New Zealand ABA – 2025 Chapter Update
By Anne Macaskill
The New Zealand Association for Behaviour Analysis (NZABA) is a community of people working, teaching and researching in behavior analysis in, or with a connection to, Aotearoa New Zealand.
NZABA’s primary purpose is to host a conference each year in late August. In 2024 the conference was held at Auckland University of Technology for the first time. A primary purpose of the conference is to support graduate students to share their research in a positive, supportive, and collegial atmosphere. Given this focus, we like to share the names and topics of student prize winners in this report.
In 2024, the judges awarded prizes to the following outstanding student presentations: Jacob Jensen (University of Auckland) When screen time turns sour: Metaanalysing interventions for challenging behaviour maintained by access to tangibles, Tess Austin (AUT) Reply now or later? Delay discounting and phone use while driving Reply now or later? Arihant Ambalam, Holly Hatchell & Jessica Lints (University of Waikato) Scent discrimination and visual matching in dogs: Training dogs to provide specific information about what they are sensing, Iwan Downie (University of Waikato) Developing an approach for studying dogs’ ability to use timing information in odour plumes, Kristina Naden (University of New England) Assessment of affective state for horses engaged in therapeutic riding.
The NZABA conference also hosted a symposium run by our sister organisation the Society of Behaviour Analysis Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on professional practice issues. This symposium allows New Zealand ABA practitioners to develop their skills and knowledge of practice issues of particular relevance to the New Zealand cultural context.
In 2024 our conference will be held in Hamilton, hosted by Waikato University. Our website at https://nzaba.wordpress.com/ provides up-to-date information about how to register and will post the conference program once available. You can join NZABA via a form on our website; we do not charge a membership fee. Members automatically join our emailing list and will receive occasional updates and announcements. Our Facebook group at facebook.com/newzealandaba hosts more informal discussion and shares links to items of general interest to those working in the field of behavior analysis.
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