Association for Behavior Analysis International

Tactical Urbanism involves low-cost, often temporary, modifications to the built environment that attempt to improve common spaces. These strategies have received growing media attention in recent years; however, data are rarely systematically collected to help examine the effects of the modifications. A group of cyclists, pedestrians and people interested in sustainability in small college town sought to improve the walkability and bikeability of a quarter mile segment of a primary road between the town center and the university. After seeking approval of the town council and the university administration, the group undertook data collection, fund raising, and construction of a temporary lane reduction project. The project turned a 4-lane road into two travel lanes, a turn lane, and 2 bike lanes. Additionally, a mid-block crosswalk was constructed in a location that students often crossed without protection. The project was evaluated with an ABA design examining vehicle speed and percent of users engaging in active transportation. While the temporary construction was in place, there was a decrease in the 85th percentile speeds and an increase in the percent of active transportation users. Following the demonstration project, the town installed two raised crosswalks to increase the safety of pedestrians.

An evaluation of increased response effort to dispose of items was conducted to improve recycling at a university. Signs prompting individuals to recycle and notifying them of the location of trash and recycling receptacles were posted in each phase. During the intervention, trashcans were removed from the classrooms, and one large trashcan was available in the hallway next to the recycling receptacles. Results showed that correct recycling increased, and trash left in classrooms increased initially during the second intervention phase before returning to baseline levels.

Safety is important for protecting children from harm of many sorts. Parents frequently give verbal safety rules for children' behaviour rather than intervene directly with consequences. In this research we collected many empirical examples of such safety rules and categorized these into functional groups, presented in Tables. The paper explores different social consequences of these rules beyond just treating the children as the targets. Some rules for children, for example, are functional for other parents, law makers, or other family members, rather than the children to whom they are told. In theirs ways they can function as part of a parental narrative or story used in various functional social situations. The broader functional roles of rules in terms of societal structures are also discussed, and how giving rules to children via computer based media would engage different social consequences which could be useful for the children to recognize safety contexts and respond more appropriately.

Interrogative suggestibility is characterized by factors present during interrogations that make people more likely to accept inaccurate information and change their responses accordingly. Research on interrogative suggestibility has been vital in changing the way interrogations are conducted in court trials and police interrogations, yet many different factors involved in interrogative suggestibility, that are present during interrogations, have not been investigated. Recent research has emphasized the importance of verbal feedback and the interviewers behavior, yet no research has analyzed the possible effects if any, of building such momentum during interrogations by manipulating the order of questions (suggestible vs. non-suggestible). High-probability and low-probability sequences are one way to increase the likelihood of previously low-probability responses. This procedure is commonly used to increase appropriate behaviors and reduce problem behavior during instructional tasks, by presenting tasks that are more likely to be completed first, then presenting tasks that are less likely to be completed. The purpose of the current study was to examine the application of high-probability/low-probability sequences on a measure of interrogative suggestibility, and the effects, if any, on suggestibility scores. Understanding the effects of high-probability and low-probability sequences during interrogations may highlight the need for procedures to eliminate or reduce the likelihood of suggestibility, and potentially increase the accuracy of responses.