Robin C. Winkler

Effects of monetary rebates, feedback, and information on residential electricity conservation.

In this study, conducted during the summer months in Texas, 129 volunteer participant households were assigned to one of five experimental conditions: a high monetary rebate condition in which participants received conservation information, weekly written feedback on their electricity use, and monetary rebates amounting to a 240% price change in electricity; a low monetary rebate condition with the same structure as the high rebates except payments amounted to a 50% price change; a weekly feedback condition in which participants also received information but no rebates; an information condition; and a control condition. The dependent measure was percentage reduction in electricity use based on actual weekly meter readings by the research staff. Only the high rebate condition significantly curtailed electricity use by about 12% over the course of the study. Elasticity estimates suggested limited responsiveness in electricity consumption to price changes. Questionnaire data showed a pattern in which actual reduction in electricity was associated with planning a conservation program, attending to feedback, and modifying air conditioning use. 16 references, 3 tables.

Behavioral interventions in resource conservation: A systems approach based on behavioral economics.

Behavioral interventions to promote resource conservation have tended to focus narrowly on the control of target behaviors or practices, at the expense of viewing conservation behaviors within a systems context both at the micro and macro levels. This article outlines some of the advantages of an integration of psychological (social-learning) and economic conceptualizations. This integration is illustrated (a) by discussion of the procedures and results of rebate studies in residential energy and water conservation, in which rebates were used as a method to modify conservation behaviors and to estimate experimentally price elasticity in contrast to the usual econometric methods; (b) by a meta-analysis on behavioral energy studies conducted from 1973 to 1980, which shows that the effectiveness of rebates and feedback is partially explained by an economic factor; (c) by field-based studies designed to modify perceptions of comfort and residential energy conservation; and (d) by the development of a rebate system congruent with planning policies and instituted to reduce domestic water consumption. Maximization theory is offered as an integrative, conceptual framework that may be useful for planning resource conservation interventions. The importance of combining economic and psychological analyses and techniques for effective resource management is emphasized. 49 references, 1 figure.

An Experimental Investigation of Consumer Behavior in a Controlled Environment

This article describes the general structure of controlled economic environments and reports the results of a series of experimentally-induced price changes on consumer behavior in one such environment. The experimental results demonstrate the suitability of controlled economic environments as laboratories for the experimental analysis of consumer behavior and add to our understanding of consumer behavior, particularly with respect to the continuing effects of temporary price changes on the composition of consumption.

An experimental analysis of economic balance, savings and wages in a token economy

The role of savings and economic balance in a token system for chronic psychiatric patients was examined. After observation of the effects of normal changes in economic balance, savings was varied independently of economic balance in two experiments. High savings was found to produce poor performance and low savings improved performance. This savings effect was not found to be a simple function of primary deprivation level. A further three experiments found that the effect of variations in amount of reinforcement was virtually eliminated by high savings. Savings, controlled by economic balance, was found to be a major determinant of the effectiveness of token systems.

Stuttering: a comparative evaluation of the shortterm effectiveness of four treatment techniques☆

Abstract Two behaviour modification treatment techniques were combined with the Andrews and Harris (1964) syllable-timed-speech stuttering therapy programme for the purpose of improving short term treatment outcome. Four treatment variables, syllable-timed-speech, group psychotherapy, increased stuttering and a token system were used in various combinations with fifty-eight adult stutterers. The results were examined by a two-way analysis of variance in order to isolate the efficacy of each treatment agent. The combination of syllable-timed-speech and the token system was found to be the most effective combination of treatments used for reducing stuttering and increasing rate of speech within the therapy period.

Reinforcement schedules for individual patients in a token economy

Three types of schedule are described and their effects on individual patients assessed: (1) avoidance of time out from positive reinforcement; (2) behavior-contingent changes in exchange rates (prices); and (3) differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO). In each of the seven cases reported, these schedules eliminated the behavioral problem studied and maintained the improvement over periods of up to 12 months.

Economic perspectives in behavior therapy: Complex interdependencies in token economies

Economic theory and research strategies may be helpful in expanding analyses of token economies and other influence systems to include complex, system-individual relations. A series of studies reviewed in the present paper demonstrates the presence in token economies of relationships and effects studied by economists in the national economy. Several relations between income and consumption patterns in token programs are reviewed along with demonstrations of the relevance to token economies of basic economic concepts such as elasticity of demand. Additionally, complex effects of wage manipulations on consumer preferences in token economies are shown to be similar to those thought to occur in the national consumer economy. As suggested by these demonstrations, consideration is given to other complex interactions which are not typically examined in applied behavior analysis. In particular, it is demonstrated that changes in token wages for one behavior may have effects on frequencies of other behaviors, effects which are predictable and understandable through economic concepts.

Job Choice and Total Labor Supply: An Experimental Analysis

Short-run responses of individuals and households to changes in relative and real wage rates are an integral component of economic theory. The principal means of empirically investigating and testing the theory has been to use individual or aggregate data for subgroups of individuals at a moment in time who differ with respect to wage rates and income levels or to use aggregate data for a subgroup of individuals over time. Use of these data sets in empirical studies of the short-run theory of individual labor supply raise considerable problems of interpretation which are well known [2; 14; 18] and, hence, will not be repeated here. This is not to say that the many studies of labor supply behavior which have used cross-sectional and aggregate time series data have not been worthwhile, but rather to suggest that there is ample room to investigate labor supply be-

A Social History of Behaviour Modification in Australia

This paper was delivered by Dr R. Winkler as an Invited Address at the Australian Behaviour Modification Association Annual Conference, Sydney, 13 May 1986. The article is published in tribute to Robin Winkler with the normal editorial requirements concerning references and stylistic issues being waived.

Implications for concepts of psychopathology of studies of economic principles in behavior therapy programs.

In several studies of token economies, it has been observed repeatedly that chronic psychiatric patients conform to the same economic principles as explain the activities of presumably normal participants in the national consumer economy. Such observations are consistent with behavior therapys assumptions that those labeled mentally ill follow the same psychological and social laws as those considered normal and that behavior is responsive to specific situational determinants. Although they disprove nothing, these observations may pose problems for more traditional approaches which view psychopathology as the result of central disorders or deficits with diffuse effects across a wide range of ordinary life situations.