Awarded for pioneering work in behaviour analysis
It was announced recently that Zuilma Gabríela Sigurðardóttir, professor at the University of Iceland's Faculty of Psychology, was selected as the recipient of the 2023 SABA Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis. Gabríela, as she is usually called, says this field of study is growing fast in the world; and she has worked towards its advancement e.g. in a new programme on applied behaviour analysis at the University of Iceland.
"Behaviour analysis is a scientific discipline that focuses on discovering the principles of behaviour and how it is learned and applied. Behaviour analysis is still considered a subfield of psychology, even though a few attempts have been made in the last decades to separate it from psychology as the approach is quite different from most things in psychology," explains Gabríela.
Gabríela says that the discipline has grown significantly in the last few decades. The discipline is often divided into four main areas: radical behaviourism, which is an ideology about behaviour and what influences it; experimental behaviour analysis, where behaviour is studied under laboratory conditions; applied behaviour analysis, where the laws of behaviour are utilised to solve various human problems, and finally various types of services where empirically tested methods are applied.
"All these fields of behaviour analysis are closely interconnected, and they are all grounded in the basic ideology that the research originally stems from. Research has yielded new questions, but we already have many answers. New laws of behaviour are still being discovered. They are then sometimes tested in applied behaviour analysis," says Gabríela. She adds that behaviour analysis has, like medicine, developed from being an ideology or a philosophy, that has led to research questions and repeated experiments, that have then revealed certain facts that then have proved useful in improving people's lives.
The interest was sparked during study at UI
Gabríela's interest in the subject was sparked in psychology studies at the University of Iceland in the eighties. She says that Magnús Kristjánsson started teaching about radical behaviourism and behaviour analysis in 1976, at a time when the subject was not taught at any European university. Magnús thus laid the foundation for the future of many who dedicated themselves to this subject, both locally and internationally; many Icelanders have had successful careers in behaviour analysis in universities around the world.
A visit from Dr. Gary Athelstan, guest professor from the University of Minnesota, who taught rehabilitation psychology, also piqued Gabriela's interest in behaviour analysis, and she says that she was fascinated by B. F. Skinner's ideology, he is generally called the father of behaviour analysis, in the course on personality psychology, taught by Magnús Kristjánsson, in her fourth semester during her undergraduate studies. This finally led to her taking a master’s degree in behaviour analysis and therapy at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. From there she went to Northeastern University in Boston, where she completed a PhD in experimental behaviour analysis. “My research then started to revolve more around people's complex learning, for example language acquisition, deductive ability, creativity, generalisation of behaviour, environmental categorisation and so on," says Gabríela.
She adds that through experiments it can be revealed how such learning occurs, and thus opening a possibility of helping those who have difficulties learning. "Experiments in behaviour analysis and the models that have been created have really shown how complex behaviour, often considered "human" or "cognitive" is learned through the interaction of behaviour and environment, and is not particularly "spontaneous" unless the right learning (teaching) has occurred as an antecedent. We are getting more and more insight into how you can train or teach "human" or "cognitive" behaviour and thus gain better understanding of the learning process which is the basis," says Gabríela.
Studying the impact of empirically developed teaching methods
After having been a sessional lecturer whilst working in the Regional Office for the Disabled in Reykjavík and later at the Psychology department at Reykjavík's Educational Centre, Gabríela was hired as an assistant professor at the University of Iceland in 1999, became an associate professor in 2004, and then professor in 2018.
When asked she says she emphasized studies affiliated with applied behaviour analysis in her work within the university. "I have, along with my students, conducted research on the impact of intervention in behavioural problems in schools and kindergartens, staff training in effective technology in order to prevent behavioural problems or solve them and I have done similar things with parents. I have then gone more and more into studying the impact of using empirically developed teaching methods with elementary students who have been in special ed due to difficulties in reading or math, or both," says Gabríela and says that Icelanders are behind many nations in this area. "Numerous countries have legislations on using empirically tested teaching methods, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New-Zealand, and I know this is under consideration in a few European countries.
Gabríela's research has also involved increasing safety of toddlers in supermarkets in Iceland. "I have been studying the long term effects of an intervention in children's safety in shopping carts," she says, and it involves testing whether it is possible to change the parents' behaviour and prevent them from putting their children in the groceries section of the cart by placing large signs in the shopping carts. There is much to gain as around one hundred children are considered to get hurt when falling out of shopping carts each year, many of the accidents are serious and can have long-term effects.
