Faculty Articles
Effects of Reinforcer Quality on Behavioral Momentum: Coordinated Applied and Basic Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
ISSN
0021-8855
Publication Date
Spring 1997
Abstract
The high-probability (high-p) instructional sequence has been an effective treatment for noncompliance. However, treatment failures have also been reported. We hypothesized that the efficacy of the high-p treatment may be improved by using higher quality reinforcers for compliance to high-p instructions. The resistance of compliance to change was tested by varying reinforcer quality in two applied studies and a basic laboratory experiment. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that an increase in reinforcer quality for high-p compliance will increase the effectiveness of the high-p treatment when it fails to increase compliance. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of reinforcer quality on resistance of compliance to change by presenting successive low-p requests following the high-p treatment. A basic laboratory study (Experiment 3) was conducted to further isolate the relation between reinforcer quality and behavioral momentum. Two different liquid reinforcers (sucrose and citric acid solutions) were presented in a two-component multiple variable-interval variable-interval schedule followed by a single extinction test session. Results of all three experiments showed a generally consistent relationship between reinforcer quality and behavioral momentum.
DOI
10.1901/jaba.1997.30-1
Volume
30
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
20
NSUWorks Citation
Mace, F. C.,
Mauro, B. C.,
Boyajian, A. E.,
Eckert, T. L.
(1997). Effects of Reinforcer Quality on Behavioral Momentum: Coordinated Applied and Basic Research. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30(1), 1-20.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/368
