Effects of reinforcer quality on behavioral momentum: coordinated applied and basic research.
High-p sequences only build momentum when the reinforcer is truly valuable—swap in a high-quality prize before you abandon the procedure.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran two classroom cases and one lab test. They asked: does better stuff make the high-p sequence stronger?
They kept the same three easy requests before the hard one. Only the prize changed—higher quality versus lower quality.
Across all tests they tracked how many kids started and finished the hard task.
What they found
Better reinforcers turned small gains into big ones. Compliance jumped every time the prize was top-shelf.
The lab data matched the classroom data. Same pattern, same direction—quality drives momentum.
How this fits with other research
Lipschultz et al. (2017) saw zero boost from the same high-p routine. The difference? They used weak praise only. Lord et al. (1997) shows that when the prize is actually good, the sequence works.
Boudreau et al. (2015) later proved the point even harder. They stripped out reinforcement and watched high-p collapse. Add edible prizes back in and compliance returned—direct support for the 1997 claim.
Waldron et al. (2023) took the idea into autism classrooms. High-p plus strong reinforcers lifted both task start and finish for three young students, extending the 1997 quality rule to a new population.
Why it matters
If a learner stalls after the easy requests, don’t drop the tool—upgrade the prize. Swap stickers for fruit snacks, or screen time for a favorite toy. One simple switch can save the whole momentum sequence and keep therapy moving.
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02At a glance
03Original 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.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1997 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1997.30-1