Schedule-induced locomotor activity in humans.
Token deliveries on fixed schedules quietly create waves of extra movement in humans—time them wisely.
01Research in Context
What this study did
O'Leary et al. (1979) tested whether token schedules make adult humans move more. Six college students sat in a small room. Tokens dropped every 30 or 60 seconds no matter what they did. They could trade tokens for money later.
The team filmed each person’s steps and seat-leaves. They ran the schedule for 30- to 47-minute sessions across several days.
What they found
People walked around most right after a token was due. Steps then dropped until the next token time. The pattern looked just like pigeons on fixed-time food.
Even though tokens were free, the schedule alone created a wave of movement every 30 or 60 seconds.
How this fits with other research
Fernandez et al. (2023) saw the same wave in shelter dogs. A machine dropped food every minute and kennel activity spiked, then fell. Same schedule, same shape, different species.
Iwata et al. (1990) showed toddlers also feel schedule control. Kids pressed a button faster under ratio than interval candy rules. The 1979 adults moved instead of pressed, but both groups show schedule control starts early and lasts.
Prigge et al. (2013) flipped the effect in a dentist office. They gave kids a 30-second break every 2-3 minutes and problem behavior fell. Fixed-time events can either pump activity up or calm it down depending on what the event is.
Why it matters
If you run fixed-time or fixed-interval token boards, watch for extra movement or vocal stereotypy right after delivery. That burst is not ‘off-task’—it is schedule-induced. Try shorter intervals, add response requirements, or switch to variable timing to flatten the wave and keep clients settled.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Film a 5-min sample after each token drop; count steps or out-of-seat to see if the schedule is driving extra movement.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
In two experiments, humans received tokens either on a fixed-interval schedule for plunger pulling or various response-nondependent fixed-time schedules ranging from 16 to 140 seconds. Locomotor activity such as walking, shifting weight, or pacing was recorded in quarters of the interreinforcement interval to examine the induced characteristics of that behavior in humans. While performance was variable, several characteristics were present that have counterparts in experiments with nonhumans during periodic schedules of food reinforcement: (a) first quarter rates, and sometimes overall rates, of locomotor activity were greater during intervals that terminated in a visual stimulus and token delivery than those without: (b) overall rates of locomotor activity were greater during fixed-time 16-second schedules than during fixed-time 80- or 140-second schedules; (c) rates of locomotor activity decreased during the interreinforcement intervals; (d) locomotor activity was induced by response-dependent and response-nondependent token delivery. These results showed that the rate and temporal pattern of locomotor activity can be schedule-induced in humans.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1979 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1979.31-83