Overview
This lecture reviews the concept of token economies as used in schools, their benefits, drawbacks, and recommendations for effective implementation and reward withdrawal.
Token Economies: Definition and Background
- A token economy is a reward system where tokens are earned for positive behaviors and exchanged for valued items or privileges.
- Token economies originated in mental institutions in the 1960s and spread to prisons, workplaces, and schools.
- Common school reward systems (stars, smiley faces, points for pizza parties) are forms of token economies.
Effectiveness and Issues with Token Economies
- Most students respond positively and work toward rewards, benefiting classroom behavior.
- Three main issues identified:
- Non-Response: 10–40% of students may not respond to token economies regardless of incentives.
- Generalizability: Improved behavior is often limited to the setting where rewards are offered and does not transfer to other contexts.
- Extinction: Removing the token economy often leads to a return to previous behaviors, losing positive gains.
Recommendations for Practice
- Implement school-wide or collective token economies for consistency across settings.
- Consider reducing reliance on token economies where possible.
- If removing rewards, avoid abrupt removal (tearing); instead, use "fading," gradually increasing the interval between rewards while keeping their value constant.
- "Tearing" or diminishing reward value can cause negative reactions (Crespi effect), leading to worse behavior.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Token Economy — A behavioral system where tokens earned for positive actions can be exchanged for desired rewards.
- Non-Response — Failure of some individuals to change behavior in response to a token economy.
- Generalizability — The transfer of learned or changed behaviors to other contexts beyond where they were reinforced.
- Extinction — Loss of behavioral gains after discontinuing rewards.
- Fading — Gradually reducing the frequency of rewards, not their value, to maintain behavior changes.
- Tearing — Diminishing the value or amount of a reward, often causing negative effects (Crespi effect).
- Crespi Effect — A negative behavioral reaction to a sudden decrease in expected rewards.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Consider reading Chapter 8 ("Rewards: The Problem with Coercion") for deeper insights.
- Evaluate current classroom reward systems for issues of generalizability and extinction.
- If modifying rewards, use fading rather than tearing to maintain positive behavior.