10.2190/ADU2-6GFB-52PB-DVN5 ADU26GFB52PBDVN5 1 An Evaluation of the Effectiveness, Costs and Benefits of Laying a Paved Path to Permit Grass Regeneration 1 11 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 ADU26GFB52PBDVN5.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=ADU26GFB52PBDVN5 1 L. S. Leland P. Hughes S. Halder M. Rowan Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand An ABAB design was used to evaluate the presentation and removal of a hard surfaced pathway over an area which was subject to considerable destructive lawnwalking and which was initially bare of grass in its heaviest traffic areas. The presence of the paved path significantly reduced (from 100% to 3%) the amount of destructive lawnwalking, when all crossings were taken into account. More importantly, it also significantly reduced the amount of destructive lawnwalking (from 32% to 3%) when the population that always (in both baseline and intervention) walked on the potential path area (i.e., the area that was covered by the paved path during intervention periods) was eliminated from the analysis. In addition, there was a significant (81%) increase in the number of pedestrians crossing the area when the paved path was present. Despite this increase, the average number of destructive lawnwalkers off the path area went from 5.4 (per 25 minute observation period) during baselines to 1.1 during interventions. These changes in behavior are discussed in terms of the competing contingencies present during baseline and intervention. Path laying also proved cost effective and a permanent path has now been constructed where the experimental path had been laid. This has resulted in a spontaneous regrassing of the areas adjacent to this path. E. S. Geller, R. A. Winett and P. B. Everett, <i>Preserving the Environment: New Strategies for Behavior Change</i>, Pergamon Press, New York, 1982. J. D. Cone and S. C. Hayes, <i>Environmental Problems: Behavioral Solutions</i>, Brooks/Cole, Monterey, Calif., 1980. V. M. Lolordo and K. L. Shapiro, A Behavioral Approach to Population Control, in <i>Behavioral Community Psychology: Progress and Prospects</i>, D. Glenwick and L. Jason (eds.), Praeger, New York, pp. 360-387, 1980. D. Glenwick and L. Jason (eds.), <i>Behavioral Community Psychology: Progress and Prospects</i>, Praeger, New York, 1980. S. C. Hayes and J. D. Cone, Decelerating Environmentally Destructive Lawn-walking, <i>Environment and Behaviour, 9</i>, pp. 511-533, 1977. L. A. Jason and R. Liotta, Pedestrian Jaywalking under Facilitating and Non-Facilitating Conditions, <i>Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 15</i>, pp. 469-473, 1982. N. Squires and E. Fantino, A Model for Choice on Simple Concurrent and Concurrent-Chain Schedules, <i>Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 15</i>, pp. 27-38, 1971. P. G. Zimbardo, A Field Experiment in Autoshaping, in <i>Vandalism</i>, C. Ward (ed.), The Architectural Press, London, pp. 85-90, 1973. J. Collins, L. S. Leland, Jr., T. Molteno, and C. Leatham, Installation of Graffiti Boards to Induce Localization of Graffiti Writing, unpublished manuscript, University of Otago, Psychology Department, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1981. R. Jerrich and P. Sampson, Analysis of Variance and Covariance Including Repeated Measures, in <i>BMDP Biomedical Computer Programs: P. Series</i>, W. J. Dixon and M. B. Brown (eds.), University of California Press, Los Angeles, pp. 540-580, 1977. J. H. Zar, <i>Biostatistical Analysis</i>, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1974.