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The Relation Between Obtained Preference Value and Reinforcer Potency
Author(s) -
Graff Richard B.,
Larsen Jillian
Publication year - 2011
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.325
Subject(s) - psychology , reinforcement , preference , stimulus (psychology) , paired comparison , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics
Stimulus preference assessments often include items suspected to be highly preferred. If only high‐preference stimuli are assessed, preference hierarchies may not accurately predict the results of reinforcer assessments (RA). In this study, paired‐stimulus (PS) preference assessments using items suspected to be preferred (PS‐1) generated distinct preference hierarchies. Subsequent RAs (RA‐1) indicated that high‐preference and low‐preference stimuli were associated with similar response rates. Additional assessments (PS‐2) were then conducted, using the least‐preferred item from PS‐1 plus seven new stimuli. The least‐preferred items on PS‐1 ranked as most preferred on PS‐2, and on RA‐2, the top‐ranked items functioned as reinforcers, but low‐ranked items did not. Implications for incorporating low‐preference items into clinical/educational programming are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.