Midterm Exam Flashcards
Define Sustainability
The feature of a practice or product that meet the current needs of the population while not hindering the ability of future populations to meet their needs
Sustainability can apply to a wide range of activity. What are 7 common areas?
Farming, health care, healthy lifestyle, packaging, recycling waste, transportation, reforestation
What are three potential pitfalls that can weaken support for sustainability?
The use of hyperbole or exaggeration, failing to get grassroots support, not looking for unintended consequences and working to ameliorate them
What are three advantages of the bottom up grass roots approach?
The community can see needs and make changes that work for them, control is within the community
Why does a sustainable system need to be adaptive?
So it can adjust to changing conditions and help it incorporate new technologies
How can we ensure that a sustainable system continues to function well?
By insuring it works towards continuous improvement
What role do small scale studies serve in developing a sustainable system?
Small scale studies allow us to test new approaches and allow many people to participate in the development of sustainable programs
How do we develop Kernels?
Start with the most basic pieces kernels that are empirically based and produce reliable effects in a cost effective manner
What do Kernels need to do to meet the challenge?
Be empirically based, determine the role of package components, aid in dissemination
Why is it important to understand the role of components in packaged interventions?
This allows us to then create behavior change with large groups of people
What are the three behavior analytic processes involved in Kernels?
Manipulate antecedent stimuli to occasion specific behavior, consequate behavior to increase or decrease the future probability of a behavior, chance verbal behavior as this alters the effects of contingencies
How can resident of the community help?
By focusing on everyday behaviors such as participation of community members in government, buying from local businesses or pro-environmental organizations, collaborating with other members of the community, development of innovative ideas that benefit the community
How did the embassy suites hotel in Lake Tahoe become more environmentally friendly?
Installing several technological upgrades, developing and running ERB based programs that encourage their guests and employees to participate in ecologically responsible practices
What was the major incentive for the Embassy Suites hotel in Lake Tahoe?
They saved over a million dollars
What are direct and indirect sustainable behaviors?
Direct behaviors are those related to how well people in the community follow sustainable protocols or engage in sustainable behaviors such as recycling and reducing energy use
Indirect behaviors that sustainability include decision makers behaviors that effect the members of the community engaging in sustainable behaviors. These include legislation and rule-making
Why is it important to make observations of sustainable behavior?
So we can know if the program is effective, and to provide feedback
What are four reasons people engage in unsustainable behavior?
It’s faster, less effortful, less expensive in the short term, more comfrotable
When are prompts most effective?
They occur just before you want the behavior to occur, they are placed where you will see them or they are very salient, the prompt describes or depicts consequences, prompted behavior is reinforced
Define positive reinforcers and give an example
Something that increases the frequency of a behavior that produces it; giving praise
Define negative reinforcer and give an example
something that increases the frequency of something that removes it; taking away a toy from a child
What is a motivating operation?
Motivating operations are environmental variables that: alter the effectiveness of some stimulus, object, or event as a reinforcer, and alter the current frequency of all behavior that hass been reinforced by that stimulus, object, or event
What is a positive punisher and provide an example?
A positive punisher decreases the frequency of a behavior that produces it
What is a negative punisher and provide and example
A negative punisher decreases the frequency of a behavior that removes it
What is extinction?
discontinuing reinforcement of a behavior
What are the four factors related to what non-scientists call habits?
the development of good stimulus control over a behavior, prompts from others, positive models for behavior, proficiency at the behavior (it occurs automatically)
What are the three elements of ABC analysis?
Antecendents (stimuli, person, place, or thing/ includes prompts), Behavior (what you do), Consequences (an event or change in the environment that follows a behavior reinforcement and punishment)
What is stimulus control?
Stimulus control occurs when a behavior is reinforced in the presence of one stimulus and extinguished in its absence. It can also be established by fading another stimulus that already controls the behavior
What are the three dichotomies in the PIC NIC analysis?
Type of consequence, Timing of the consequence, probability of the consequence occuring
What is the relationship between immediate reinforcement and learning?
Immediate consequences are important when teaching new behaviors. Future (delayed) consequences work to maintain them. Very long-term future consequences tend to be discounted for a number of reasons. Large negative consequences are just as effective the next day as the same day provided they are consistent. Magnitude is a variable.
What is the relationship between certain and uncertain behaviors?
This is a large variable. But events are rarely certain. Many reasons for engaging in unsustainable behavior are the certain positive consequences (faster, less effortful) but the negative consequences, though very large, are highly uncertain
Describe the relationship between PIC NIC and behavior
Consequences that are positive, immediate, and certain and negative, immediate, and certain are the post powerful of all
What is the most important variable for punishment?
Whether it is certain
How can you minimize side effects for punishments?
Get everyone to agree with the goal, given as a point of concern and not a reprimend, best as warning without a sanction, particularly if the MO is in place
What are four types of feedback?
Graphic feedback, feedback charts, written feedback, verbal feedback
What are the three characteristics of a good behavioral definition?
Objective, clear, and complete
What are the two basic scoring methods?
