The third edition of Behavior Analysis in Developmental Disabilities expands and updates the contributions of behavior analysis to the field of developmental disabilities. The six distinguished senior behavior analysts who have taken on the daunting task of selecting key articles from the 27-year history (1968—1995) of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) have assembled a volume that will be of great value as a primary or supplementary text in courses on behavior analysis. Since its inception, JABA has had a special relationship with developmental disabilities. Although JABApublishes and promotes behavior-analytic research in an array of fields, articles that address issues in developmental disabilities have predominated. The third edition includes 70 articles that trace developments in our understanding of basic mechanisms of human behavior and application of these mechanisms to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The articles are organized around 13 topics, with five to eight articles per topic.
The purpose of the volume is to provide a text that pulls together nearly three decades of research on issues related to developmental disabilities. The editors have wisely retained classic manuscripts that provide a foundation and historical perspective for this body of knowledge (e.g., Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968; Stokes & Baer, 1977). They have also attended to the immense developments and contributions that have occurred since publication of the second edition in 1988. Over two thirds of the manuscripts and four topic sections are new to the third edition. Of particular note are articles that document advances in reinforcer assessment, generalization, instructional technology, functional assessment, and treatment of severe behavior disorders. Together, the articles provide an accessible vision of a field that has both struggled to understand the lawful relationships between behavior and environment and applied this knowledge to make substantive improvement in the lives of people with disabilities.