[4] Iwata and his coauthors developed an approach to determining why self-injury was happening on an individual basis, which involved empirically measuring the role of environmental events on self-injurious behavior to determine what function it played in helping the individual access reinforcement.

He was not involved in the development of the graduated electronic decelerator or GED, which is an aversive conditioning device that delivers a powerful electric skin shock to punish behaviors considered undesirable.

[6][7][8][9] Dr. Iwata spoke out against the use of GEDs by the Judge Rotenberg Center and even testified in court against their use.

He stated that he found success treating even the most difficult of self injurious behaviors using less punitive methods.

Also, the Association for Behavior Analysis International published a position statement against the use of Contingent Electric Skin Shock in 2022.