The Other Type of Conditioning: ABA Applications for Health and Fitness

Applied behavior analysis is a science that has been applied to many areas of human life. Applications within the areas of health and fitness have been studied but are not well-publicized. In addition, a growing interest among behavior analysts exists to expand their scope of competence and practice within a variety of sub-areas that fall within the realm of health and fitness. In this talk, an overview of a number of areas will be provided, including weight management, healthy eating, smoking cessation, exercise and physical activity adherence, and sport-specific skills application.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify classical and operant conditioning components of smoking cessation programs.
2. Explain why weight is a problematic behavior product and how to select and monitor appropriate diet and exercise-related behaviors when implementing weight management programs.
3. Apply behavioral principles when designing exercise and physical activity programs.
4. Create task analyses and develop shaping and chaining programs to teach sport-specific physical skills.