We have so far discussed the topography and function of a behavior as it relates to a behavioral class. How do the antecedents alter the topography of exercize? Here are some crazy gadgets that are used for exercize.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/13/fitness-gadgets-the-weird_n_461305.html
Discuss the use of these devices and the different types of behavior they elicit.
If you want to make money with exercise equipment it seems unlikely that you'll appeal to a mass audience by selling something which requires them to find a way to work it into their lives. In behavioral terms, you cannot hope to make a lot of money by selling a product in which the only antecedent to them using it is "going to workout." So these various products have capitalized by fitting their equipment to a variety of antecedents that naturally occur throughout the day.
The variety of exercise equipment covers all sorts of antecedents to your exercise behavior. For example some were designed to be used while working, naturally in an effort to capitalize on the fact that most people don't have the time to work & work out.
A- working at your desk
sets the occasion for
B- exercising
which results in
C- looking good, losing weight, etc.
In order to fit this ABC list the topography of the equipment changes by adding computer monitors to the various equipment, or adding a treadmill to the bottom of your desk. Another antecedent which happens often during the day is playing video games. So they’ve outfitted numerous gizmo’s to capitalize on this by making kids exercise in order to power the keyboards and controllers, etc.
Another common antecedent is slightly more broad than playing video games, just relaxing, or lounging, or having fun. As a result there are numerous exercise gizmo’s like waistbands, automated chairs, etc. which work while you simply sit around the house. It is obviously debatable whether any of these actually work (though if they do they will serve as an establishing operation for future use), but the point is the companies create equipment with very different topographies so that they lend themselves quite well to antecedents of behaviors we do every day. Everyone types on the computer, plays videogames, plays sports, eats food, or gets on a scale or records calorie intake, etc. Since these antecedents exist naturally, if the company can make a topographically relevant gizmo it greatly increases the chance that you will buy that item. After all, you were going to play video games anyway, why not get ripped abs, and look super sexy while doing it? It’s just that easy, wonder how much it costs?
Terms: antecedent, emit, topographies, establishing operation
This isn't what the blog entry asks for, but we just did an anatomical analysis in our Kinesiology lab on these exact "weight-loss gizmos", and identified which muscles each one works out and refuted their claims of melting away belly fat and giving you 6 pack abs with no work. Really, there's no replacement for exercise and diet. It's actually impossible to spot reduce fat, so any equipment that makes that claim is lying. Most of the exercise equipment we analyzed not only didn't help your routine, but reduced the effectiveness of the exercise, didn't work the abs at all, or even posed a health risk to the person using it.
No comment on b-modness, just thought it was interesting you posted this right after I did this in Kinesiology.