Dr. Andrew Craig is an assistant professor of Pediatrics and Behavior Analysis Studies at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Dr. Craig earned his Ph.D. in Psychology with an emphasis in the experimental analysis of behavior from Utah State University in 2017. After graduating, he completed postdoctoral appointments at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Munroe-Meyer Institute and the Family Behavior Analysis Program at Upstate Medical University, where he gained experience applying behavior-analytic principles to the assessment and treatment of severe behavior disorders in children and adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. His research focuses on understanding why behavior persists when faced with challenges that deter it and why behavior comes back (or “relapses”) after it has been eliminated. He is particularly interested in bi-directional translational research, wherein novel approaches to intervention are developed in controlled laboratory settings, assessed in clinical applications, and further refined in the laboratory to maximize treatment efficacy and minimize barriers to treatment. Dr. Craig has published numerous articles and book chapters on these and other topics. He currently serves on the board of editors and as a guest associate editor for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, is a mentee in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis’ Associate Editor Mentorship Program, and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals that publish cutting-edge behavioral research.

Abstract: Reinforcement-based interventions often are used to reduce severe destructive behavior in clinical settings, but the long-term efficacy of these interventions depends on the generalization of their effects into clients’ natural environments. Renewal is a form of relapse wherein previously eliminated behavior returns when the treatment context is changed, and it may help to explain why destructive behavior recurs following successful treatment. A growing body of translational and basic research has been dedicated to determining the factors that predispose eliminated behavior to renew, with the goal in mind of developing treatments that are robust to relapse induced by context change. The procedures used in these evaluations, however, differ in several major ways from the context and contingency changes clients experience during outpatient behavioral therapy. In this talk, I will provide an introduction to renewal and describe potential limitations of the extent literature as it applies directly to clinical situations. I will also present data from human-operant and animal studies that point to rather marked differences in performance between conventional renewal assessments and those conducted in our laboratory model of outpatient behavioral therapy. Implications of this research for practice, and translational research on renewal, will be discussed.