Reinforcer Variation in a Token Economy

We evaluated whether generalized conditioned reinforcers mitigate the effects of satiation with an individual with intellectual disabilities. Previous research indicates that generalized conditioned reinforcers are not sensitive to satiation effects. However, this effect has not been investigated on varying classes of backup reinforcers. First, we established a highly preferred (HP) edible as a reinforcer. Then, we provided presession access to the HP edible, and, in a multi‐element comparison, the participant could either earn tokens for only the HP edible, for edibles that were similar to the HP edible, for edibles that were dissimilar to the HP edible, or earn no tokens. A decreasing trend in responding for the HP edible was observed following presession access. Furthermore, the participant completed the task at a high rate when backup reinforcers were dissimilar to the HP edible. Results suggest that varying the classes of stimuli that are used as backup reinforcers may increase the effectiveness of generalized conditioned reinforcers.