Shifting preferences for choice‐making opportunities through histories of differential reinforcer quality
You can make kids prefer choice by first letting choice deliver the best reinforcers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Drifke et al. (2019) asked if you can make kids like choice-making more.
They let preschoolers pick toys in two set-ups. In one set-up, choosing always led to the best toys. In the other set-up, choosing led to so-so toys.
Later they watched which set-up the kids picked.
What they found
Kids quickly picked the room where choosing had paid off with great toys.
A short history of better pay-off for choosing made the kids seek choice again.
How this fits with other research
Vos et al. (2013) saw mixed results: some kids liked choice, some did not. Drifke adds a fix—pair choice with top-notch reinforcers first.
Matson et al. (1994) and Dougherty et al. (1994) showed choice works in real classrooms and jobs for people with disabilities. Drifke shows how to build that power in the first place.
Ribes-Iñesta (1999) proved this conditioning trick works with pigeons. Drifke moves it from lab birds to real children.
Why it matters
If a client avoids choices, prime the pump. Set up a few trials where choosing gives the best stuff—toys, snacks, games. Once the child links choice to premium pay-offs, offer choices during work tasks. You should see more willing picking and less escape.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children of both typical and atypical cognitive development tend to prefer contexts in which their behavior results in a choice of reinforcers rather than a single reinforcer, even when the reinforcer accessed is identical across conditions. The origin of this preference has been attributed speculatively to behavioral histories in which choice making tends to be associated with differentially beneficial outcomes. Few studies have evaluated this claim, and those that have, have yielded mixed results. We provided five preschool-aged children experiences in which choice-making and no-choice contexts were differentially associated with higher preference and larger magnitude reinforcers, and we assessed changes in their preference for choice and no-choice contexts in which outcomes were equated. These conditioning experiences resulted in consistent and replicable shifts in child preference, indicating that preference for choice is malleable through experience.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2019 · doi:10.1002/jaba.515