Fisher, W. W., Thompson, R. H., Piazza, C. C., Crosland, K., & Gotjen, D. (1997).
On the relative reinforcing effects of choice and differential consequences.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
30, 423-438.
Research on the reinforcing effects of providing choice-making
opportunities to individuals with developmental disabilities
(i.e., allowing them to choose reinforcers or tasks) has produced
incons istent results, perhaps because the mechanisms underlying
such effects remain unclear. Choice may produce a reinforcement
effect because it is correlated with differential consequences
(i.e., choice may increase one's access to higher preference
stimuli), or it may have reinforcement value independent of (or
in addition to) the chosen stimulus. In Experiment 1, we used a
concurrent-operants arrangement to assess preference for a choice
condition (in which participants selected one of two available
reinforcers) relative to a no-choice condition (in which the
therapist selected the same reinforcers on a yoked schedule). All
3 participants preferred the choice option. In Experiment 2, we
altered the schedules so that the participant selected one of two
lower preference reinforcers in the choice condition, whereas the
therapist selected a higher preference stimulus for the
participant either half or all of the time in the no-choice
condition. Participants typically allowed the therapist to select
reinforcers for them (i.e., they allocated responding to the
no-choice condition) when it resulted in greater access to higher
preference stimuli.
DESCRIPTORS: choice, preference, concurrent operants,
developmental disabilities