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Wendy Donlin Washington |
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I am an experimental psychologist with primary interests in Applied Behavior Analysis, especially as it applies to substance abuse. My research goals are to apply behavioral treatments, called contingency management programs, to local drug abusing populations. Contingency management involves setting up close monitoring of drug use, and providing positive reinforcers when a person shows evidence of recent drug abstinence. For example, if someone were interested in quitting smoking, a program would be set up to monitor their breath carbon monoxide levels several times per day. Most attempts to quit smoking will fail in the first few weeks, so a reinforcer contingency will be set up to reward smoking abstinence during that period. If the carbon monoxide levels did not indicate recent smoking, then the individual would receive a gift certificate (e.g. blockbuster, walmart). Longer durations of abstinence would result in bigger reinforcers. These treatments have been shown to be effective across many populations and for nearly all drugs of abuse. The most pressing problem in the field now is to disseminate the research findings, and develop practical applications of the technology. Select Publications Donlin, W., Silverman, K., Needham, M., & Knealing, T. (under review). Employment-based reinforcement of cocaine and opiate abstinence in unemployed community methadone patients. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Donlin, W., & Rasmussen, E. (in press). Behavioral Pharmacology. In S. F. Davis & W. Buskist (Eds.), 21st century psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Donlin, W. D., Knealing, T., & Silverman, K. (2007). Employment based reinforcement in the treatment of drug addiction. In S. T. Higgins & K. Silverman (Eds.), Motivating Behavior Change Among Illicit-Drug Abusers: Research on Contingency Management Interventions (Vol. 2). Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.
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