Improving knee surgery outcomes with positive reinforcement: Inside JABA Series 20

07/17/24 • 68 min

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The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

In the 20th installment of the Inside JABA Series, I'm joined by Drs. Brennan Armshaw, Manish Vaidya, and Sachen Mehta. As always, I'm also joined by JABA Editor in Chief, Dr. John Borerro. In this episode we discuss a fantastic paper that is out in the summer issue of JABA titled, “Surface electromyography-based biofeedback can facilitate recovery from total knee arthroplasty.”

In brief, this study that examined a novel treatment approach for rehabilitating patients following knee replacement surgery. And guess what, they used simple behavioral techniques to radically improve physical therapy outcomes!

Orthopedics is something that's been on my mind lately as I am recovering from a broken metacarpal bone in my hand. It's probably something of interest to others who have either had orthopedic problems themselves, or who have taken care of hose who have.

However, even if you're not interested in orthopedics, I encourage you to really dig into this episode because it's just a great case study of applying our science to a novel problem that affects millions of people .

As always, there are no advertisements in the Inside JABA Series shows, but I will mention that if you would like to get a CEU for listening to this episode an answering series of questions related to its content, you can find out how to do just that by clicking here.

So if you would like to learn from your favorite podcast guests, especially while you're on the go, check out what we have to offer over.

I should also mention that there are discounts available for multiple event purchases. I recently crunched some numbers and found out that CEU customers, on average, save almost $100 when they leverage these discount codes.

Here are the links to resources mentioned in the podcast:

Armshaw, Vaidya, and Mehta (2024). Surface electromyography-based biofeedback can facilitate recovery from total knee arthroplasty.
Vaidya and Armshaw (2021). Surface electromyography and gamification: Translational research to advance physical rehabilitation.
Inside JABA 9: Applied and Translational Research in Healthcare.
The Institute for Behavior Science and Technology in Rehabilitation.
Comprehensive Orthopedics and Rehabilitation.
Brennan's WVU faculty page and LinkedIn.
Manish's LinkedIn page.

So if you would like to learn from your favorite podcast guests, especially while you're on the go, check out what we have to offer over.

Here are the links to resources mentioned in the podcast:

Armshaw, Vaidya, and Mehta (2024). Surface electromyography-based biofeedback can facilitate recovery from total knee arthroplasty.
Vaidya and Armshaw (2021). Surface electromyography and gamification: Translational research to advance physical rehabilitation.
Inside JABA 9: Applied and Translational Research in Healthcare.
The Institute for Behavior Science and Technology in Rehabilitation.
Comprehensive Orthopedics and Rehabilitation.
Brennan's WVU faculty page and LinkedIn.
Manish's LinkedIn page.

Previous Episode

BOP REWIND: A Constructional Approach for Solving Behavioral Challenges, with Claire St. Peter

Hey everybody I hope you're having a great summer so far, or whatever season it happens to be whenever you listen to this episode.

Some of the things I've been doing recently is going back through the behavioral observations archives and giving episodes a second or third listen. One of those episodes was Session 193 that I published in July 2022, and my guest was Dr. Claire Saint Peter.

In that episode we talked about the constructional approach, as it were, and how it relates to solving behavior problems. This topic has been getting a lot of attention lately. When I was at ABAI in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I attended several talks on the constructional approach, which prompted me to listen to this episode again.

And when I did listen to this episode for a second time I felt that there were so many really helpful pieces of information that I wanted to republish it. What I did with this episode is essentially started after the part in which Claire talked about her background and getting into behavior analysis.

Now if you want to go back and listen to that story, and I think it is a good story by the way as it's a bit of a microcosm of the history of applied behavior analysis, you can certainly do so. However, for the purposes of brevity, I decided just cut out that introductory section so the overall experience is a bit more focused, especially for those of us who are listening to this for a second, third, or fourth time.

With that said, I really hope you listen to this episode and it's entirety there are so many great nuggets have information. Although we talk about the application of the constructional approach to a student in a school setting, I am sure that you will make connections to all sorts of applications.

