Improving accuracy of portion-size estimations through a stimulus equivalence paradigm

Training flexible spatial-cognitive estimation strategies using augmented reality

We investigated the potential for augmented reality (AR) as a training aid for spatial estimation skills. Though there are many tools to support spatial judgments, from measuring cups to rulers, not much is known about training spatial skills for retention and transfer. Display of AR was manipulated to train the spatial skill of portion estimation. In Experiment 1, an AR-aided strategy of creating smaller portions out of a larger example amount was compared to a no-AR control condition. This manipulation was based on previous non-AR experiments where amorphous foods were better estimated when divided into smaller portions. There was a significant benefit of estimating using a solid AR shape. In Experiment 2, cognitive anchoring was manipulated. Using meaningful AR anchors resulted in the best performance and most learning. We conclude that spatial estimation skills can be combined with mental strategies and trained via AR.

Climate Change and Six Americas: What Can Behavior Analysts Do?

Climate change, directly impacted by human behavior, has been investigated and evaluated across disciplines. The Six Americas was developed as a segmentation tool to communicate effectively with the United States population about climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021) across a spectrum from those likely to act in opposition to climate change mitigation strategies to those actively seeking to remediate the climate change effects. Behavior analysts offer unique skills to intervene at the individual level effectively. Behavior analysts will benefit from learning about this conceptual model and its tools, particularly to inform intervention across the spectrum of the Six Americas. This paper will cover a background of the Six Americas and suggestions on how to intervene for these different segments at the individual level, followed by a brief review of the existing effective literature, particularly regarding changing behavior in the food, energy, and transportation sectors. Specifically, behavior analytic interventions will be suggested for a population concerned about climate change who may also be posed for action. Finally, we will provide suggestions to guide behavior analysts to intervene with those disengaged or actively dismissive of the threats posed by climate change.

Behavior analytic contributions to public health and telehealth

The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is launching a special series on the topics of public health and telehealth. The special series begins with the articles in this issue and will continue for the next 2 to 3 issues with an open submission window until September 1, 2020. Behavior analysis has much to offer with respect to public health and much to gain from continued and expanded use of telehealth. This paper outlines the importance of these topics in the current crisis and in our ongoing evolution as a field. The historical literature in behavior analysis is reviewed for each topic along with suggestions for future research. The articles from the special series will be combined with historical contributions from JABA into a virtual issue. We encourage continued submissions on these topics even after the special series is completed as future papers will also be incorporated into the special issue.

An Evaluation of the Emergence of Untrained Academic and Applied Skills After Instruction With Video Vignettes

Applied behavior-analytic skills are derived from precise, technical, objective operational definitions and exemplars of natural phenomena. In some cases, technical behavior-analytic terminology can be challenging for students and practitioners to learn and apply given a person's individual history with the concepts. One of the conceptual areas of behavior analysis that learners tend to struggle with more than other areas is the functional account of human language or verbal behavior. We used an emergent-responding training protocol with freely available and easy-to-implement web-based learning tools to teach the terms and definitions of Skinner's taxonomy of verbal operants using video exemplars and mixed response forms to six graduate students. We also tested for the emergence of untrained applied clinical skills in the form of collecting data while watching novel real-world video exemplars. We found that the video-based training system reliably resulted in the emergence of untrained responding and generalization to novel stimuli and responses and that the skills were maintained by four out of six participants for 2 weeks. In addition, the applied skills performances of the participants were comparable to students who received traditional training in verbal behavior, slightly lower than the performances of Board Certified Behavior Analysts, and considerably lower than the performances of doctoral-level BCBAs. When compared to other published research that used emergent-responding training protocols, the current study required more training time on average but resulted in better performances during some maintenance probes. A brief conceptual analysis of our data is presented, as well as recommendations for future research.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40616-020-00140-3.

Leveraging applied behavior analysis research and practice in the service of public health

Human behavior plays a central role in all domains of public health. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) research and practice can contribute to public health solutions that directly address human behavior. In this paper, we describe the field of public health, identify points of interaction between public health and ABA, summarize what ABA research has already contributed, and provide several recommendations for how ABA research and practice could continue to promote public health outcomes. A clearer focus on behavior and widespread adoption of research designs and interventions informed by the ABA literature could lead to better public health outcomes. Reciprocally, better integration of public health goals and strategies into ABA research, harnessing of technology, and more collaboration would help diversify and disseminate our applied science and could yield more effective and scalable interventions to prevent and treat public health problems.

