Intrinsic reinforcers with students in special education.

Abstract

In a token program the use of back-up reinforcers which are natural to the classroom environment is increasing. Several studies have reported the successful use of such natural (intrinsic) back-up reinforcers to control a wide variety of behaviors (McLaughlin, 1975 ) . However, a recent study by Evans, Horvath, Sanders, and Dolan (1974) found that having a teacher's assistant was more effective than a token reinforcement program for increasing academic achievement and attention in a special education classroom. The purpose of the present study was ro examine the effectiveness of token reinforcement on the rate of correct tracing of the letter g on dittoed sheets in a daily 4-min. session. The ages of the nine special education students, enrolled in a classroom for the emotionally and neurologically handicapped, ranged from 9 yr., 4 mo. to 10 yr., 9 mo. The classroom was managed by a token program which utilized natural school activities such as recess as back-up reinforcers. The effects of awarding tokens (points) were examined in a multiple-baseline design across subjects and introduced at random for each pupil. A Rn test (Revusky, 1967) was employed to determine the significance of the intervention. The over-all results indicated that, when token reinforcement was introduced, the frequency of correct letters traced increased. This effect was significant (R. = 16, p = .02). The findings were in conflict with those reported by Evans, et al. (1974), but this may be related to the choice of dependent variable, or back-up reinforcers. Additional research may have to determine which types of intrinsic reinforcers are the most effecrive with children in special education.