The Effects of Progressively Thinning High-Preference Item Delivery on Responding in Employees

Abstract

The use of mixed-preference reinforcer delivery (i.e., the random delivery of a set of items with varying degrees of preference for each individual) with employees has been found to produce moderate levels of responding in an analog setting; however, mixed reinforcer delivery may not conform to the recommendations made by some popular writers in organizational behavior management. The current investigation used a progressively thinning high-preference stimulus delivery procedure to investigate the use of mixed reinforcer delivery with 5 employees. Results indicated that most participants did not reliably complete work when the percent chance of earning a high-preference item dropped below 100%. These results do not support the use of varied reinforcers in applied settings.

KEYWORDS:

• reinforcer assessment
• reinforcer delivery
• human services

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article is based on a dissertation submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a doctoral degree at Temple University.