Sidney W. and Janet R. Bijou Grant

The Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) welcomes proposals for research in child development from a behavior analytic perspective.

This grant will be provided to support doctoral student research designed to incorporate behavioral principles to advance our understanding of human development. Developmental concepts could include chronological and developmental age, neurobiological and genetic factors associated with development, or the impact of developmental trajectories on adult behavior. While intervention research could be appropriate, the primary research questions (independent variables) must be related to developmental and behavior analytic principles. Examples are changes in reinforcer preference with age, effectiveness of verbal behavior interventions in children of differing developmental ages, the development of second languages or bilingualism, equivalence relations, delay discounting, neurobiological correlates or interventions, the role of epigenetic influences, or environment-gene-behavior interactions. While the goal must be to understand child development, the experimental model may involve laboratory animals. The primary purpose may not be to overcome deficits or challenges associated with a behavioral disorder or developmental disability (e.g., ADHD, autism), independent of a fundamental developmental principle.