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

The high‐probability (high‐ p ) instructional sequence has been an effective treatment for noncompliance. However, treatment failures have also been reported. We hypothesized that the efficacy of the high‐ p treatment may be improved by using higher quality reinforcers for compliance to high‐ p instructions. The resistance of compliance to change was tested by varying reinforcer quality in two applied studies and a basic laboratory experiment. Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that an increase in reinforcer quality for high‐ p compliance will increase the effectiveness of the high‐ p treatment when it fails to increase compliance. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of reinforcer quality on resistance of compliance to change by presenting successive low‐ p requests following the high‐ p treatment. A basic laboratory study (Experiment 3) was conducted to further isolate the relation between reinforcer quality 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 extinction test session. Results of all three experiments showed a generally consistent relationship between reinforcer quality and behavioral momentum.