Association for Behavior Analysis International

Humans are fortunate, in that their behavior can greatly impact their health. Many behaviors can promote health, wellness, and longevity (e.g., physical activity, healthy food choice, and treatment compliance.) However, there are also behaviors that negatively impact health and wellness (e.g., alcohol consumption, sedentary behavior, unhealthy food choices, risky sexual behavior). Unfortunately, the “unhealthy” behaviors are often associated with immediate and highly probable reinforcers, while the “healthy” behaviors have delayed and uncertain reinforcers. Two areas within behavior analysis can inform this competing reinforcer problem: contingency management and behavioral economics. Behavioral economic approaches allow researcher to characterize the value of reinforcers for health-related behaviors. Contingency management research primarily focuses on the use of differential reinforcement of health-promoting behaviors. This presentation will give brief backgrounds on these two areas in the context of health promotion. Data will be presented highlighting factors that impact the efficacy and feasibility of these interventions (e.g., reinforcer type, immediacy of consequences, cost of intervention, goal-setting criteria, and length of intervention.)

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Dr. Wendy Donlin Washington is an associate professor of Psychology at University of North Carolina Wilmington. She received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Auburn University under the direction of Dr. Christopher Newland, and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working with Kenneth Silverman and Maxine Stitzer in developing behavioral treatments for drug abuse. She has conducted research in the areas of contingency management, behavioral toxicology and pharmacology, and behavioral economics. Her current research has focused on using behavioral interventions, like contingency management, to treat health related behaviors such as drug use and physical activity. She has served as Membership Board Coordinator for ABAI since 2016, is on the board of editors for Perspectives on Behavioral Science and Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.