Liz Kyonka Faculty Profile

I investigate how individuals learn about contingencies: naturally occurring or manufactured rules about the consequences of behavior. Contingencies are ubiquitous, but sometimes they can be difficult to detect. They can change frequently or without warning. The ability to identify contingencies, to notice when they change and to adapt accordingly is essential for promoting healthy habits and effective learning.

My students and I use schedules of reinforcement to examine factors affecting temporal learning and choice adaptation. My training and early work involved animal research, but my current focus is on testing predictions about behavioral strategies implicated in a range of human behaviors, including patterns of behavior that characterize technology use, gambling, and statistical reasoning.

• Ph.D., Psychology, University of Canterbury (New Zealand)
• Sc.B. with honors in Cognitive Neuroscience, Brown University

Recent publications

Hassan, M.[co] & Kyonka, E. G. E.[co] (2021).  A behavior analytic perspective on treatment of problem gaming and problem social media use. The Psychological Record. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-021-00465-y

Kyonka, E. G. E. (2019). Tutorial: Small-N Power Analysis. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42, 133-152. doi: 10.1007/s40614-018-0167-4

Kyonka, E. G. E., Mitchell, S., & Bizo, L. (2019). Beyond Inference by Eye: Statistical and Graphing Practices in JEAB, 1992-2017. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 111, 155-165. doi: 10.1002/jeab.509

Subramaniam, S., & Kyonka, E. G. E. (2019). Selective attention in pigeon temporal discrimination. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 298-310. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1360921

Kyonka, E. G. E. & Schutte, N. S. (2018). Probability discounting and gambling: A meta-analysis. Addiction 113, 2173-2181. doi: 10.1111/add.14397

Kyonka, E. G. E.[co] & Subramaniam, S.[co], (2018). Behavior analysis: A spectrum rather than a roadmap. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 41, 591-613. doi: 10.1007/s40614-018-0145-x

Eckard, M. E., & Kyonka, E. G. E. (2018). Differential reinforcement of low rates decreased temporal discrimination in a peak procedure. Behavioural Processes, 151, 111-118. 10.1016/j.beproc.2018.02.022

Bell-Garrison, D., Rice, N. & Kyonka, E. G. E. (2018). Adaptive learning and forgetting in an unconventional experimental routine. Animal Cognition, 21, 315-329. 10.1007/s10071-018-1168-0

Rice, N. & Kyonka, E. G. E. (2017). Pigeons choose to gamble in a categorical discrimination task. Analysis of Gambling Behavior, 11 Article 2. Available at: http://repository.stcloudstate.edu/agb/vol11/iss1/2

Fox, A. E., & Kyonka, E. G. E. (2017). Searching for the variables that control human rule-governed “insensitivity”. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 108, 236-254. doi: 10.1002/jeab.270

Kyonka, E. G. E., Rice, N. & Ward, A. A. (2017). Categorical discrimination of sequential stimuli: All S^Δ are not created equal. The Psychological Record 67, 27-41. doi: 10.1007/s40732-016-0203-2

• Quantitative Analysis of Behavior Laboratory