Reinforcer variation: A narrative review

Abstract

Reinforcers are known to lose their effectiveness over time. One strategy to prevent or delay a decrease in reinforcer effectiveness is reinforcer variation. That is, a reinforcer is selected by someone other than the respondent from an array of different reinforcers at each scheduled delivery. This is in contrast to delivering a single constant reinforcer for each reinforced response. Reinforcer variation has been examined in the applied literature and, overall, has had positive effects on preventing or delaying decrements in responding. However, inconsistent results of research investigations exist, and procedures for varying reinforcers differ between studies. Based on a narrative review of the existing literature, the exact mechanisms behind the effectiveness of reinforcer variation are still not known. In this narrative review we examine the applied literature on reinforcer variation, identify potential variables that may affect responding under conditions of varied reinforcers, and provide suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• Reinforcement
• Reinforcer variation
• Preference assessment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Tim Slocum for his comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Declaration of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest and are solely responsible for the content of this article.

Notes

Source of funding: No source of funding reported.