Increased communications of chronic mental patients by reinforcement and by response priming.

Hake et al. (1969) worked with adults in a long-stay psychiatric ward. The staff wanted more treatment ideas from the patients.

They made two changes. First, patients had to come to the daily meeting. Second, staff gave a gentle verbal hint before asking for suggestions. When patients spoke up, staff acted on the idea right away.

Required attendance plus the verbal hint doubled the number of patient suggestions.

When staff followed through on the ideas, patients kept talking. Higher follow-through meant more suggestions in later meetings.

Laugeson et al. (2014) later used the same priming logic on staff instead of patients. A one-way radio prompt lifted positive staff comments to residents, showing the tactic flips both ways.

Pierce et al. (1983) moved the prompt inside the staff member’s head. They taught workers to self-monitor and self-reinforce, so no outside hint was needed. This supersedes the 1969 external prime by putting stimulus control in the learner’s hands.

Schaal et al. (1990) conceptually replicated the effect with parents. A 30-second written question before a pediatric visit doubled parent health topics, proving a tiny antecedent can reliably double verbal initiations across settings.

You can double client input tomorrow by adding a quick prime and then acting on what you hear. The trick works with patients, staff, or parents. If you want the behavior to last without you, fade the prime and teach self-management as Pierce et al. (1983) did.