Comparing Force and Ratio Progressions from the Behavioral Economic Unit Price Equation

In behavioral economic demand, the currently predominant conceptualization of unit price suggests that increasing lever weight or ratio requirement should result in equal changes in unit price and thus identical changes in consumption. Data from the few studies that have compared consumption under ratio progressions and force progressions tend to show differences in consumption across the two manipulations, even with unit price adjustments. These studies, however, failed to measure the broader operant class (i.e., subcriterion responses) and the force of individual responses, so the present experiments extend this work by using a force transducer to measure responding. In Experiment 1, six rats responded for sweetened condensed milk across ascending prices composed of ratio or force progressions equated based on unit price. Consistent with prior research, results showed consumption differed across progression types, with force progressions producing more inelastic consumption across low unit prices than ratio progressions. As force criterion increased, the proportion of subcriterion relative to total responses increased. Experiment 2 aimed to investigate how these subcriterion responses impacted the demand functions obtained from the force progressions. In Experiment 2, demand curves were obtained by yoking reinforcer-by-reinforcer to the total number of responses (i.e., subcriterion and criterion) per reinforcer delivery from the force progressions for each rat. Some similar patterns of consumption were observed across the force and yoked progressions, but deviations were noted. Convergence in consumption was assessed across several candidate alternatives to unit price, with the greatest convergence produced by measures of cumulative time integral of force per 0.05-ml unit of reinforcer and mean cumulative response duration per 0.05-ml unit of reinforcer

Automating Scoring of Delay Discounting for the 21- and 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaires

Delay discounting describes the process wherein rewards lose value as a function of their delayed receipt; how quickly rewards lose value is termed the rate of delay discounting. Rates of delay discounting are robust predictors of much behavior of societal importance. One efficient approach to obtaining a human subject’s rate of delay discounting is via the 21- and 27-item Monetary Choice Questionnaires, brief dichotomous choice tasks that assess preference between small immediate and larger delayed monetary outcomes. Unfortunately, the scoring procedures for the Monetary Choice Questionnaires are rather complex, which may serve as a barrier to their use. This report details a freely available Excel-based spreadsheet tool that automatically scores Monetary Choice Questionnaire response sets, using both traditional and contemporary/ advanced approaches. An overview of the Monetary Choice Questionnaire and its scoring algorithm is provided. We conclude with general considerations for using the spreadsheet tool

The application of digital health to the assessment and treatment of substance use disorders: The past, current, and future role of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network

The application of digital technologies to better assess, understand, and treat substance use disorders (SUDs) is a particularly promising and vibrant area of scientific research. The National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN), launched in 1999 by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, has supported a growing line of research that leverages digital technologies to glean new insights into SUDs and provide science-based therapeutic tools to a diverse array of persons with SUDs. This manuscript provides an overview of the breadth and impact of research conducted in the realm of digital health within the CTN. This work has included the CTN\u27s efforts to systematically embed digital screeners for SUDs into general medical settings to impact care models across the nation. This work has also included a pivotal multi-site clinical trial conducted on the CTN platform, whose data led to the very first “prescription digital therapeutic” authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of SUDs. Further CTN research includes the study of telehealth to increase capacity for science-based SUD treatment in rural and under-resourced communities. In addition, the CTN has supported an assessment of the feasibility of detecting cocaine-taking behavior via smartwatch sensing. And, the CTN has supported the conduct of clinical trials entirely online (including the recruitment of national and hard-to-reach/under-served participant samples online, with remote intervention delivery and data collection). Further, the CTN is supporting innovative work focused on the use of digital health technologies and data analytics to identify digital biomarkers and understand the clinical trajectories of individuals receiving medications for opioid use disorder (OUD). This manuscript concludes by outlining the many potential future opportunities to leverage the unique national CTN research network to scale-up the science on digital health to examine optimal strategies to increase the reach of science-based SUD service delivery models both within and outside of healthcare

21- and 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire Automated Scorers