Evaluation of Fat Accumulation and Adipokine Production during the Long-Term Adipogenic Differentiation of Porcine Intramuscular Preadipocytes and Study of the Influence of Immunobiotics

The degree of fat accumulation and adipokine production are two major indicators of obesity that are correlated with increased adipose tissue mass and chronic inflammatory responses. Adipocytes have been considered effector cells for the inflammatory responses due to their capacity to express Toll-like receptors (TLRs). In this study, we evaluated the degree of fat accumulation and adipokine production in porcine intramuscular preadipocyte (PIP) cells maintained for in vitro differentiation over a long period without or with stimulation of either TNF-α or TLR2-, TLR3-, or TLR4-ligands. The cytosolic fat accumulation was measured by liquid chromatography and the expression of adipokines (CCL2, IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10) were quantified by RT-qPCR and ELISA at several time points (0 to 20 days) of PIP cells differentiation. Long-term adipogenic differentiation (LTAD) induced a progressive fat accumulation in the adipocytes over time. Activation of TLR3 and TLR4 resulted in an increased rate of fat accumulation into the adipocytes over the LTAD. The production of CCL2, IL-8 and IL-6 were significantly increased in unstimulated adipocytes during the LTAD, while IL-10 expression remained stable over the studied period. An increasing trend of adiponectin and leptin production was also observed during the LTAD. On the other hand, the stimulation of adipocytes with TLRs agonists or TNF-α resulted in an increasing trend of CCL2, IL-6 and IL-8 production while IL-10 remained stable in all four treatments during the LTAD. We also examined the influences of several immunoregulatory probiotic strains (immunobiotics) on the modulation of the fat accumulation and adipokine production using supernatants of immunobiotic-treated intestinal immune cells and the LTAD of PIP cells. Immunobiotics have shown a strain-specific ability to modulate the fat accumulation and adipokine production, and differentiation of adipocytes. Here, we expanded the utility and potential application of our in vitro PIP cells model by evaluating an LTAD period (20 days) in order to elucidate further insights of chronic inflammatory pathobiology of adipocytes associated with obesity as well as to explore the prospects of immunomodulatory intervention for obesity such as immunobiotics.

Using Stimulus-Equivalence Technology to Teach Skills About Nutritional Content

Twenty-two adult participants, assigned to three conditions, were trained nutrition knowledge (i.e., carbohydrate values) for different food items. In a stimulus sorting test, the participants were asked to sort stimuli (names of food items) into one of three different ranges of carbohydrate values ("less than 20", "20–40", "more than 40" gram per 100 gram). Conditional-discrimination training and testing followed the sorting test, and finally, a postclass formation sorting test of the stimuli used in the conditional-discrimination training. The conditional-discrimination training used tailored stimuli, that is, the food items that each of the participants categorized incorrectly in the sorting test. Participants exposed to Conditions 1 and 2 were trained on six conditional discriminations and tested for the formation of three 3-member classes. Conditions 2 and 3 had a “don’t know” option together with the three different ranges of carbohydrate values in the sorting for tailoring the stimuli. Participants exposed to Condition 3 trained were trained on 12 conditional discriminations and tested for the formation of three 5-member classes. The main findings showed that all but one of the participants responded correctly on at least one test for equivalence class formation and sorted the stimuli correctly in the postclass formation sorting test.

Mobile Health Applications in Weight Management: A Systematic Literature Review

CONTEXT

Weight management is an effective strategy for controlling chronic disease and maintaining physical health, and research on this topic has risen dramatically over the past four decades. The present systematic literature review aimed to identify existing evidence on the efficacy of mobile health technology in facilitating weight management behaviors, such as healthy food consumption and physical activity.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

A systematic search was conducted in Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid PsycINFO databases with the aim to identify studies published in peer-reviewed journal articles between 2012 and 2017.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS

A total of 39 studies were analyzed in spring 2018 and are presented here in terms of participant characteristics, effective technology components, additional treatments, impact on health-related behaviors, and treatment efficacy. Indicators of study quality and social validity are also provided.

CONCLUSIONS

Mobile health apps are widely considered as satisfactory, easy to use, and helpful in the pursuit of weight loss goals by patients. The potential of mobile health apps in facilitating weight loss lies in their ability to increase treatment adherence through strategies such as self-monitoring. These findings indicate that satisfactory treatment adherence and consequent weight loss and maintenance are achieved in the presence of high levels of engagement with a mobile health app. The research quality assessment of RCTs reveals a great need for following international standards both when conducting and reporting research.

An Assessment of the Validity of an Audio-Video Method of Food Journaling for Dietary Quantity and Quality

Objective

To validate an audio-video (AV) method of food journaling, in a free-living scenario, compared to direct, weighed food assessment.

Design and Setting

Data were collected in a cafeteria. Meals, selected by participants (n=30), were documented using the AV method: participants video-recorded their tray while audio-recording a description of their selected meal, after which the research team digitally weighed each food item and created an itemized diary record of the food.

