A Review of Recent Research on the Manipulation of Response Effort in Applied Behavior Analysis.
Twist effort first—easy responses grow, hard ones shrink—before you add tokens or meds.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Shawler et al. (2021) read every recent experiment that changed how hard a response is.
They pulled studies from clinics, schools, and animal labs.
The goal was to see if effort tricks still work across places and people.
What they found
Making a task easier almost always raised the wanted behavior.
Making it harder almost always cut the unwanted behavior.
The team calls effort a cheap, fast tool for any setting.
How this fits with other research
Richman et al. (2001) and Dagnan et al. (2005) show the same rule in FCT.
When the mand took more steps, kids went back to hitting.
Keep the picture exchange at two moves and aggression stayed low.
Pinkston et al. (2017) seems to disagree.
They say high force did not kill behavior; it just hid small presses.
The review keeps both stories.
Effort still works, but you must count every tiny response or you will miss the effect.
Why it matters
You can start using effort today.
Put the cookie on a low shelf to boost asking.
Move the cookie up high to lower grabbing.
Count every try, even the soft ones, so you do not quit too soon.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Response effort refers to the distance, force/pressure, or number of discrete behaviors required to engage in a response. In applied behavior analysis, response effort has been used as an independent variable to address a variety of target responses. In this manuscript, we summarize recent clinical and organizational studies in which response effort was manipulated to increase a desirable behavior or decrease a problematic behavior. Recent clinical applications include the manipulation of response effort to decrease self-injurious behavior and pica and increase appropriate eating, compliance, and manding. Recent organizational applications include the manipulation of response effort to increase safety and recycling. We also review the collection of data on treatment integrity, social validity, and maintenance in response effort research and analyze the effectiveness of response effort manipulations. We conclude by discussing the putative behavioral mechanisms responsible for the effects of response effort manipulations and by providing some directions for future research.
Behavior modification, 2021 · doi:10.1177/0145445520908509