BASIC RESEARCH NEEDED FOR STIMULATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORAL TECHNOLOGIES

The costs of disconnection between the basic and applied sectors of be havior analysis are reviewed, and some solutions to these problems are proposed. Central to these solutions are collaborations between basic and applied behavioral scientists in programmatic research that addre sses the behavioral basis and solution of human behavior problems. Thi s kind of collaboration parallels the deliberate interactions between basic and applied researchers that have proven to be so profitable in other scientific fields, such as medicine. Basic research questions of particular relevance to the development of behavioral technologies ar e posed in the following areas: response allocation, resistance to cha nge, countercontrol, formation and differentiation/discrimination of s timulus and response classes, analysis of low-rate behavior, and rule- governed behavior. Three interrelated strategies to build connections between the basic and applied analysis of behavior are identified: (a) the development of nonhuman animal models of human behavior problems using operations that parallel plausible human circumstances, (b) repl ication of the modeled relations with human subjects in the operant la boratory, and (c) tests of the generality of the model with actual hum an problems in natural settings.