Dr. Brian Iwata Research Profile

hi my name's Taylan Morrison and I did

my research on dr. Brian Ottawa dr.

Brian Ottawa received his bachelor's

degree in psychology from Loyola College

in 1970 dr. Ottawa continued his

education to receive his master's degree

in psychology from florida state

university in 1972 dr. ottawa finished

his schooling where he received his

doctoral degree from florida state

university in clinical in school

psychology dr. ottawa is best known for

his research focus on applied Behavioral

Analysis disorders of learning and

behavior and functional analysis

methodologies within the field of

behavioral analysis dr. Ottawa primarily

focuses on individuals diagnosed with

intellectual disabilities mainly

focusing on autism and is best known for

his development of functional analysis

methodology some of his contributions to

behavior analysis research and

literature include that he has been

practicing and researching in the field

for 42 years and is still active some

honors and awards include but are not

limited to the Association for

behavioral analysis Award for

distinguished contributions to public

service the American Psychological

Association DF hack award for

distinguished contributions to basic and

applied research the award for

distinguished contributions to applied

research uf doctoral dissertation

mentoring award and Florida State

University doctoral graduate and of

Distinction Award dr. Ottawa has also

received over 7.5 million dollars in

grants funding his research and has

published over 250 articles chapters and

texts that include but are not limited

to environmental determinants of

self-interest behavior behavioral

treatment for self-injury and

reinforcing a

vika c of food on performance during pre

and post meal sessions some more of his

contributions to the field and research

and literature include him holding high

prestige on many committees for

organizations relating to behavior

analysis some of these committees

include the Association for behavioral

analysis where he was chair for the

program committee and the president the

National Institutes of Health where he

was the chair of human development

review committee the Society for the

environmental analysis of behavior where

he served as vice president and

president the Society for the

Advancement of behavior analysis where

he was president and the florida

association for behavioral analysis

where he was also president why dr.

ottawa's research is important in the

field some of his current areas of

research include functional analysis

variations prader-willi syndrome and

vicarious reinforcement and punishment

dr. ottawa has had many impacts during

his time in the field which include him

developing the functional analysis

methodology and mentoring a large number

of successful researchers how dr.

ottawa's research relates to what we are

learning has to deal with his

development of the functional analysis

methodology his work impacted clinical

practice in this particular area and

basic behavior analytic knowledge by

developing the functional analysis

methodology which improves assessment

and provision of clinical decision

making dr. ottawa's research also

relates to the field of applied

behavioral analysis because he works

with children diagnosed with

intellectual intellectual disabilities

especially autism which is the

population that I work with in the field

as well some common findings in the

article is written by dr. ottawa include

that

behavior is maintained by automatic

reinforcement and it occurred alone in

functional analysis where a behavior

that was maintained by social

reinforcement was extinguished another

common finding in his research is that

severe problem behavior was being

maintained by a reinforcing mild problem

behavior that preceded these severe

behaviors I was granted the pleasure of

having an interview with dr. Ottawa some

questions I asked during our interview

were how he became interested in being a

researcher / clinician he answered that

when he was at Florida State University

he was in a research intensive program

and he also mentored senior students

with their dissertations and then went

on to propose and conduct his own

research I asked what his primary areas

of focus and interest were he responded

with the applied Behavioral Analysis

field disorders of learning and behavior

and functional analysis methodologies I

asked him what impacts he had in the

field he said his greatest impact was

the development of functional analysis

methodology and monitoring the large

number of successful researchers some

other questions I asked dr. Ottawa

included if his area has changed over

time and how so he said that most of his

early research was heavily applied in

clinical in nature and now consists of a

mix of clinical and translational work I

asked him what important things I should

know about his work as a beginning

behavioral analyst he said that his

research has two major characteristics

the first being that it was fairly

systematic and organized around distinct

themes and the second being that the

methodology is extremely vigorous the

last thing I asked dr. Ottawa was what I

could take from what he has learned and

applied to my own career as a beginning

behavioral analyst he responded that he

cannot isolate the key things that he

has learned but there are some very

important things that he could give me

tips on their first being that trending

topics are less important than

functional principle and methods and the

second is that careful work pays off

because in the end people discriminate

the difference between done and

excellence