The opportunity to earn oneself off a token system as a reinforcer for attentive behavior

Abstract

Separate token reinforcement contingencies were compared with two mentally retarded children in a special education classroom. Each child received tokens contingent upon attentive behavior while working on academic tasks. The separate contingencies consistend of providing the children with token reinforcement that included the opportunity to earn their way off the system versus a similar contingency that did not provide this opportunity. The two contingencies were compared in separate simultaneous-treatment designs for each child. The contingencies were implemented daily and were balanced across different time periods. Providing children with the opportunity to earn their way off the system led to higher levels of attentive behavior than did the contingency without this added back-up event. The results suggest that opportunities to earn one's way off the system can reinforce behavior and perhaps provide an initial step in weaning clients from a highly structured reinforcement program.