Decelerating Environmentally Destructive Lawn-Walking

Three general strategies (response difficulty, chaining, and prompting) were used to generate 6 interventions to decrease lawn walking in a park. Interventions were evaluated in separate ABA designs during which 1,885 persons (61% male) were observed. While none of the 3 strategies appeared generally superior, some interventions were more effective than others. Formal prompts (signs) and procedures involving response difficulty (i.e., physical barriers to pathways) were most effective. An intervention designed by professional planners independent of this study was also evaluated and shown to increase lawn walking slightly, though not significantly, rather than to decrease it. The value of conducting a behavioral analysis prior to implementing permanent environmental rearrangements is emphasized.