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Post‐treatment effects of token reinforcement, verbal praise, and self‐monitoring in a residential psychiatric program
Author(s) -
Fuoco Frederick J.,
Lawrence P. Scott,
Ver Janice B.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
behavioral interventions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.605
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1099-078X
pISSN - 1072-0847
DOI - 10.1002/bin.2360030404
Subject(s) - praise , reinforcement , psychology , token economy , security token , baseline (sea) , audiology , developmental psychology , multiple baseline design , sobriety , social psychology , psychiatry , medicine , computer security , computer science , intervention (counseling) , oceanography , geology
The present study was designed to investigate the effects of token reinforcement, verbal praise, and self‐monitoring on post‐treatment performance of bedroom preparation tasks by adult clients in a residential psychiatric program. Twenty‐four clients were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions (four subjects per condition) as follows: (1) contingent token reinforcement, (2) contingent verbal praise, (3) contingent token reinforcement plus contingent verbal praise, (4) self‐monitoring, (5) self‐monitoring plus contingent token reinforcement, and (6) control. All participants were exposed to a one week initial baseline period, then one week of their experimental condition, and finally, one week of a second baseline period. Research participants who received contingent token reinforcement engaged in bedroom‐area preparation tasks significantly less during the second baseline period of the study than during the initial baseline period. Verbal praise, however, produced a significant increase in performance from Baseline 1 to Baseline 2. The presence of both contingent token reinforcement and verbal praise produced a significant increase in performance during the second baseline period as compared to the control condition. This increase, however, was not found with concomitant token reinforcement and self‐monitoring. Changes in performance from Baseline 1 to Baseline 2 for participants assigned to the token reinforcement plus self‐monitoring condition were not significantly different from those found for participants assigned to the control condition. Implications of these results for clinical settings using token economies are presented.