Examining the effects of increasing schedule requirements on preference in an applied setting

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20000246

This study describes a two-phase experiment which was conducted to assess the relative reinforcer effectiveness of high, low and moderately-preferred stimuli as the effort required was increased. Two individuals with traumatic brain injury, in an applied setting, were presented with a 3-choice concurrent operants paradigm involving three identical tasks. In each phase, two reinforcers were present along with a no reinforcement option. In Phase 1, the reinforcers available were high and low-preferred stimuli. In Phase 2, the reinforcers available were two moderately-preferred stimuli. When comparing high-preferred, low-preferred, and no reinforcement concurrently, a clear preference for the high-preferred stimuli was demonstrated by both participants as the effort required by the participant increased. In addition, when two moderately-preferred stimuli were concurrently available along with a no reinforcement option, a clear preference for one of the two similarly preferred stimuli was demonstrated for one participant. For the second participant, preference for either of the moderately-preferred stimuli over the no reinforcement option was not demonstrated until the response effort was increased. The results suggest that traditional preference and reinforcer assessments may not accurately account for the relative preference of stimuli when examined in an applied setting.