Tokens, exchangeable for a variety of back-up reinforcers, were delivered for several days to all persons boarding a clearly marked campus bus. This procedure increased ridership to 150% of baseline. The experiment was carried out to demonstrate the applicability of operant techniques to urban transportation problems. In this study, a token reinforcement procedure was introduced in an attempt to increase bus ridership while holding the costs of reinforcers to a minimum and circumventing the problems of individual satiety and preferences and of delivering cumbersome reinforcers. A methodology for establishing a token-exchange procedure in an "open-field" behavior setting, where the subject population size, geographic location, preferences, age, sex, preferred hours of mobility, etc. are unspecified, is also presented. technology (e.g., a new subway system). Physical technical advances must be accompanied by behavioral technology to deal effectively with issues that are, to a large degree, clearly behavioral (e.g., few individuals riding buses, too many individuals driving private automobiles). One might assume that use of mass transportation facilities, such as a bus system, is low in this country because it is met with aversive consequences (e.g., paying cash out of one's pocket, a reduction in schedule and route options relative to private car use, and/or the derogatory connotations of being a "bus rider") and that ridership would increase if any of these consequences were eliminated and/or potentially reinforcing events were scheduled to follow busriding responses.The present study sought to manipulate systematically the consequences for boarding a bus in an attempt to increase ridership. In a preliminary study leading to the present experiment, bus ridership on a university campus bus was increased to 213% of the baseline when every rider received a quarter (250) and the verbal comment "thank you for riding the bus" as he boarded the vehicle. The present study was designed to extend these findings by demonstrating the applicability of the operant ap-1974, 73, 1-9 NUMBER 1 (SPRING 1974)
An attempt was made to modify adult littering behavior in a naturalistic setting: the football stadium. Four different treatment strategies were used: (a) an operant contingency in the form of a positive reinforcement procedure; (b) two prompting procedures, a positive prompting and a negative prompting strategy; and (c) a litterbag-only condition. The dependent variable was denned as the weight of nonreturned litter. Treatment procedures were implemented twice in two consecutive football games and contrasted with no-treatment conditions. The findings revealed a highly significant main effect of treatment, which was responsible for a 45% reduction in the amount of litter in the treated sections of the football stadium. There were no significant differential effects between the different treatment strategies. Results are discussed in relation to laboratory research on littering in children and with a perspective toward future operant research in the area of pollution behavior.
Three variables were hypothesized to cause a fear of crime and a potential change in behavior. These were: (1) crimes against a person rather than crimes against property; (2) a crime committed in an area frequented rather than a crime occurring in an area one never entered; (3) a recurring crime rather than a crime that occurred once. Two different samples of female subjects (n = 249) were approached at their residences and were asked to read one of a number of fictitious crime stories that the news media supposedly had not reported and to complete two scales measuring: (1) an emotional response to crime and (2) a potential behavioral response to crime. The results indicate that a physical assault produces both more fear and more potential behavioral change than a burglary. A crime that occurs eight times causes people to consider taking precautions in comparison to a crime that occurs once. There is some evidence that a crime in an area one frequents causes more fear than a crime occurring in an area one never enters.
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