Automated recording where a machine program determines whether a behavior occurred; observational recording where people determine whether a behavior occurred
Define automated recording and provide five good examples
Measuring a behavior using a machine.
e.g usings a GPS to measure duration and distance of walks, measure activity using a 3 axis accelerometer, use store checkout computers to measure purchase of healthy foods, gas or electric meters to measure energy consumption, odometer to measure how much someone drive
What is the most common type of automated recording devices currently available?
The use of smart phones and watches to measure sleep, activity levels, and location over time
What are some devices in the natural environment that can be used to measure behavior
devices that measure energy use in homes and workplaces, universal product codes to categorize what types of foods people are purchasing, devices in a car that measure miles driven and various driving behaviors
Define enduring product and provide five good examples
Measure the product of a behavior. Number of vehicles parked in more than one weight of recycle material, number of people carpooling, etc
What is the best way to use frequency recording?
record the time the behavior occurs
describe discrete categorization/behavioral checklists. Why is this a popular recording method?
recording whether a behavior occurred or not when it’s supposed to. it is easy to use and checklists are appropriate to measuring many behaviors
define momentary time sampling
record whether a behavior occurs at particular points in time such as every minute. only look at a specific time. used to measure a behavior that could happen any time
define partial interval time sampling
divide a session into short intervals of time. score whether the behavior occurs at all during each of the short intervals. it need not occur for the entire interval
what does a trend in the data mean
a transition state or learning is occurring. usually uncontrolled variable is active
What are the three types of trends and what does each mean
descending means the person’s behavior is in transition perhaps the behavior is extinguishing, being punished or they are learning to engage in a competing behavior. Ascending means the behavior is increasing, means the person is learning to engage in the behavior through positive or negative reinforcement or the motivating operation is stronger. level, the behavior is netiher increasing or decreasing
what are the general rules about introducing a treatment when the baseline is increasing or descreasing
it is recommended that you do not introduce a treatment to increase a behavior that is showing an increasing trend, or to introduce a treatment to decrease a behavior showing a decreasing trend
what is a level change?
a sudden change in the level of a stable baseline to a new stable level without any data points in between those two levels
what are some possible explanations for a change in the level of the baseline
either a motivating operation has either increased or decreased, a new rule governed behavior has emerged, possible one trial or rapid learning has taken place
what are five advantages of replication based designs?
- it is not necessary to randomly assign participants to a treatment and a control group with replication-based designs
- you do not require a large number of participants
- you do not need an untreated control group with replication based designs
- replication-based research designs allow the person conducting the study to determine whether the treatment worked for each individual
- replication-based designs allow the researcher to control sources of variability and make changes to the treatment if it does not work as expected
list three advantages of an AB design
timeline during baseline can document that the behavior is remaining stable and is not improving, the treatment can be shown be associated with a level change, and transition phase or both, the effect of the treatment is monitored over time on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis
what is the baseline stability effect size rule?
the greater the stability of data the smaller the effect size you can detect
define and ABAB or reversal design?
do you always need to start with a baseline?
in this design, you alternate between two condition, typically a baseline and a treatment condition. typically behavior is permitted to stabilize before each condition change. you don’t have to start with a so-called baseline. you could start with the treatment or maybe both are possibly treatments. one important thing to remember is that you are looking at two or possibly more conditions
what would you recommend to someone who things the treatment will lead to irreversibility who is choosing a reversal design? in other words how can they increase the chance of the design working?
introduce the treatment for a brief period and then return to the baseline. the procedure minimizes the chance that new contingencies develop to trap or maintain the behavior
what are the three options if you have conducted ABAB phases and there appears to be an effect but there is a lot of overlap between the data?
track down and control the sources for variability, introduce additional replications, intensify the treatment
what is the most likely cause of partial reversibility?
a new reinforcer has taken effect or you may not be able to easily remove all aspects of the treatment because some elements may be under the clients control
what is a multiple baseline design?
you collect data on several individuals or groups of individuals and introduce the treatment first for one individual or group while leaving the remaining individuals or groups in baseline. once a change in behavior occurs introduce the treatment sequentially for the remaining individuals or groups
what are the three types of multiple baseline design
- across individuals or groups of individuals
- across behaviors
- across situations
what is the difference between a concurrent and non-concurrent multiple baseline design
in a concurrent multiple baseline data are being collected for all baselines each day. in a non-concurrent multiple baseline, data are not collected concurrently and may even be collected sequentially
what are the three advantages of a multiple baseline design
do not require a reversal, not affected by irreversibility, they can be used to compare treatments
what is the most commonly used replication based research design?
