Citation

Van Houten R, Malenfant JEL, Austin J, Lebbon A. J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 2005; 38(2): 195-203.

Affiliation

Psychology Department, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3M 2J6, Canada. rvh@cers-safety.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1901/jaba.2005.48-04

PMID

16033166

PMCID

PMC1226155

Abstract

A seatbelt-gearshift delay was evaluated in two U.S. and three Canadian vehicles using a reversal design. The seatbelt-gearshift delay required unbelted drivers either to buckle their seatbelts or to wait a specified time before they could put the vehicle in gear. After collecting behavioral prebaseline data, a data logger was installed in all five vehicles to collect automated data on seatbelt use. Next the seatbelt-gearshift delay was introduced. The results showed that the delay increased all 5 drivers' seatbelt use, and that the duration of the delay that produced relatively consistent seatbelt use varied across drivers from 5 to 20 s. When the device was deactivated in four of the five vehicles, behavior returned to baseline levels.

Language: en