RESPONSE COST AND FIXED-RATIO PERFORMANCE.

The team put adults on an FR 50 token plan. After every 50 responses they earned points.

Then they added response cost. Sometimes they lost the same number of points they had just won.

They watched what happened to pausing and to overall work.

Cost that came right after reinforcement made people pause longer after each payout.

When every response could lose one point, and the loss equaled the gain, work stopped almost at once.

Matching the size of the fine to the size of the prize gave the fastest shutdown.

WEINELong (1962) and WEINELong (1963) showed the same suppressive punch on simpler VI and avoidance schedules, so the pause effect was not new. The 1964 study simply proves the punch still works inside a token economy.

Rapport et al. (1982) moved the idea into a classroom. Two hyperactive boys paid attention better under token cost than under any dose of Ritalin, showing the lab result travels to kids and academics.

Lea et al. (1977) adds a warning: when supervisors stepped back, staff handed out too many fines. The power of cost is clear, but adults need to watch how it is used.

If you run a token system you now have a dial: make the cost equal the reward and you can stop off-task behavior quickly. Use it only for short, clear targets and keep a supervisor in the loop so fines stay fair and rare.