Token Economy Course

A Brief Account

Token economies are among the oldest and most successful teaching programs in applied behaviour analysis. Unlike other successful technologies in behaviour analysis, however, there has been little meaningful contact between the science of token reinforcement and applications of the science.

Despite a half-century of applied work on token economies, surprisingly little is known about the variables responsible for their effectiveness; they are rarely based on an understanding of the basic principles involved. Instead, most token economies are based on somewhat idiosyncratic rules of thumb that vary from one program to another, potentially limiting their success.

Our aim in this presentation is to identify concrete ways to improve the effectiveness of token economies based on the latest science of token reinforcement.
We will focus on best practices related to:
(a) establishing tokens as reinforcers;
(b) maintaining behaviour through scheduling of token reinforcers;
(c) generalizing the functions of tokens;
(d) the motivational and economic contexts in which the teaching programs are embedded.

Although token economies have proven generally effective, they can be even more effective when based on what is known about token reinforcement from both laboratory and applied settings. Thus, apart from specific recommendations, we hope to show the benefits of an integrated evidence-based approach to the application of token reinforcement principles in educational and clinical settings.