Think of your morning routine, either at home or in class. What are the reliable behaviours you do consistently every day?

List out these behaviours.

For example:

Brush teeth

Make a coffee

Have breakfast

Now list the activity that precedes this behaviour, or its prompt. -

This might look something like:

When I get into the kitchen, I turn on the lights. After, I make myself a coffee.

After I shower, I put on my contact lenses and clean out the lens container.

Now I want you to consider this: if you did not have your prompt, would the behaviour be more or less likely to happen? Is it possible that it might not happen at all?

Have you ever just done something? It is unlikely that a behaviour happens spontaneously and without a prompt. It is far more likely that we forget the prompt, or that it is so subtle that we do not consciously notice it.

Think of the last time you bought something without thinking. What promoted that behaviour?

Here is a personal example:

When I was out shopping last, I bought a bag of chips. I put it in my shopping trolley without thinking, bought it and took it home. When I got home I remembered that I don’t eat chips anymore, and was puzzled at why I bought them.

As it turns out, I bought them because I was prompted to without thinking. They were on sale, with big yellow and red signs hanging precariously off a shelf at the end of an aisle, right next to the checkout lines where I was at my most vulnerable.

The positional prompt was basically screaming ‘Buy me! Buy me!’, prompting me to do the behaviour. Because the chips were very cheap and right there, I had the ability to do the behaviour. And, I was hungry, giving me the motivation. This intersection of prompt, ability and motivation led to my behaviour of buying the chips.

This example shows that no behaviour happens without a prompt.

Let me say that again:

No behaviour happens without a prompt!

Regardless of our motivation and/or ability to do a behaviour, without an internal or external prompt to enact the behaviour it will not happen.

Prompts can be good or bad at making a behaviour happen. They can be subtle or obtuse. They can be internal or external. But a prompt will always be there, somewhere, because no behaviour happens without a prompt.

Just like with ability, we can use the PAC model to detail the different areas a prompt may come from.

PERSON (P) – ‘Person’ prompts include memory and the internalised actions that remind us to perform bodily functions. These kinds of prompts are notoriously unreliable – I’m sure you can come up with your own example of when you have forgotten a task or job that you told yourself you would remember. Like calling back that parent, or letting your partner know about that party that’s coming up. We use our memory to prompt our behaviour all the time, but while it can be useful in short-term or low stakes behaviours it is unreliable for anything more as the process of remembering requires focus and energy – both things that the brain tries to conserve at all costs.

Beyond memory, there are the internalised prompts that our body uses to cue us to do behaviours – part of our interoceptive sense. Actions such as needing to go to the toilet or feeling stressed or angry are all interoceptive processes. Unfortunately, relying on these processes can be unwise as students who have experienced trauma or who are on the autism spectrum can have difficulties managing the ‘brain-body’ connection and thus can be challenged to attend to these internalised body cues.

This is not to say that we cannot use prompts that are connected to these internalised body systems. In fact, you likely follow a few yourself – the need to go to the toilet is an almost universal prompt. However, what if you cannot feel or interpret the need to use the toilet? How could you still prompt this behaviour without relying on the internal processes of the person? This is often what we already do for incontinent people or young children – we remind them, or prompt them. We say to the student something like ‘After the lunch bell rings, make sure to go to the toilet’.

ACTION (A) – Action prompts are the gold standard of prompting. These are the prompts that happen before, during or after another behaviour. These prompts are so effective because you can pair the desired behaviour with another behaviour that is consistent, already a part of your routine, and happens at an identical or similar frequency to the desired behaviour. As the action itself prompts to do the desired behaviour, you no longer need to place the desired behaviour awkwardly within your already established routine, you don’t need to remember to do it, and you don’t need to remind yourself to do it. In fact, you already have many action prompts built into your day.

For me, I have various action prompts that help me get up and go for a run. After I get up, I always put on my running top and pants. After that, I get my socks, and after that I walk to my study and put on my running shoes, and so on until I have bolted out the door. I do this without thinking about going for a run, or thinking about what I need to do to get ready to go for a run.

This is the kind of automaticity we want to develop in our desired behaviours, and by linking them up with routines that are already established and automatic we increase the likelihood of this happening. Conversely, to reduce a behaviour that has developed automaticity we want to disrupt this behaviour by making people more conscious of the behaviour chain that is driving the undesired behaviour.

CONTEXT (C) – The chip example at the beginning of this topic is an example of the effective use of context prompts. A context prompt is a change in the environment that triggers a behaviour to happen. This is anything external to you or your behaviour that prompts or typically reminds you to do a behaviour. These prompts are excellent for reminding us to do challenging or tedious one-time or short-term behaviours but are unreliable in developing long-term change.

Context prompts can be cumbersome, and they themselves often require an additional layer of behaviour prompt to remind you to set up the context prompt. Another issue with context prompts is that they can often prompt you when you have no ability or motivation to do the behaviour, leading to frustration or annoyance. Consider the context prompt of a large sign on your laptop screen saying, ‘Get Reports Done!’. Every time you see it the sign prompts you to get do report writing, but your day is busy and each time you see it you don’t have the time to do your report writing. This engenders frustration and stress, ultimately making the prompt less effective. Furthermore, your motivation to do the behaviour decreases every time you attend to the prompt.

For reliable and consistent behaviour change, it is best to use action prompts. However, for short-term or one-time actions a context prompt can get you above the action line.

A few examples of context prompts:

· Pasting a sticky note to your computer screen to remind you to book in an appointment

· Getting your student/child to remind you to do something

· Moving a piece of furniture out of place to…?

· Putting your wedding ring on the wrong finger

· Writing a note on your hand

· Setting an alarm on your phone

· Getting a text message to call home

When unpacking a behaviour that is happening or designing for a desired behaviour it is imperative to explicitly pair the behaviour with the prompt that will cue the person to do the behaviour. If you are having trouble nailing down the prompt for a behaviour, or if you’re struggling to set a good prompt in place for your desired behaviour, your prompts might be ‘fuzzy’ and need an anchor.

Take you desired behaviour and develop a list of all the places you could insert that behaviour into your day.

Behaviours typically occur after a prompt. Use this formula to identify the different places you could see yourself doing the goal behaviour:

After I will (Behaviour)

I wake up I will go for a run

I drop the kids off at soccer I will go for a run

If your aim is to reduce a behaviour, such as snacking, make a list of all the behaviours that precede that behaviour thought the day. For example:

After/during (Behaviour) I (Behaviour)

Watching TV I snack on popcorn

Arguing with my children I snack on chocolate

Making dinner I snack on leftovers

How could you replace those behaviours with your desired behaviour?

Take up to three of the prompts from your list and pair them with your desired goal.

Make sure to match the desired behaviour to an existing anchor prompt that has a similar frequency to your desired frequency.

For example, you would not attach a ‘go to the gym’ behaviour to the anchor ‘after I go to the toilet’, as this is too far frequent and in the wrong environmental context.

Instead, your prompt might look like this:

After I finish work on Fridays, I will go to the gym.

OR

After I get in my car on Fridays, I will drive to the gym.

I encourage you to write your reflections in a journal or Word document using these guiding questions:

Consider your desired behaviour. Why do you think it hasn’t worked up to this point?

Now that you know the three core components of behaviour design, what other behaviours might you be able to apply it to?

Think of behaviours in the past that you just couldn’t make stick. How might you change them and try again now?

Try to explain what you have learned about behaviour change to another person.