the AAB SIG, as an approved ACE provider for BACB CEUs, worked to continue providing virtual continuing education opportunities in the form of a virtual journal club for members. The journal club features researchers who have published work that extends behavior analytic approaches to applied animal behavior issues.

Throughout the year we also hosted several virtual chats, open to members and non-members, to connect with each other and exchange ideas.
The AAB SIG is developing a new Experts Directory for members. This directory will serve to connect members who are new to applied animal behavior or new to a specialty within AAB with experts in that specialty. In addition, the SIG provided its members with a comprehensive listing of undergraduate and graduate programs offering applied animal behavior analysis opportunities, as well as a resource listing of publications and CE opportunities in applied animal behavior analysis.

Each year the SIG offers an annual student research award in honor of Marian Breland Bailey. This year, we also offered our new Diversity Award (established in 2022) for the second year in a row. Both of these awards were presented at the SIG business meeting at the ABAI Convention in Denver. The 2023 winners for the Marian Breland Bailey award were Kiki Yablon for her presentation on “Signaled Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior to Address Excessive Vocalization in Dogs” and Hannah McGee for her presentation “Alternative Contingencies and Assent in Positive Reinforcement Rat Training.” The recipient for the Diversity Award was Tejashree Mujumdar for her study titled, “Training a Wild Squirrel to Approach and Accept Food From the Hand of Humans Using Shaping Procedures.”

Our B. F. Skinner Lecture Series invited speaker was Niwako Ogata with the paper session “Bench to Bedside of Behavior Problems in Dogs.” The Invited Paper Session speaker was Mindy Waite with her paper titled, “Development and Validation of Owner-Implemented Protocols for Companion Dogs.” Finally, the SIG features a website as well as a Facebook page titled, “Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest Group” with over 2,000 members. We look forward to continuing to serve our members and pursue our mission through the 2024–2025 year.

Visit https://aab-sig.abainternational.org/ to join the AAB SIG, or keep up with activities.