Internet-based contingency management to improve adherence with blood glucose testing recommendations for teens with type 1 diabetes

The current study used Internet-based contingency management (CM) to increase adherence with blood glucose testing to at least 4 times daily. Four teens diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes earned vouchers for submitting blood glucose testing videos over a Web site. Participants submitted a mean of 1.7 and 3.1 blood glucose tests per day during the 2 baseline conditions, respectively, compared to 5.7 tests per day during the intervention. Participants and their guardians rated the program favorably on a number of dimensions. The results suggest that Internet-based CM is feasible, acceptable, and effective to increase self-monitoring of blood glucose in teens.     

Effects of escalating and descending schedules of incentives on cigarette smoking in smokers without plans to quit

Contingent incentives can reduce substance abuse. Escalating payment schedules, which begin with a small incentive magnitude and progressively increase with meeting the contingency, increase smoking abstinence. Likewise, descending payment schedules can increase cocaine abstinence. The current experiment enrolled smokers without plans to quit in the next 6 months and compared escalating and descending payments schedules over 15 visits. In the larger incentive condition (LI, n = 39), the largest possible incentive was $100, and in the smaller incentive condition (SI, n = 18), the largest possible incentive was $32. In both conditions, more participants in the descending groups initiated abstinence. A higher proportion of participants in both the escalating and descending groups initiated abstinence in the LI than in the SI. Although participants in the descending groups had more abstinent visits during the first five contingent visits than those in the escalating groups, these differences were not maintained.     

Contingency tracking during unsignaled delayed reinforcement: Effects of delay duration and d‐amphetamine

In two experiments, the role of the response–reinforcer relation in maintaining low‐rate responding under unsignaled delay conditions was investigated. In both experiments pecking by pigeons on one response key, denoted the relevant key, was reinforced under an unsignaled delay‐of‐reinforcement procedure (defined as tandem variable‐interval (VI) differential‐reinforcement‐of‐other behavior [DRO] schedule). Responding on a second key, denoted the irrelevant key, had no programmed consequences. Between sessions, the location of the relevant key varied (after one, two, or three sessions) pseudorandomly. In Experiment 1, the delay (DRO) duration was manipulated parametrically. Overall, proportional relevant‐key response rates (relevant‐key response rates / [relevant‐key response rates + irrelevant key response rates]) increased across 3‐session sequences in which the relevant key remained in the same location and decreased as the DRO duration was changed systematically (2, 5, and 10 s). In Experiment 2, acute administration of d‐amphetamine increased proportional relevant‐key response rates during 1‐day sequences for only the DRO 5‐s duration, and results over 3‐day sequences, once a discrimination had already been established, were inconsistent. Results support that the response–reinforcer relation is the primary determinant of responding, and such discriminations are relatively resistant to disruption or potentiation by behaviorally active doses of d‐amphetamine.     

The Good Behavior Game in preschool classrooms: An evaluation of feedback

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a popular group contingency implemented to decrease disruptive behavior in classrooms. However, despite numerous replications of the GBG, there are few direct comparisons evaluating the effectiveness of specific components of the GBG. In the present study, we directly compared the type of feedback delivered during the GBG on the effectiveness of the GBG to reduce disruptive behavior in two preschool classrooms. Results showed that delivering vocal feedback (e.g., “raise your hand”) alone or in combination with visual feedback (i.e., hatch marks) was superior to no feedback or visual feedback alone during the GBG. These results suggest that different variations of the GBG are not equally effective and that a collection of effective procedural variations from which teachers can choose would be beneficial.     

Comparison of components of the Good Behavior Game in a preschool classroom

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is an effective intervention package for decreasing disruptive behavior in various populations and environments. There is, however, limited research evaluating the GBG with preschoolers. Furthermore, few studies have evaluated the effects of components of the GBG, and of those that have, most have done so only after exposure to the GBG package. We evaluated the effects (a) of the GBG on disruptive behavior of preschoolers during group instruction and (b) the major components of the GBG before and after implementation of the GBG package (c) at both the group and individual level. Results suggest that the GBG package was necessary for decreasing disruptive behavior. However, after exposure to the GBG, a response‐independent contingency was effective for maintaining low levels of disruptive behavior at both the group and individual level.     

Contingency and changing reality: Perspectives from Germany

The World Wide Web connects less and disconnects more. In Germany as in the United States, disconnecting factions digitize their ideologies and overnight multiply their adherents. Such forces of disruption are incessant. Appeal to constructivist theory reveals that beneath this destabilizing dynamic is awareness of contingency, the feeling of disempowerment in the face of an unpredictable and uncontrollable future. Religion has the potential for stabilizing, but religious leaders will need to reignite a faith in the future to make this happen.     

Authority as a contingency plan

Humean constructivists object to Kantian constructivism that by endorsing the constitutivist strategy, which grounds moral obligations in rational agency, this position discounts the impact of contingency in moral life. In response to these charges, I argue that Humeans misrepresent the challenge of contingency and fail to provide adequate resources to cope with it. In its formalist variety, Humean constructivism fails to make sense of an important category of ethical judgments, which claim universal authority. The substantive varieties of Humean constructivism recognize that some ethical judgments aspire to universality, but fail to fully justify such an aspiration. These versions of constructivism represent a setback in regard to the achievements of Kantian constructivism. In conclusion, I briefly resume the advantages of advocating a Kantian conception of rational authority as a response to contingency.