Discussion:
Antecedent Control Strategy
Dr. Drake, a dentist was concerned that many of his patients did not floss their teeth regularly and were therefore at risk for gum disease. Dr. Drake devised a plan to get her patients to floss everyday. Every time patients came in for a check up or cleaning, Dr. Drake showed them awful pictures of people with gum disease and pictures of painful surgery that people with gum disease had to endure because they did not floss regularly. Before the patients left the office, she told them that they could avoid the awful gum disease and the painful surgery by flossing their teeth for 2 minutes every day.
Questions:
1. What antecedent control strategy was Dr. Drake using to get her patients to floss their teeth?
2. Why is this strategy, by itself not enough to keep people flossing?
3. What other strategy would you add to make it more likely that people would keep flossing their teeth regularly?