The Use of Observational Technology to Study In-Store Behavior: Consumer Choice, Video Surveillance, and Retail Analytics.
Off-the-shelf store cameras plus a four-term lens give you an unobtrusive, frame-by-frame look at human choice.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Larsen et al. (2017) built a new way to watch shoppers. They used store cameras and free software to log every reach, pause, and purchase.
The team mapped the four-term contingency—MO, cue, response, consequence—onto each product touch. No extra people, clipboards, or wires.
What they found
The paper is a recipe, not a scoreboard. It shows how to turn hours of silent video into clean choice data.
No shoppers were treated or tested; the authors simply proved the system works.
How this fits with other research
Luna et al. (2026) used the same idea in a factory. AI video plus quick feedback helped workers stand safer. Both papers let behavior analysts study real life without a clipboard.
Killeen (1978) first showed that daily budgets control animal choice. Magne’s tool now lets us watch the same budget rules play out with cereal and soup cans.
Furrebøe et al. (2017) argued that behavior analysis can tame the fuzzy label of “irrational shopper.” Magne gives the field the camera code to test that claim.
Why it matters
You can borrow this setup tomorrow. Mount a cheap IP camera over a classroom shelf, therapy room, or family kitchen. Let the software count grabs, hesitations, and returns. You will see the true moment that MOs and cues collide—no recall bias, no reactivity. Use the clip to shape staff behavior, justify visual boundaries, or teach caregivers how shelf height nudges choice.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The store is the main laboratory for in-store experimental analysis. This article provides an introduction to a research program aimed at improving research practices in this laboratory, particularly emphasizing the importance of behavioral data and the new opportunities that technology offers. This complex modern-day Skinner box has sets of well-studied stimuli-behavior interactions that constantly adapt to the latest economic environment and as such constantly stretch the boundaries of behavioral analytic theory. However, the retail setting is highly important to applied behavior analysis for such issues as health, debt, environmental conservation, animal welfare, self-control, and consumer protection in general. This article presents a research strategy that emphasizes key environmental touch points throughout the customer journey in grocery retailing. We highlight the latest development by examining a particular research case and discussing the need for behavioral economic understanding of the start of the grocery journey, that is, the consumer choice of in-store product carrying equipment (e.g., cart, basket, or nothing). The conceptual system consists of a molecular four-term contingency framework as well as a more molar approach with conversion-rate modeling, where actual choice behavior is detected through video surveillance. The data are analyzed using a Shopper Flow© Tracking System in which software is designed to provide automatic data on shopper behavior and to assist human observers in tracking individual shopping trips. We discuss behavioral classifications, methodology, and implications related to the data from consumer tracking efforts.
The Behavior analyst, 2017 · doi:10.1086/661768