
Picture retrieved from iStockphoto
It is that time of the year again! The 51st annual convention will take place in Washington D.C, between May 22nd and May 26th, 2025.
When prompted to describe things to do in Washington, D.C. during the Memorial Day weekend, ChatGPT generated the text below.
The city offers a rich array of events during Memorial Day weekend! Here’s a curated guide to help you make the most of your visit:
Memorial Day Ceremonies & Tributes
- National Memorial Day Parade: Join the nation’s largest Memorial Day parade along Constitution Avenue on Monday, May 26, at 2 p.m. The event features marching bands, military units, and veterans honoring those who have served. Military.com+1US Tours Knows America+1
- Arlington National Cemetery Ceremony: Attend the solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on May 26. The President typically delivers an address, honoring fallen service members. Arlington Convention & Visitors Service Vietnam Veterans Memorial Observance: Pay respects at “The Wall” during the annual ceremony on May 26 at 1 p.m., honoring those who served in the Vietnam War. US Tours Knows America+7Military.com+7Tours by Foot+7
Concerts & Cultural Events
- National Memorial Day Concert: Experience a patriotic evening on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Sunday, May 25, at 8 p.m. The free concert features musical performances and tributes to military heroes. Concert 2025+1Fairfax County+1
- Rolling to Remember: Witness a motorcycle demonstration ride through D.C. from May 23–25, raising awareness for POW/MIA issues and veteran suicide. Axios+1Marinalife+1
- D.C. Black Pride: Celebrate the African-American LGBTQ+ community with events throughout the weekend, including parties, workshops, and a health and wellness expo. Wikipedia
Festivals & Family-Friendly Activities
- ViVa! Vienna!: Enjoy a family-friendly festival in Vienna, VA, from May 24–26, featuring carnival rides, food vendors, and live entertainment. Fairfax County
- Hometown Holidays Music Fest: Rockville, MD, hosts this free festival on May 24–25, offering live music, food, and activities for all ages. Mommy Poppins
- City Cruises Memorial Day Experience: Embark on a scenic cruise along the Potomac River, offering views of D.C.’s landmarks and a unique way to honor the holiday. City Experiences™
Pride & Cultural Celebrations
- WorldPride D.C.: Participate in events celebrating LGBTQ+ pride, including the unveiling of the ACLU’s “Freedom to Be” quilt, showcasing trans rights and resilience. The Guardian
- Fiesta Asia Street Fair: Experience Asian cultures through performances, food, and crafts at this free event in downtown D.C. on Saturday, May 24. Axios
Nightlife & Parties
- Pier Pressure Party Cruise: Dance the night away on the Potomac River aboard the Spirit of Washington DC on Sunday, May 25, from 4–7 p.m. The cruise features top DJs and stunning city views. Eventbrite
- Memorial Weekend Go-Go Party: Celebrate D.C.’s unique music scene at The Hamilton Live on Sunday, May 25, with live performances and dancing. AllEvents (OpenAI, 2023)

Picture retrieved from the ABAI website
Now, back to the conference. We sampled the program schedule to find verbal behavior events that you may be interested in. As you can see below, there is a wide variety of interesting events on different topics—we hope it won’t create choice overload. We hope to see you at as many of these events as possible!
Workshop #2
Title: Relationally speaking: programming using verbal behavior development theory and relational frame theory
Date/time: Thursday, May 22nd, 2025, 4-7 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 14
Workshop #16
Title: Teaching advanced communication lessons with pictures: comments, attributes, intraverbals, and autoclitics—Oh My!
Date/time: Thursday, May 22nd, 2025, 4-7 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Capitol & Congress
Workshop #51
Title: Your client will learn how to learn when you use echoics to shape generative verbal behavior
Date/time: Friday, May 23rd, 2025, 4-7 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 15
Workshop #52
Title: Bridging humor and cognition: leveraging relational frame theory to enhance humor comprehension and production skills
Date/time: Friday, May 23rd, 2025, 4-7 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Liberty L
Business Meeting #111
Title: Speech Pathology Applied Behavior Analysis Special Interest Group (SPABA): Annual Business Meeting
Date/time: Friday, May 23rd, 2025, 7-7:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Liberty N-P
Spoiler Alert: SPABA will celebrate its 20th anniversary this ABAI!
