Response efficiency during functional communication training: effects of effort on response allocation.

The team ran FCT with children who had developmental delays.

They made the new mand harder to do by adding extra steps.

Then they watched whether the kids kept using the mand or slid back to problem behavior.

When the mand took more work, the kids used it less.

Problem behavior rose at the same time.

Easy mands stayed strong; hard mands lost the competition.

Dagnan et al. (2005) later showed the same pattern in a boy with autism.

A two-link picture exchange beat a four-link chain, just like the 2001 effort effect.

Shawler et al. (2021) pooled many effort studies and still called the tactic “reliable and low-cost.”

The old rat work (H, 1965; Anonymous, 1995) already said high force drops response rate.

Richman et al. (2001) moved that lab rule into the therapy room and it held up.

Check the effort your client must give.

If the mand has more steps, more force, or takes longer than the problem behavior, it will lose.

Strip the mand down: one touch, one card, one sign.

Make the problem route the harder one instead.