Behavioral Research

Overview

The Shriver Center's behavioral research scientists conduct an ambitious program of interdisciplinary research on typical and atypical neurobehavioral functioning and development across the age range.  Ongoing projects, for example, concern:

• Known and suspected perceptual, information processing, and communication deficits of people with intellectual disabilities
• Atypical neurological development and functioning in people with various disorders and syndromes (e.g., attention deficit disorder, autism, Down syndrome, etc.)
• Quantitative analyses of reinforcement processes, response to environmental feedback, and choice-making
• Methods for evaluating and teaching individuals with limited language
• Animal models of learning processes relevant to mental retardation
• Development of visual perception and attention in infants, children and adults

The Shriver behavioral research program represents a range of scientific approaches and perspectives: behavior analysis, behavioral & cognitive neuroscience, computer sciences, developmental cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology. A continuing goal is to blend these perspectives into a comprehensive, well-integrated effort to understand typical and atypical behavior. With that accomplished, behavioral deficits of people with disabilities will be better understood and improved methods for overcoming or bypassing those deficits will result. Regarding research translation and application in particular, activities of the Behavioral Technology Group exemplify the Center’s efforts to bring the fruits of research to practice.