Second-order schedules of token reinforcement: effects of varying the schedule of food presentation.
Long token chains weaken early responding, so thin reinforcement gradually and use salient cues to protect momentum.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers used pigeons in a small lab chamber. The birds pecked a lit disk to earn plastic tokens.
Each token went into a feeder slot. After a set number of tokens, the feeder opened for grain.
The team changed how many tokens were needed per food delivery. They counted pecks to see if the birds slowed down.
What they found
When the token requirement grew, the birds pecked less during the early links.
The pigeons still got the same total food, but they worked less hard for each token.
The study shows that long token chains can weaken the first steps of a token economy.
How this fits with other research
Chiviacowsky et al. (2013) took the same second-order idea into a clinic. They paired FCT with a short token chain and stopped severe problem behavior in two children with autism.
The 1975 lab result looks like bad news: more tokens, less work. Chiviacowsky et al. (2013) turned it into good news by keeping the chain short and adding a wristband cue.
Weil (1984) also saw response drops when reinforcers were delayed, backing the core rule: long waits kill early responding.
Why it matters
Token boards are common in ABA, but loading them with too many stars before payoff can stall work. Start with one-to-one exchange, then stretch the ratio slowly. Watch the first responses; if they slow, thin more gently or add a salient cue like Chiviacowsky et al. (2013) did.
Get CEUs on This Topic — Free
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ on-demand CEUs including ethics, supervision, and clinical topics like this one. Plus a new live CEU every Wednesday.
Cut your token requirement in half for one learner and note if work speed rises.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
In the initial link of a complex schedule, one discriminative stimulus was presented and lever pressing produced tokens on fixed-ratio schedules. In the terminal link, signalled by a second discriminative stimulus, deposits of the tokens produced food. With two rats, the terminal link was presented after each sixth component schedule of token reinforcement was completed. With the other two rats, the terminal link was presented following the first component schedule completed after a fixed interval. During the terminal link, each token deposit initially produced food. The schedule of food presentation was subsequently increased such that an increasing number of token deposits in the terminal link was required for each food presentation. Rates of lever pressing in the initial link were inversely related to the schedule of food presentation in the terminal link. These results are similar to those of experiments that have varied schedules of food presentation in chained schedules. Rates and patterns of responding controlled throughout the initial link were more similar to those ordinarily controlled by second-order brief-stimulus schedules than to those controlled by comparable extended chained schedules.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1975 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1975.24-173