Token Economy
Take a moment to review the two types of reinforcers. Primary reinforcers meet a basic human need such as hunger, thirst, and warmth. Secondary reinforcers are learned over time because of their association with primary reinforcers. Secondary reinforcers could include smiles from loved ones, verbal praise, preferred toys, and money. As an example, a person goes to work everyday to earn money. At the end of the week, the person looks forward to receiving the paycheck. Why? Because money is a powerful secondary (generalized) reinforcer. Money can give you access to a wide variety of both primary (food and shelter) and secondary (leisure time and preferred items) reinforcers. Money is one example of a ‘token’ in a token economy. A token economy makes use of secondary reinforcers to bridge the gap between a behavior and access to other reinforcers. Token economies can be comprehensive and positive motivational systems. For example, a student is supposed to stay in his seat for an entire thirty-minute class period but he has never done so. One possible intervention is a token economy in which he earns tokens for smaller amounts of time in which he is sitting appropriately. He could earn one token for every five minutes of appropriate
sitting. If he earns five of the possible six tokens, he can choose an extra snack at lunch time or some other appropriate reinforcer. In this example, the student earns a token for appropriate sitting and learns to sit appropriately for longer amounts of time. Gradually, the teacher would increase the amount of time during which he had to sit appropriately to earn the tokens. A rule of thumb is to keep the program achievable and challenging, meaning that the student should be successful on most occasions as you encourage better performance. The token economy can also include a response cost component. A response cost means that if the student exhibits a response there is a cost. Using the above example, let’s suppose the student was disruptive by throwing his pencil and papers on the floor. After attempting various positive interventions, the team decided to add a response cost component to his token economy. Every time the student threw his pencil and papers on the floor, a token was taken away. It is important to know that a response cost element is not recommended in the early stages of instruction in a token economy. As previously mentioned, token economies should be used as purely positive motivational systems whenever possible. It is also important to keep in mind other relevant guidelines for using behavior reduction procedures when implementing a response cost component. Overall, token economies are a powerful and systematic tool to expand reinforcement options and delay the delivery of reinforcement to a more typical schedule. By doing so, we increase the types of reinforcers that will motivate learners with autism.
Resource
Ayllon, T. (1999). How to use token economy and point systems (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
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ABA Principles & Methods
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