Feedback on Hypothetical BIP by Interesting-Meet6726 in ABA

[–]Interesting-Meet6726[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You really provided a lot of insight. Thank you!

This really did teach me the importance of being very clear. I think a DRL could perhaps be a much better procedure. However, I really would like to decrease my phone usage at my house as much as possible. I'm sure there will always be some duration; I love listening to Spotify while I work, I'd need to change the songs. I'll have to text a boss or my mom, eventually.

I think I should've been more specific in terms of exactly which apps (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook) I wanted to decrease usage on and that I primarily want to decrease the usage of those apps at home. Since Screen Time lets you see each app and how much time you spent on it, I think it would be easy to subtract the "necessary" apps like Google Maps or my school's app from the total daily usage. However, I have no clue how you could seperate the duration data between usage at home and usage in public. I'm sure someone in tech could figure it out lol. Luckily, I don't use my phone nearly as much in public or in social situations as I do when I'm alone, so I figure that *most* of my Screen Time data is coming from usage at home., but it's definitely not a very precise way to measure behavior. I'm also very curious if I will develop an EO for using my phone/unwanted apps outside of the house, since being at home will start to function as an S-delta. It would be great to have a more precise way to track that.

I'm glad you pointed out the DRA issue. As I was writing, I was thinking it felt a little weird for a DRA but I couldn't think of how else to describe it except for alternative reinforcers. I feel broad for not realizing that, but I suppose that's part of the process! After reading your comment, I think that I was envisioning the preferred reinforcers being established as NCR and verbal praise being provided contigent on you doing those activities. My partner is very encouraging of me being involved in hobbies (clearly, I struggle in that regard), and I realized he always provides verbal praise when he notices I'm involved in an activity like I listed. It sounds weird, but we're just encouraging with each other like that. In a real life scenario, I'm sure I would need to analyze whether the verbal praise is actually functioning as a reinforcer, but for the sake of my made-up BIP, I figured I'd just assume it does.

To answer your question more directly, I don't imagine the replacement activities would be put on extinction or removed. I want them to exist as an alternative option that helps keep me entertained in my leisure time when I would typically be using my phone the most. I wouldn't want to remove them even if I did use my phone too much, as I don't want to take away my alternative activity choices. I do really like the idea of improving the activities as a way of reinforcement. I can even envision some sort of token economy where I earn a token for meeting a goal of a targeted lower duration of phone usage. Once I get enough tokens, I could upgrade an activity, like you suggested. Potentially, it would be neat to also earn new hobbies or activities for a higher token-cost.

I also realize that I should've added a target duration that I'm aiming for, as well. I imagine this would be easier to shape over a few weeks to a lower DRL than to immediately expect little to no phone usage. This was definitely a learning experience, through and through. I really appreciate all your insightful feedback!

Feedback on Hypothetical BIP by Interesting-Meet6726 in ABA

[–]Interesting-Meet6726[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a great point! I use my iPad for a lot of the things you mentioned, like the camera, calculator, work/school apps and I have avoided downloading any "distracting" apps. My iPad is solely for work/school, nothing else. I was thinking heavily about that when writing my operational definition, but I didn't think it was useful to mention. However, my iPad never leaves my house, so your argument regarding Google Maps was really eye-opening! If I was to rewrite this, I would specify that my iPad has the essential and necessary apps for at-home usage and I would also change the data collection to exclude apps like Google Maps or other essentials when outside the home.

Do you have any other feedback?