Dr. Claire St. Peter’s Laboratory

Translating Behavioral Principles into Intervention

Dr. St. Peter’s research involves bidirectional translation between highly controlled “bench” science and “field” applications of reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. REU participants will broadly gain experience detecting and analyzing contingency-based events that influence behavior. Principles are translated to meaningful behavior-change procedures for youth, staff, and older adults. REU students will learn to structure antecedents and reinforcement contingencies to promote effortless and sustainable behavior change, including acquisition of new skills. Depending on the student’s interests and skills, projects may focus on concept analysis, learning sets, or basic processes governing behavior change and subsequent relapse. Students will learn fundamental laboratory skills associated with behavioral research with human participants (e.g., observational data collection and analytic strategies; literature reviews). Students will also learn skills associated with the development of interactive computer training procedures. Depending on the student's interests, they could be involved in laboratory-based evaluations of reinforcement, punishment, and extinction, or field-based work geared at employing those principles for meaningful behavior change.

 Subjects/participants: Human subjects

 Requirements/restrictions: In addition to CITI training (human subjects, Responsible Conduct of Research, and Conflict of Interest), students must pass a background check and complete the online Children on Campus training.

Visit Dr. St. Peter’s website to learn more about Claire and her research.