In Memoriam: Brian Iwata: Original Empirical Researcher

I first heard Brian speak at an American Psychological Association (APA) conference in the early 1980s. I knew immediately that his presentation had completely altered the course of my career.

My research at that time was devoted to vocational skill training and supported employment. Although this research program was successful, there was a definite disconnect between my research and clinical practice. Clinically, I directed two outpatient clinics in Pediatrics and the Center for Disabilities and Development at the University of Iowa that focused on children (with and without developmental disabilities) and adults (with developmental disabilities) who displayed severe challenging behavior. In my research programs, I had a strong knowledge base in skill training that allowed us to train most clients to complete job tasks successfully. In contrast, my knowledge base for assessing and treating challenging behavior was lacking. I had no idea what could be done in a 90-min outpatient clinic appointment, especially because most families came to the clinic only once or twice.

During his talk, Brian introduced the audience to the concept of function and how function could be the basis of treatment. I had never heard of “functional analysis” as an assessment procedure and had only rarely used multielement designs. I found myself taking pages of notes on both the procedures and the analysis of those procedures, and for the first time in my career, I was excited to conduct the assessments in the clinic. I remember calling my colleague, Wendy Berg, and discussing how important it was for us to bring Brian to Iowa. He was the best presenter I had ever heard, and I knew that for us to conduct these evaluations in our clinics, the medical staff would have to be “on board.” Who better than Brian to present Grand Rounds and describe functional analysis to the pediatrics faculty and staff? Later that day at APA, I asked him if he would spend three days presenting Grand Rounds and consulting with faculty, staff, and students. We had about $75 to pay him for this multiday commitment. He immediately agreed.

And so began my 30-year career as a function-based researcher. But it was not simply procedures I learned from Brian. It was how to be an original empirical researcher—Brian's term for describing his work—practicing in a medical setting. Brian's research and clinical practice at the John F. Kennedy Institute (later, renamed the Kennedy Krieger Institute) were fully integrated, and we followed that model for the remainder of my career. We embraced “unknowns” as research challenges. For example, after many mistakes, we launched our brief functional analysis procedures and published our results. He taught me how to blend teaching into my research and clinical programs. He described how graduate students and interns could help expand our services while learning from more senior students, staff, and faculty. Again, I followed this teaching model for the remainder of my career.

Yes, Brian could be very critical, and more often than I would like to admit had “corrective feedback” for me to consider. But he was also the most supportive person in the field as we developed our clinical research program. For example, he agreed to serve as the discussant on our first symposium presentation on brief functional analysis at the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He had injured his knee, and so he sat in the front row with his leg extended while we presenters sat on a stage directly in front of him. Linda Cooper presented our most “radical” work, our brief functional analysis conducted with typically developing children. She described how we conducted the assessments within 90 min, with single-data-point conditions and with the manipulations involving antecedent variables and appropriate behavior. I clearly remember his immediate “thumbs up” reaction to her and then saying that he was pleased to see how far we could take his original model and still make it work. He mentioned something similar in a letter of support he wrote for my promotion to Full Professor.

Hundreds of us could have written similar comments about Brian. I am not sure how anyone could have had a more positive influence on the field of applied behavior analysis. He was, without a doubt, the premiere original empirical researcher of his generation in applied behavior analysis. In fact, if you look at his impact factor and compare it to former presidents of APA, you could make the case that he was one of the top empirical researchers in all of psychology.