Symposium #37
Title: How do we teach that? Effective strategies for teaching behavior analytic skills
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 10-10:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #38
Title: Applications of derived relational responding
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 10-11:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Capitol & Congress
Symposium #66
Title: Look, listen, and learn: protocols to establish new conditioned reinforcers for early learners
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 12-12:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #87
Title: New developments on stimulus class formation: response latencies, verbal mediation, and the establishment of comparison relations
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 3-3:50 PM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 150 AB
Symposium #95
Title: A tutorial on the application of Lowenkron’s joint control to language acquisition programs
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 3-3:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #117
Title: Establishment of verbal development cusps for student learning and implications for effective delivery of services
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 4-4:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Archives
Paper Session #124
Title: Expanding the role of deictic framing to natural settings: from teaching perspective taking to building compassion to children with autism
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 5-5:20 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Archives
Panel #134
Title: The Chomsky-Catania YouTube dialogues on language, freedom, evolution, and behavior
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 5-5:50 PM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 154 AB
Business Meeting #111
Title: Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (VB SIG) Business Meeting
Date/time: Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 7-7:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Liberty N-P
Symposium #175
Title: Investigations of bidirectional naming and equivalence relations across the translational spectrum
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 8-9:50 AM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 150 AB
Symposium #181
Title: Establishing emerging and complex verbal behavior
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 8-9:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #194
Title: VB SIG student grant winners present their findings
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 9-9:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Capitol & Congress
Symposium #211
Title: Role of language in the analysis of culture and beyond
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 10-10:50 AM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 154 AB
Symposium #222
Title: Remembering past events: a survey of basic and applied behavioral research in episodic reporting
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 10-11:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Paper Session #226
Title: Humor through a behavior analytic lens
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 11-11:20 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Archives
Symposium #239
Title: You do then I do: teaching motor imitation and vocal emulation responses to toddlers
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 11-12:50 PM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 146 A
Panel #258
Title: Navigating early career paths for aspiring clinicians and researchers in verbal behavior
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 12-12:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Paper Session #259
Title: Who said it and why it matters: the motivational augmental effects of rule sources on cooperation
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 12-12:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Independence D
Symposium #280
Title: Trends in verbal behavior research
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 3-3:50 PM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 159 AB
Symposium #280
Title: VB SIG student paper winners present their findings
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th 2025, 3-3:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 7-10
Symposium #290
Title: An analysis of speaker and speaker as own listener cusps on the acquisition of language and learning
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 3-4:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #300
Title: Training advanced verbal operants: a multipopulation investigation
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 4-4:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Archives
Symposium #306
Title: The effects of the establishment of observational cusps on language, learning, and social behavior
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 5-5:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #307
Title: Systematic methods for teaching and generalizing the use of speech-generating devices
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 5-5:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Capitol & Congress
Symposium #310
Title: Key considerations in conditional discrimination training and equivalence class formation
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 5-6:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 7-10
Symposium #313
Title: Innovative applications of equivalence relations and relational frame theory: from basic to applied practice
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 6-6:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Reunion #330
Title: SPBA and VB SIG reunion, social, and networking reception
Date/time: Sunday, May 25th, 2025, 8-10 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Archives
Symposium #360
Title: The relation of reinforcement value and strength of stimulus control to acquisition of early literacy and language repertoires in early learners with developmental delays
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 8-9:50 AM
Location: Convention Center, Street Level, 147 A
Symposium #362
Title: A generative learning assessment and intervention program based on Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957)
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 8-9:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #388
Title: From the learner’s view: methods to assess and produce coherent stimulus control topographies
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 10-10:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 1-5
Symposium #394
Title: Recent research on second language acquisition
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 10-11:50 AM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Symposium #404
Title: Working together! Collaboration between behavior analysts and speech-language pathologists
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 11-12:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Liberty L
Symposium #446
Title: teaching tacts and naming relations in children with autism spectrum disorder
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 3-4:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M4 Level, Liberty L
Symposium #449
Title: Advancing evaluations on the emergence and acquisition of various verbal operants
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 3-4:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
Invited Paper Session #461
Title: The things we say about the things we do
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 5-5:50 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 1-5
Symposium #462
Title: Recent advancements to increase complex verbal repertoires
Date/time: Monday, May 26th, 2025, 5-5:30 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis, M2 Level, Marquis Salon 12-13
References
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat