Development and psychometric evaluation of an instrument to assess reinforcer preferences: the preferred items and experiences questionnaire.

The team built a 30-item paper survey called the Preferred Items and Experiences Questionnaire (PIEQ).

High-school and college students without disabilities filled it out twice, two weeks apart.

Researchers checked if answers stayed the same and if the items really worked as reinforcers.

Scores were stable between the two rounds (good test-retest reliability).

The top-rated items later functioned as reinforcers in a computer task (valid evidence).

The whole process took under ten minutes.

Hamilton et al. (1978) did the same goal—find what adults like—but used paired object choices instead of a survey. Their method works for clients who can’t read or speak; PIEQ works for teens who can.

Frank-Crawford et al. (2018) warn that high-preference items can lose power when work gets hard. Their finding extends PIEQ: after you pick reinforcers with the survey, test them during real tasks before treatment starts.

Wouters et al. (2017) review fitness tests for youth with ID; PIEQ could fill the preference gap in that toolkit if future work adapts it for learners with disabilities.

You now have a quick, free tool to screen reinforcers with typical teens and young adults. Use it during intake, then double-check the top picks under task demands. If the client has ID or limited reading, switch to the older paired-choice method from Hamilton et al. (1978) instead.