ITLS Lab Highlights from the Spring 2026 Conference Season

The Spring 2026 conference season was an exciting one for the ITLS Lab! Across multiple conferences, our students represented the lab through posters, paper presentations, and symposia while collaborating with researchers from across institutions. Across these conferences, our team shared research on a wide range of topics, including building empathy skills, code-switching, maintenance as a measure of social validity, the generalization and maintenance of prosocial skills, cultural responsiveness in applied behavior analysis, and the effects of distracting activities on caregiver behavior.

SAABA's Conference of Northern California

We kicked off the conference season at the SAABA Conference of Northern California (CNC), where the ITLS Lab delivered four presentations. These presentations showcased the diverse interests of our students and reflected our ongoing commitment to conducting research with meaningful applications in behavior analysis.

Presentations by Jocelyn, Chloe, Anna, and Evelin (right to left)

Congratulations to everyone who presented and represented the lab so well!

CalABA 2026

The California Association for Behavior Analysis (CalABA) Conference was especially exciting this year because it was held right here in Sacramento. Having a major state conference in our own city gave more of our students the opportunity to participate, connect with colleagues, and showcase their work. The conference also marked a major milestone for the ITLS Lab as we hosted our first-ever symposium, highlighting the incredible research being conducted within the lab.

Presentations by Evelin, Anna, Chloe, and Maila (top left to bottom right)

In addition to the symposium, lab members presented three research posters, providing opportunities to discuss their work with practitioners, researchers, and students from across the state.

Presentations by Xitlaly, Veronica, Tamara, and Bianca

It was wonderful to see our students engaging in thoughtful conversations, receiving valuable feedback, and building new professional connections while representing the lab so well.

Graduate Student Research Symposium

A special congratulations to Anna, who represented the lab at the Graduate Student Research Symposium. Her presentation highlighted the high-quality scholarship being conducted by our graduate students and demonstrated the dedication and expertise she brings to her research.

ABAI 2026

We wrapped up an incredible spring conference season at the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Annual Convention in San Francisco.

This year, the ITLS Lab had its strongest representation yet. Four graduate students presented in different symposia alongside researchers from other universities.

In addition, lab members presented five research posters, sharing projects spanning a variety of topics and engaging with behavior analysts from around the world. ABAI continues to be an invaluable opportunity for networking, collaboration, and the exchange of ideas, and we were thrilled to see our students actively contributing to those conversations.

We also want to extend a special congratulations to Anna, who was recognized at ABAI as the recipient of the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (VB SIG) Student Grant Competition Award for her proposal, Exploring Indicating Response Dimensions as a Measure of the Establishing Operation. This award recognizes outstanding student research in verbal behavior, and we are excited to see this project continue to develop.

Looking Ahead

Spring 2026 conference season was filled with incredible collaboration and outstanding student scholarship. We are incredibly proud of our students' hard work and grateful for the many opportunities to share our research with the broader behavior analytic community.