A New Frontier: Integrating Behavioral and Digital Technology to Promote Health Behavior.
Everyday gadgets are ready channels for antecedent and consequence interventions if we design them with ABA in mind.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Dallery et al. (2015) wrote a narrative review. They looked at how phones, wearables, and web tools can deliver ABA principles for health habits.
The paper is a call to action. It tells behavior analysts to pair antecedent and consequence tactics with real-time data from apps or sensors.
What they found
The review found the tech is ready. Phones, Fitbits, and smart pill boxes can cue, track, and reinforce actions like walking or quitting smoking.
No new data were collected. The authors simply map where behavior science can plug into everyday digital devices.
How this fits with other research
Farley et al. (2022) extend the idea. They built an ACT Matrix phone app for adults and ran an RCT. Small gains in physical activity showed the blueprint can work, yet most outcomes stayed flat and users dropped off quickly.
Foti et al. (2015) also extend the vision. Their case study used video chat to coach parents through full functional analyses and FCT at home. Tech made high-level ABA doable from 200 miles away.
Sorrell et al. (2025) push the same theme into teacher training. Virtual video modeling plus feedback taught future teachers to run trial-based FAs, and skills carried over to real classrooms. Together these papers show the 2015 roadmap is alive across assessment, intervention, and practitioner development.
Why it matters
You no longer need a clinic room to deliver ABA. Phones, watches, and video calls can cue, measure, and reinforce client behavior wherever life happens. Start small: pick one health target, pair an app alert with praise or points, and watch the data stream in. The hardware is cheap; the next step is ours.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Modifiable behavioral risk factors such as cigarette smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity contribute to over 40 % of premature deaths in the USA. Advances in digital and information technology are creating unprecedented opportunities for behavior analysts to assess and modify these risk factors. Technological advances include mobile devices, wearable sensors, biomarker detectors, and real-time access to therapeutic support via information technology. Integrating these advances with behavioral technology in the form of conceptually systematic principles and procedures could usher in a new generation of effective and scalable behavioral interventions targeting health behavior. In this selective review of the literature, we discuss how technological tools can assess and modify a range of antecedents and consequences of healthy and unhealthy behavior. We also describe practical, methodological, and conceptual advantages for behavior analysts that stem from the use of technology to assess and treat health behavior.
The Behavior analyst, 2015 · doi:10.1007/s40614-014-0017-y