the multiple baseline design
what is a major pitfall of the multiple baseline across behaviors design
the behaviors need to be independent. if they are members of the same response class or chained together it will not work
what is the major pitfall of the multiple baseline across situations or settings design
it will not work if there is generalization across the settings. sometimes comment elements such as the presence of the same person in both setting can produce generalization across settings
why would you add a return to baseline condition to a multiple baseline design
to determine whether the effects of the treatment actually maintain
what are two types of sorting strategies and what are the pros and cons
- sorting at the source - main advantage is that people who are reasonably motivated can do an accurate job of sorting and it allows better sorting of organics
- centralized sorting - higher costs and machines may not sort organics well
what is the largest proportion of waste
organics make up the largest portion and should be composted
what are the 4 important lessons learned from the Harvey et. al study
- the same day collection of recycle works better than collecting on a different day
- that multiple sources of information works better to get compliance
- that prompts are effective
- that providing a bin has a large effect
what were the three long term goals of the HRM recycling program
- maximize the 3 Rs
- maximize environmental sustainability and minimize costs
- faster stewardship and the values of a conserver society
how did the fine tune the proposed program
with a pilot project with a sample of 2000 families
what were the elements of the rollout
- each of the residents in HRM were given a large green organic recycling cart with wheels and air holes to begin the composting process
- HRM staff delivered the tools to residents homes
- these tools included a kitchen mini-bin
what were the three of the problems to be overcome
a. improved capture of all compostable and recyclables
b. dealing with the smell of compost in summer with more frequent pickups
c. improved accuracy of sorting
how did HRM overcome problems with the program of accuracy of sorting
- shaping down the number of waste garbage bags they could use
- transitioning to clear bags to better enforce sorting
- allowing one opaque bag for personal items
how did HRM overcome the problem of the smell of the composting bins in the summer
went from bi-weekly to weekly collection during the summer
what is another area that should receive attention
reducing single use plastic
recyclable versus reusable. which is preferred
reusable
list some examples of reusable items
- refillable water bottles
- refillable coffee cups
- washable utensils and plates rather than plastic or paper plates
- clothing
- some construction materials
what are some considerations in deciding between reuse and recycle
- how much energy to recycle vs. reuse
- how much pollution associated with r and r
- adequacy of sanitation in reuse
- how much energy is and pollution is used in initial production of an item
what are some behavioral methods for increasing the quality of waste sorting by the public
extinction, punishment, shaping
give examples how reducing effort can be used to improve the quality of recycling
moving recycling bins close to or attached to trash bins
place reusable cutlerly and plates in clear view and require them to request paper or plastic products
how did manuel et al. increase selection of reusable dinnerware in a cafeteria
by putting them in a clear view and reach, prompting and motivational signsq
what is interesting about the keller study
the experimenter was 10 years old
what were the findings of the Stokes and Fawcett study on refuge packaging
that not collecting improperly packaged refuse along with a note improved packaging of refuse
what are three ways to safe costs and improve the quality of hospital cost
- reduce hospital aquired infections
- reduce medical errors
3, reduce medication errors
how many people does the CDC estimate get a hospital acquired infection each year and how many people die
2 million infected and 90000 die each year
what are the four factors associated with lack of hand hygiene
- hand washing agents cause irritation and dryness
- sinks are inconveniently located
- forgetfulness
- hand hygiene can be time consuming
what are the four potential solutions to the problem of poor hand hygiene
a. monitor and record staff hand hygiene
b. provide feedback to healthcare workers on their performace
c. monitor the volume of hand sanitizer used
d. use automated video monitoring of use
what is a kaizen event in the toyota model
a kaizen event is a five-day team workshop with a specific goal or set of goals for an area that needs improvement. typically, the look to increase efficiency
how much of a reduction in bloodstream infections was achieved at the pittsburgh regional system using the toyota model
a 50% reduction
what is the neutral zone used in the surgical theater and what is the purpose of using the neutral zone
an area where sharp instruments are placed and picked up to exchange the instruments. to reduce the chance of cuts
how did researchers increase the use of the neutral zone
through the use of performance feedback
list 5 types of medical errors
- giving the wrong drug or drug dose or giving the drug to the wrong person
- giving two or more drugs that have an adverse drug interaction
- wrong site surgery, such as removing the wrong kidney
- retained surgical instruments
- incorrect record keeping
what are four strategies for increasing safe lifting of patients
video modeling
providing feedback on safe lifting
providing a checklist for safe lifting
providing reinforcement and praise for safe lifting
what are some of the issues in designing better systems
making them practical and cost effective
designing new technology to support changes
targeting the insurance industry to establish incentives for more effective treatment
what are the six ways to reduce the need for health care
- reduce the number of people smoking
- reduce excessive alcohol use
- reduce recreational and unnecessary drug use
- increase use of healthy eating
- increase exercise
- increase social support for people without support
how did glenn and dallery treat smoking addiction
they treated smoking with a patch treatment or a voucher treatment, the voucher treatment allowed them to earn money for not smoking
what were the results of the glenn and dallery study
the results showed that the voucher treatment was more effective than the patch even though the amount earned was equilvalent to the cost of the patch
how did faith et. al increase exercise in 10 obese children and what were the results
by making television time contingent on exercise. the children watched less tv and they had a reduction in total body fat
how might this study be improved
by using a smart watch to record walking, running on bucycling in order to earn time on electronic devices
what treatment were two most effective in the yokley and glenwick study to increase vaccinations in children who were behind in vaccination
the monetary incentive condition was a lottery and a specific prompt and increased access that included convenient times and facilities that included snacks, movies, and games
