Suboptimal efficiency in activities involving the consumption of fossil fuels, such as driving, contributes to a miscellany of negative environmental, political, economic, and social externalities. Demonstrations of the effectiveness of feedback interventions can be found in countless settings, as can demonstrations of individual differences in sensitivity to feedback interventions. Mechanisms providing feedback to drivers about fuel economy are becoming standard equipment in new vehicles but vary considerably in their constitution. A keystone of the philosophy of radical behaviorism and its related scientific discipline, behavior analysis, is the acknowledgment that verbal behavior plays a role in mediating individual responses to delayed contingencies. In the current feasibility study, samples of individuals’ verbal behavior (rules about how to drive efficiently) were collected in the context of two eco-driving feedback interventions—one with commercial fleet drivers and one with civilian drivers. Analysis revealed that the rate at which drivers generated novel verbal rules (per week) accounted for a substantial proportion of the variability in relative efficiency gains across participants. Findings support the utility of behavior-analytic conceptual tools in this field of research, such as the basic distinction between contingency-shaped and rule-governed behaviors and the elaboration of direct-acting and indirect-acting contingencies.

涉及消耗化石燃料的活动（例如驾驶）中的次优效率导致了负面的环境，政治，经济和社会外部影响。可以在无数的环境中找到反馈干预有效性的证明，以及对反馈干预敏感性的个体差异的证明。向驾驶员提供有关燃油经济性的反馈的机制已成为新车的标准装备，但其构造却相差很大。激进行为主义及其相关科学学科哲学的基石是行为分析，这一认识是承认言语行为在调解个人对突发事件的反应中起着作用。在目前的可行性研究中，在两种生态驾驶反馈干预措施的背景下收集了个人言语行为的样本（有关如何有效驾驶的规则），一种是商业车队驾驶员，另一种是民用驾驶员。分析显示，驾驶员（每周）产生新的口头规则的速度占参与者相对效率提高中差异的很大一部分。研究结果支持了行为分析概念工具在该研究领域中的实用性，例如偶然性和规则控制行为之间的基本区别以及直接作用和间接作用意外情况的详细说明。分析显示，驾驶员（每周）产生新的口头规则的速度占参与者相对效率提高中差异的很大一部分。研究结果支持了行为分析概念工具在该研究领域中的实用性，例如偶然性和规则控制行为之间的基本区别以及直接作用和间接作用意外情况的详细说明。分析显示，驾驶员（每周）产生新颖的言语规则的比率占参与者相对效率提高的可变性的很大一部分。研究结果支持了行为分析概念工具在该研究领域中的实用性，例如偶然性和规则控制行为之间的基本区别以及直接作用和间接作用意外情况的详细说明。