These Excel spreadsheets automatically score up to 1000 participants’ responses obtained from the 21- and 27-item Kirby Monetary Choice Questionnaires (MCQ) and provide several descriptive and statistical measures including k values, consistency scores, proportion scores, correlations, and more. We recommend using Microsoft Excel 2010 or newer when opening this file.The 21- and 27-item Monetary Choice Questionnaires (MCQ; Kirby & Marakovic, 1996; Kirby, Petry, & Bickel, 1999) are among the most popular tools to assess discounting as evidenced by 346 citations for the 21-item MCQ and 909 citations for the 27-item MCQ (www.scholar.google.com). Notwithstanding the immense success of these questionnaires, scoring and deriving discount rates are often times complicated (Myerson, Baumann, & Green, 2014) and time consuming. Therefore, these Excel-based tools were created to automatically score responses obtained using both versions of the MCQ. These automated calculators provide several discount rates (overall k, small, medium, large, and composite k), log and natural log transformations of discount rates, consistency scores, and proportion (% Larger Later) measures for individuals. Summary statistics for group comparisons include mean, standard deviation, and standard error of the mean for the aforementioned measures as well as Pearson product-moment correlations between magnitudes. For questions/comments, please contact Brent Kaplan ([email protected]) or Derek Reed ([email protected])

Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning (semester?), IPRO 355: KlarAqua IPRO 355 Final Report F06

The main objective of the IPRO is to improve health conditions in low-income societies, specifically Mexico, by the design and implementation of a water filtration system. In previous semesters, the filtration system has been designed and tested. A pilot study will be conducted in Mexico in the coming months. The main objective for this semester is to develop a business plan for the IPRO in order to implement the broad distribution of the water filter.Deliverables for IPRO 355: Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning for the Fall 2006 semeste

Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning (semester?), IPRO 355: KlarAqua IPRO 355 IPRO Day Presentation F06

The main objective of the IPRO is to improve health conditions in low-income societies, specifically Mexico, by the design and implementation of a water filtration system. In previous semesters, the filtration system has been designed and tested. A pilot study will be conducted in Mexico in the coming months. The main objective for this semester is to develop a business plan for the IPRO in order to implement the broad distribution of the water filter.Deliverables for IPRO 355: Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning for the Fall 2006 semeste

Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning (semester?), IPRO 355

The main objective of the IPRO is to improve health conditions in low-income societies, specifically Mexico, by the design and implementation of a water filtration system. In previous semesters, the filtration system has been designed and tested. A pilot study will be conducted in Mexico in the coming months. The main objective for this semester is to develop a business plan for the IPRO in order to implement the broad distribution of the water filter.Deliverables for IPRO 355: Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning for the Fall 2006 semeste

Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning (semester?), IPRO 355: KlarAqua IPRO 355 Abstract F06

The main objective of the IPRO is to improve health conditions in low-income societies, specifically Mexico, by the design and implementation of a water filtration system. In previous semesters, the filtration system has been designed and tested. A pilot study will be conducted in Mexico in the coming months. The main objective for this semester is to develop a business plan for the IPRO in order to implement the broad distribution of the water filter.Deliverables for IPRO 355: Pilot Study in Mexico for KlarAqua Water Filtration System and Business Planning for the Fall 2006 semeste

Educational and Technical support of Orthotics and Prosthetics Education in Latin America (semester?), IPRO 309: Orthotics and Prosthetics Edu in Latin America IPRO 309 Final Report Sp06

There is an enormous need for creating and supporting education opportunities in orthotics and prosthetics in Latin America. The primary objective of this IPRO is to support the first orthotics and prosthetics educational program (established in February 2005) in Bogotá, Colombia.Deliverables for IPRO 309: Educational and Technical support of Orthotics and Prosthetics Education in Latin America for the Spring 2006 semeste

Educational and Technical support of Orthotics and Prosthetics Education in Latin America (semester?), IPRO 309

There is an enormous need for creating and supporting education opportunities in orthotics and prosthetics in Latin America. The primary objective of this IPRO is to support the first orthotics and prosthetics educational program (established in February 2005) in Bogotá, Colombia.Deliverables for IPRO 309: Educational and Technical support of Orthotics and Prosthetics Education in Latin America for the Spring 2006 semeste