What antecedent control strategy was being used to increase the target behavior? Why is this strategy, by itself, not enough to keep people flossing? What effect is this intervention likely to have on dental care in general? What other strategies would you add to make it more likely that people will keep flossing their teeth?

Scenario

Dr. Drake, the dentist, was concerned that many of her 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 every day. Every time patients came in for a checkup or cleaning, Dr. Drake shoed them awful pictures of people with gum disease and pictures of painful surgery that the 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. What antecedent control strategy was Dr. Drake using to get her patients to floss their teeth? Why is this strategy, by itself, not enough to keep people flossing? What effect is this strategy likely to have on dental care in general? What other strategies would you add to make it more likely that people will keep flossing their teeth?

Scenario taken from Miltenberger, R. G. (2008). Antecedent control procedures. In Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures. (4th ed.). (pp. 341-367). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.