"Experiments in behaviour analysis and the models that have been created have really shown how complex behaviour, often considered "human" or "cognitive" is learned through the interaction of in behaviour and environment, and is not particularly "spontaneous" unless the right learning (teaching) has occurred in the process. We are getting more and more insight into how you can train or teach "human" or "cognitive" behaviour and thus gain better understanding of the learning process which is the basis," says Gabríela. image/Kristinn Ingvarsson
Among the most influential behaviour analysts in all of Europe
The award Gabríela will receive in two years’ time is presented by the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) and is one of many given by the Society. "SABA is closely affiliated with Association for behavior analysis – International (ABAI), a professional association for everyone working in or studying behaviour analysis. SABA awards various grants to both students and research scientists, organises conferences and recognizes those who are considered to have excelled in the field of behaviour analysis," explains Gabríela. The awards for dissemination of behaviour analysis worldwide is one of many presented by SABA.
In the announcement from the board of SABA to Gabríela it says that the award is "in recognizing your achievements, the board noted not only your profound impact on behavior analysis in Iceland—in academia, service delivery, dissemination, and more—but also in many other areas around the globe, particularly Eastern Europe. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that you are among the most influential behavior analysts in all of Europe, and our field the world over has been much enhanced by your work."
Gabríela's work in Eastern-Europe has mainly been in Riga in Latvia and Sofia in Bulgaria. "My work there has revolved around two things: On the one hand in the teaching behaviour analysis to graduate students, and a varied group of professionals, for example psychologists, social workers, physicians – and presenting at seminars for various people working in primary schools. On the other I participated in and helped to prepare the first conference on behaviour analysis in Bulgaria. At this time, I served as the president of the European Association for Behaviour Analysis, EABA, says Gabriela. Furthermore, she worked on founding a development fund to support the development of behaviour analysis in countries like Bulgaria, where the discipline is not well known, there is little funding to work at developing the discipline, wages are low, and thus difficult to organise conferences with international specialists that can share their knowledge.
What does the award mean? “It is an enormous recognition for me, one I never anticipated getting. Through the years I have worked alone with my students, and former students with support from colleagues around the world. Through the years I have felt more and more that I was isolated from the rest of the world in my daily work, and that no one except me and a few professionals maybe, were at all interested in it here in Iceland. I was therefore very surprised when I was told I had been nominated for the award, and it never crossed my mind that I would receive it. I felt that my achievements here would never be considered as good or important as what my peers around the world have accomplished, because they are so much closer to the centre of the behaviour analysis world, which is growing and revolves fast,” says Gabríela.
She adds that the award is very significant for her, but also to those who have employed her, “because of my knowledge of behaviour analysis, and have trusted me to do my best in that field. The award shows that I have worked hard and achieved results that have been noticed on an international level. I am naturally very grateful for that, and consider myself lucky, because recognition of this kind should never be taken for granted.”
Great interest in studying applied behaviour analysis
Gabríela says this is not just a great acknowledgement for her personally, but also great for the interdisciplinary programme in behaviour analysis that the School of Education and the School of Health Sciences, including the Faculty of psychology where Gabríela works, started offering in the autumn of 2020.
The programme offers a one-year diploma and two year master’s studies. The emphasis is on children with special needs. “In the preparation committee we defined special needs as behaviour problems, developmental disabilities, and academic problems. The courses and the professional training concern these three fields. Other special needs of children, for example anxiety and fear, social skills, sleep, abuse and neglect, fit within these fields as well, and our students can get acquainted with evaluation and treatment for such problems,” Gabríela explains.
The emphasis in the programme is on special needs children.
The programme turned out to be very popular, seeing how there were over 70 applications and only 21 spaces available. “The number of students is limited by the training spots available, and this in turn is decided by the number of supervisors who can participate. Our students are mostly trained in education or psychology, some of them are experienced teachers who ahve little knowledge of behaviour alaysis, others have little experience in working with people and entered the studies with a good basis in psychology, methodology and behaviour analysis after studying psychology at UI,” she says.
The COVID-19 epidemic has certainly been challenging for academic programmes, however, Gabríela says the programme has been a success. “Those of us organising the programme on a daily basis have already learned a lot, that will help us adjust some features, as was expected when we started out. Everybody is learning a lot, the students, the teachers, and supervisors in the field. The collaboration has been exemplary, within the programme, between the schools and faculties, and with the collaborators in the field,” she says.
Gabríela says that a small group of teachers limits the option of accepting more students each year, and that it will be great when more can be added to the staff. “I am confident that the programme will grow and prosper, and continue to impact Icelandic society, like my work in the Faculty of psychology and elsewhere has done. The emphasis in the programme is on special needs children, but there are many other fields where there is great need for people who possess both knowledge and skills in behaviour analysis. I think I have been sowing the field for the last thirty years, and now I see a lot of growth; the rewards of my efforts. A lot of work is yet to be done and I want to continue to contribute to the growth of the field, if I get the opportunity and support from my students and collaborators, in Iceland and internationally,” Gabríela concludes.
