EFFECTS OF REINFORCER QUALITY ON BEHAVIORAL MOMENTUM - COORDINATED APPLIED AND BASIC RESEARCH

The high-probability (high-p) instructional sequence has been an effec tive treatment for noncompliance. However, treatment failures have als o been reported. We hypothesized that the efficacy of the high-p treat ment may be improved by using higher quality reinforcers for complianc e to high-p instructions. The resistance of compliance to change was t ested by varying reinforcer quality in two applied studies and a basic laboratory experiment. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that an inc rease in reinforcer quality for high-p compliance will increase the ef fectiveness of the high-p treatment when it fails to increase complian ce. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of reinforcer quality on resista nce of compliance to change by presenting successive low-p requests fo llowing the high-p treatment. A basic laboratory study (Experiment 3) was conducted to further isolate the relation between reinforcer quali ty and behavioral momentum. Two different liquid reinforcers (sucrose and citric acid solutions) were presented in a two-component multiple variable-interval variable-interval schedule followed by a single exti nction test session. Results of all three experiments showed a general ly consistent relationship between reinforcer quality and behavioral m omentum.