Parametric analysis of delayed primary and conditioned reinforcers
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis / Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis
Published online on May 13, 2016
Abstract
We examined the effects of delayed reinforcement on the responding of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Three conditions were evaluated: (a) food reinforcement, (b) token reinforcement with a postsession exchange opportunity, and (c) token reinforcement with a posttrial exchange opportunity. Within each condition, we assessed responding given (a) a no‐reinforcement baseline, (b) immediate reinforcement, and (c) delayed reinforcement, in which responses produced a reinforcer after 1 of 6 delays. Results suggest that delayed food produced greater response persistence than did delayed tokens.