I will also make this episode eligible for a continuing education unit, as I have been doing with many older episodes as well. So if you are looking to get caught up on your continuing education, go to behavioralobservations.com to see the nearly 60 episodes we have available for your continuing education.

The last thing I'll say about this episode is that this is not the last thing I'll say about the constructional approach. I guess I'm saying that out loud for some accountability, because of said this before, but I want to have some other guests on to talk about this because I think it's an interesting way to look at behavior analysis and it's ability to address problems of social importance.

Here are links to some of the resources we mentioned:

The original Session 193
Claire's lab website
Claire's Google Scholar Page
Goldiamond (1974): Toward a constructional approach to social problems: ethical and constitutional issues raised by applied behavior analysis
More Goldiamond: A Programming Contingency Analysis of Mental Health
Layng (2009). The Search for an Effective Clinical Behavior Analysis: The Nonlinear Thinking of Israel Goldiamond
Romano, St. Peter, Milyko, Mesches, and Foreman (2021). Incorporating Curricular Revision to Treat Escape-Maintained Behavior for Children with ADHD
Mammacare
Word of the Podcast
Inside JABA 7: There's No Such Thing as a Bad Boy, with Pat Friman
Session 158: Motivational Interviewing with Dr. Jim Murphy
Friman (2021). There is no such thing as a bad boy: The Circumstances View of problem behavior
Johnston, Pennypacker, and Green: Strategies and Tactics for Behavioral Research and Practi...

Next Episode

Restraint and Seclusion in Public Schools: Session 271 with Matt Brodhead

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Dr. Matt Brodhead returns to the podcast to talk about a topic he's dedicated the better part of nearly completed sabbatical trying to understand: restraint and seclusion practices in public school settings.

In this episode, we talk about why he chose this topic to study, the difficulty in defining what constitutes a restraint, the challenges with documenting events, the terrible state of systematic, nation-wide data collection on restraint and seclusion events - particularly those that result in injuries and deaths, the pros and cons of banning these practices, potential legislation regarding these practices, and lots more.

Clearly this is an issue that generates controversy, and I hope you'll find that we did our best to talk about the subject with the appropriate amount of nuance and sensitivity.

In addition to his teaching and research duties at Michigan State University, Matt also provides consultation to schools and agencies, and specializes in developing systems that promote ethical decision making. If you'd like to work with Matt, you can contact him at either mattbrodhead.com or betteraba.com. At the latter website, you can purchase his excellent guide, A Workbook in Behavioral Systems Analysis and Ethical Behavior (by the way, these make for great gifts).

Resources discussed in this podcast:

Scheuermann et al. (2016). Professional Practice and Ethical Issues Related to Physical Restraint and Seclusion in Schools.
Kern et al. (2022). A Review of U.S. Policy Guidance and Legislation on Restraint and Seclusion in Schools: Considerations for Improvement.
Nunno et al. (2021). A 26-Year Study of Restraint Fatalities Among Children and Adolescents in the United States: A Failure of Organizational Structures and Processes.
Merrill Winston's earlier podcast on this topic (and CEU opportunity as well).

This podcast is brought to you by the following:

How to ABA...The Bx Resource Membership saves you time, lends you support, and helps you keep up with your CEUs. It's a growing library of resources, materials, programs, datasheets, assessments, and how-to videos to help you tackle any ABA program with ease. It also includes live CEUs each month, live mentorship sessions, a full library of CEUs (60+, enough for recertification), and a community of fellow behavior professionals where you can ask questions when you need support. Join us at howtoaba.com/join.
The New England Center for Children! In previous podcasts, you've heard me talk about NECC's career opportunities, but later in this episode, you'll hear about their Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia, or ACE for short. It's an evidence-based teaching technology for educators and BCBAs who teach learners with autism and related disabilities. If you must know more right now however, you can go to acenecc.org.
The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button.
Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and their newly updated RBT Course, which as been getting amazing reviews over at