Dr. Kathryn Kestner’s Laboratory
Translational Research on Relapse-Prevention. Dr. Kestner’s lab conducts translational research to develop and test relapse-prevention techniques to improve clinical behavior-change interventions. Relapse of undesirable behavior is a significant social concern. Behavioral relapse is most often thought of as a problem in drug and alcohol treatment, but relapse commonly occurs in a myriad of situations that are important to individual wellbeing and public health. Relapse commonly follows healthy changes such as quitting smoking, starting an exercise regime, or healthier eating. These and other health-related behaviors are well served by behavioral interventions; however, the maintenance of these positive changes is harder to achieve. Data show that people return to smoking, sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy eating patterns 75% of the time16. Behavioral research evaluating the ways in which environmental factors influence relapse is an area of research that leads to fruitful discoveries that change the way behavioral interventions are used for better success in long-term behavior change. There are three variations of behavioral relapse known as resurgence, renewal, and reinstatement. Dr. Kestner’s lab studies relapse by first characterizing the effects of relapse-prevention techniques in well-controlled laboratory studies with humans and nonhuman animals, and subsequently evaluating the clinical efficacy of these techniques when delivered as part of inventions for socially significant behavior (e.g., physical activity).
In Dr. Kestner’s lab, REU participants will lead a laboratory study during the 10-week experience with human subjects within the ongoing line of research of relapse-prevention in health behavior to compare relapse-prevention techniques using predictions derived from BMT and a brief laboratory model developed in Dr. Kestner’s lab (Abbreviated Activity and Relapse Model; AARM). REU participants will learn to code behavioral observations using a computerized data collection program (Behavior Logger Observational Coding System), and participants will run experimental sessions with human subjects, collect and graph data, and analyze the results.