Pigeons' demand and preference for specific and generalized conditioned reinforcers in a token economy.

The team worked with pigeons in a token economy. Birds could earn three kinds of plastic tokens. Food tokens bought only seeds. Water tokens bought only water. General tokens bought either seeds or water.

The birds pecked a key to earn tokens. Then they traded tokens at an exchange window. Researchers counted how hard the birds worked for each token type. They also drew demand curves to see how price changes changed pecking.

Pigeons wanted food tokens most. General tokens came second. Water tokens came last. Demand curves explained over ninety percent of the choices.

The birds treated general tokens like a backup snack. When food tokens cost too much, they switched to general tokens. The switch was smooth and predictable.

DeFulio et al. (2014) showed the same pigeons would work for general tokens. Tan et al. (2015) adds the ranking: food beats general beats water.

Andrade et al. (2017) later raised the price of food tokens. The birds swapped to general tokens just as Lavinia predicted. The three papers form a line: first proof, then order, then swap.

Burack et al. (2004) found pigeons hate high unit prices and long waits. Lavinia keeps prices steady and shows reinforcer type also guides choice. Same lab, new lever.

Token boards in classrooms often use one backup prize. This study says a flexible backup can work just as well. If the child tires of candy, a general token that buys candy or stickers keeps motivation high. Watch what the learner wants most, set that as the top item, and keep a flexible token in the mix. You can test this next week by adding a wild-card token to any token board and letting the learner pick the payoff.