Token Economy and Behavior Chains
Token Economy and the Behavior Chaining Therapies
Guadalupe Matos
PS360: Applied Behavioral Analysis I
Professor Stacy Daniels
Token Economy and the Behavior Chaining Therapy Brendan a 17-year-old competitive tennis player that had problems with his serve and Mrs. Riley a third-grade teacher with a group of energetic students were helped by an ABA psychologist through behavior chaining and token economy therapies. In this project is explained how those therapies can help improve the performance of behaviors, first, using a chain of small steps turned into a reinforcer that will change the outcome of a targeted behavior, and second, obtaining rewards though receiving tokens after performing the desired behavior and both acting as reinforcers for a better outcome.
The sport psychologist behaviorist choose behavior chaining to help Brendan because this is the best method to link the small steps into a behavior chain producing a complete reinforcer instigating this 17-year-old boy to have a better serving. Each response will produce a reinforcer for the next one creating the chain, all the chain steps are linked and overlapped to hold the chain together and obtain the selected results.
A primary reinforcement is when the individual is responding to an impulse variation that works as reinforcer but is not learned, is done due to necessity like looking for water if the individual is thirsty, therefore, no learning is necessary for them to be a reinforcement. The secondary reinforcer is combining stimulus-stimulus with one or more unconditioned or conditioned reinforcers (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). An example of secondary reinforcer is money, it can be used to buy primary reinforcers such as clothing, food, houses; another one is the clicker used to trained dogs, in this method the dog will receive a reward, treat, or praise after performing the desired behavior, the more is used the stronger the response.
In the case that Brendan has not mastered an
Guadalupe Matos
PS360: Applied Behavioral Analysis I
Professor Stacy Daniels
Token Economy and the Behavior Chaining Therapy Brendan a 17-year-old competitive tennis player that had problems with his serve and Mrs. Riley a third-grade teacher with a group of energetic students were helped by an ABA psychologist through behavior chaining and token economy therapies. In this project is explained how those therapies can help improve the performance of behaviors, first, using a chain of small steps turned into a reinforcer that will change the outcome of a targeted behavior, and second, obtaining rewards though receiving tokens after performing the desired behavior and both acting as reinforcers for a better outcome.
The sport psychologist behaviorist choose behavior chaining to help Brendan because this is the best method to link the small steps into a behavior chain producing a complete reinforcer instigating this 17-year-old boy to have a better serving. Each response will produce a reinforcer for the next one creating the chain, all the chain steps are linked and overlapped to hold the chain together and obtain the selected results.
A primary reinforcement is when the individual is responding to an impulse variation that works as reinforcer but is not learned, is done due to necessity like looking for water if the individual is thirsty, therefore, no learning is necessary for them to be a reinforcement. The secondary reinforcer is combining stimulus-stimulus with one or more unconditioned or conditioned reinforcers (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). An example of secondary reinforcer is money, it can be used to buy primary reinforcers such as clothing, food, houses; another one is the clicker used to trained dogs, in this method the dog will receive a reward, treat, or praise after performing the desired behavior, the more is used the stronger the response.
In the case that Brendan has not mastered an
References: Cooper, J., Heron, T. & Heward, W. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis. 2nd Ed. Published by Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey