Experimental Evaluation of an Informational and Behavior Change Program to

Increase Undergraduate Students’ Energy Conservation

Marcie Desrochers, Hilary Mosher, Jonathan Agins, Sandeep Mitra,

K. B. LakshmananThe College at Brockport--SUNY

Why does energy use occur?  Unnecessary energy 

useEnergy conservation behaviors

Reinforcers/rewards

Easier to immediately turn on computer or gaming station;Immediate use when computer or gaming station is left on

Statements by self or others that energy was conserved or savings accrued

Punishers Slightly higher monthly electric bill – very delayed and not tied directly to energy use for computer or gaming station

Takes time to turn off computer completely or gaming station;Must wait for computer or gaming station to turn on completely for use

How can energy conservation be fostered?

  Unnecessary energy use

Energy conservation behaviors

Reinforcers/rewards

Statements by self or others that energy was conserved or savings accrued;Immediate information about savings

Punishers Higher monthly electric bill – immediate and tied directly to energy use for computer or gaming station;- Make it more difficult to immediately turn on computer or gaming station;

Antecedents -> Desired -> ConsequencesBehavior

• Goals• Prompts/cues• Role Models

• Benefits vs. costs

• Immediate vs. delayed

• Informational feedback

• Knowledge• Attend to

behavior• Evaluate

behavior

A Behavioral Analysis

Antecedents -> Desired -> ConsequencesBehavior

Self-Management Behaviors

Behavioral Contract

Example: Behavioral Contract

1. Goal:2. Steps to change the environment to promote your behavior: 3. Monitoring your behavior:4. Rewards for your behavior:5. Steps to maintain commitment :6. How will you evaluate effectiveness of program? Signature: Date:Cosigner: Date:

Example of a Behavioral Contract

Goal: Laptop should be unplugged at least 6x per week for at least 12 hours per week.

Steps to change the environment to promote the behavior: I will use a sticky note on my door (to be changed every night) to remind me before I leave home.

How will you monitor your behavior: Record duration turned off on graph.

Consequences for the desired behavior: I will buy my favorite coffee when I make a week with 12 hours unplugged

Consequences for the undesired behavior: If I forget to turn off, I will have to turn off for at least 1 hour when I get home.

3 Post-Treatment

Assessments

Control Condition

4 WeekFollow-up

44 Participants randomly assigned

to condition

ExperimentalCondition

*Experimental Procedure

2 Baseline Assessments“How many time per day did you completely turn off and unplug your computer?”

1 20

10

20

30

40

50

60

ExperimentalControl

Self Report Assessments

Ave

rage

 of t

he T

otal

 Tim

e Pe

r Day

 Dev

ices

 are

 Tur

ned 

Off

Baseline Follow Up

Desrochers, M.N., Mosher, H., Meehan, G. (2012). Self-management of pro-environmental behavior. In preparation.

Results

* t test between conditions for follow up t(42) = 2.13, p < 0.05

*

Results

Problems with Self-Reports

• Subjective• Delayed – 24 hours• CMS dependent (administered on ANGEL)

PUMP (Power Usage Monitoring Program)

• PUMP Imitates the functionality of a Wattmeter by recording the energy use of multiple devices simultaneously.• Provides an option to give the user

feedback every time a device is powered down.• Data is saved in a central database,

making it effortless to run studies on massive sets of data.

PUMP (Power Usage Monitoring Program)

• PUMP runs on every mobile platform, making dispersion both inexpensive and easy.

• Every session of PUMP lasts exactly three days and has the option to lock users out of specific functionalities, making it an effective measuring tool for gathering data.

Current Research

Concurrent Validation of PUMP

Procedure 

Recruiting participants

Giving instructions

Does app usage time & watt-o-meter time agree?

app

Watt meter

Correlation

Questionnaire

Correlation

Preliminary Results

10

500100015002000250030003500400045005000

Watt-O-MeterApp Estimated Via Survey Question

Participants

Min

utes

 Dev

ice 

On

. . . is possible

. . . requires planning

. . . can be beneficial

Summary: Behavior Change. . . .

Acknowledgements

• Student researchers• Faculty• Institutional support