Liz Kyonka Faculty Profile

Photo of Liz Kyonka

Liz  Kyonka

Assistant Professor

Department of Psychology

  • E-mail: liz.kyonka@csueastbay.edu
  • Vitae: View my CV
  • Home Page: qablab.com
    Note: CSUEB does not pre-approve, monitor, or edit personal pages. Faculty members are solely responsible for their content, and are expected to conform to the policy guidelines of CSUEB.

As a quantitative and experimental behavior analyst, I study patterns of behavior.

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

Not teaching this semester.

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.

Kyonka, E. G. E. (2019). Tutorial: Small-N Power Analysis. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42, 133-152. doi:

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:

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

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

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:

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.

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

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:

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:

Kyonka, E. G. E., Rice, N. & Ward, A. A. (2017). Categorical discrimination of sequential stimuli: All SΔ are not created equal. The Psychological Record 67, 27-41. doi: