Emily Unholz-Bowden, a PhD student in the special education program in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been awarded a Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior Graduate Student Translational Research Grant to support her project, “An Investigation of Methods Toward Mitigating Resurgence and Renewal while Promoting the Persistence and Generalization of Alternative Behavior in a Human Operant Model and Clinical Demonstration.”

According to Unholz-Bowden, the overall goal of the research is to identify effective methods to reduce relapses of interfering behavior and to promote the persistence and generalization of alternative, prosocial responses with students with disabilities in a school setting.

Part one of the project will evaluate methods for mitigating relapse in a human operant study with undergraduate and graduate students engaging with a software program.

Part two will use the approach identified as effective in part one to evaluate the relapse of interfering behavior and the persistence and generalization of prosocial requests with students with disabilities in school.

The SEAB grant will help fund the implementation of the project.