Variables Measured

Data from the AV method and from the weighed food diaries were transcribed and entered into a nutrition software analysis program (Nutribase Pro 10.0). Nutrient outputs were compared between the two methods including kilocalories, macronutrients, and selected micronutrients.

Analyses

Using mean scores for each variable, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Spearman's correlation coefficients were conducted. Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated for absolute agreement between the two methods to assess interrater reliability.

Results

With the exception of Vitamin E and total weight, nutrient values were highly correlated between methods and were statistically significant given alpha = 0.05, power = 0.95, and effect size of 0.70.

Conclusions

The AV method may be a meaningful alternative to diary recording in a free-living setting.

Healthy Eating: Approaching the Selection, Preparation, and Consumption of Healthy Food as Choice Behavior

Healthy eating has important well-being and financial implications for our society. As such, it is critical that the field of behavior science and behavior analysis conduct more research in this area so that effective interventions may be developed. One barrier to addressing healthy eating may be conceptual. Far from being a single response, eating is comprised of a series of choice responses. These selection, preparation and consumption responses form a temporally delayed behavioral chain. When designing interventions to address healthy eating, therefore, one must not only consider the specific target response, but alternative response options, and the effect of changing one response on other choices in the chain. The purpose of this article is to refine the analysis of healthy eating behavior, provide examples of research conducted in this area, and discuss how these interventions may influence this chain of responses. It is hoped that by doing so, additional research will be conducted and disseminated so that individuals, organizations, and policy makers can implement more effective interventions for healthy eating.

The Role of Various Forms of Training on Improved Accuracy of Food-Portion Estimation Skills: A Systematic Review of the Literature

This study describes the types of food-portion tools used and changes in accuracy for food-portion size estimation by adult populations after an intervention of food-portion education and training. This systematic review searched 7 scientific databases. Only internally comparable study designs were included. Studies were tabulated for nutrition- and non-nutrition-trained university students and the general population. Included studies were assessed for level of evidence and quality, including risk of bias. Thirteen studies were reviewed, with 8 targeting university students. Food type, length of training, number of tools, and the impact of repeated use on food-portion estimation were summarized. Estimation accuracy calculations across studies were not consistent, and training was found to improve portion-size estimation accuracy in the short term (4 wk). Computer-based training tools only identified for the general population were equally or less effective and shifted estimation from under- to overestimation. This review suggests that education with food-portion tools may be effective in improving estimation skills in university-recruited participants and the general population. Computerized tools for university students are required, likely combined with other tools for improved estimation accuracy. The use of food models or multiple tools is more effective until a tailored computerized solution is developed. Repeated training is needed to maintain skills over time. This systematic review was registered with PROSPERO at http://bit.ly/2mZK3u3 as CRD42016038110.

Sidman Goes to College: A Meta-Analysis of Equivalence-Based Instruction in Higher Education

Equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is a pedagogy based on the principles of stimulus equivalence for teaching academically relevant concepts. This self-paced and mastery-based methodology meets many of the instructional design standards suggested by Skinner (1968), adds generative learning by programming for derived stimulus-stimulus relations, and can be particularly useful in the context of a college course in which students must learn numerous concepts. In this article, we provide the first meta-analysis of EBI in higher education. The authors conducted a systematic literature search that identified 31 applied, college-level EBI experiments across 28 articles. Separate meta-analyses were conducted for single-subject and group design studies. Results showed that EBI is more effective than no instruction and an active control and that studies comparing EBI variants show differences between training variants. Future research should increase internal, external, and statistical conclusion validity to promote the mainstream use of EBI in classrooms.

Research into food portion size: methodological aspects and applications

Portion sizes for certain foods have been increasing dramatically in recent years alongside obesity rates, concurring with the phenomenon of the portion size effect (more is consumed when more is offered). Portion size may be defined based on different purposes such as for dietary assessment, or therapeutic advice or food labelling, resulting in a variety of measurement methods and specifications. This situation has resulted in disagreements on establishing portion size recommendations by manufacturers, food distributors, restaurants, health professionals and policy makers, contributing to confusion amongst consumers on the amounts of food to be consumed, and potentially increasing the likelihood of overeating and other obesity-related behaviours. Such variability is also reflected in the research field making comparison across studies on portion size difficult. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of definitions and methods used in research to evaluate portion-size related outcomes, including methods to estimate amounts consumed by individuals as part of dietary assessment; methods to analyse cognitive mechanisms related to portion size behaviour; and methods to evaluate the impact of portion size manipulations as well as individual plus environmental factors on portion size behaviour. Special attention has been paid to behavioural studies exploring portion size cognitive processes given the lack of previous methodological reviews in this area. This information may help researchers, clinicians and other stakeholders to establish clearer definitions of portion size in their respective areas of work and to standardise methods to analyse portion size effects.