Token economy

• Define token economy?

  A form of therapy where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcements
• What are the behaviours which are encouraged by the therapist referred to as?

  Target behaviours
• What is the basic concept of token economy?

  Target behaviours become associated with rewards and privileges, therefore become desirable
• what did Allyon and Azrin find in their study about token economy?

  • used on a ward of schizophrenic female patients
  • given plastic tokens, with the words “one gift” on them
  • The tokens were exchanged for privileges
  • Found that the use of token economy increased the number of desirable behaviours displayed by the patients
• How is value assigned to the neutral tokens with reference to conditioning?

  • Must be repeatedly presented alongside or immediately before the reinforcing stimulus
  • Reinforcing stimulus= desirable rewards, food, movies etc
  • By pairing these two the neutral token eventually acquires the same reinforcing properties
  • this is a process of CC, but the neutral tokens become secondary reinforcers and can be used to modify behaviour (OC)
• What is the psychological term for the desirable rewards used?

  Reinforcing stimuli
• what is the term given to tokens that can be exchanged for a variety of different rewards and privileges, not just one?

  generalised reinforcers
• how does reinforcing target behaviours work?

  • patient performs desirable target behaviours
  • tokens awarded
  • the more items that the token can be exchanged for, the more power it has (Sran and Borrero)
• What did Sran and Borrero find about tokens which could be exchanged for multiple edible rewards compared to tokens which could be exchanged for one?

  All pps had a higher rate of responding to sessions where tokens could be exchanged for a variety of items
• what did Kazdin state about the effectiveness of token economy with time?

  May decrease if more time passes between presentation of the token and exchange for the backup reinforcers
• what must be established during the early stages of token economy?

  • frequent exchange periods
  • means patients can be quickly reinforced and target behaviours can increase in frequency
• what is a primary reinforcer?

  anything providing pleasure or remove unpleasant states. don’t depend on learning to acquire their reinforcing value
• what is a secondary reinforcer?

  initially have no value to the individual, but acquire their reinforcing properties by being paired with primary reinforcers. in token economy, tokens given out when a person engages in a target behaviour are secondary reinforcers.
• what is needed for a secondary reinforcer to be maximally effective?

  needs to be delivered immediately after the performance of the target behaviour
• what are the behavioural systems employed in token economy based on?

  operant conditioning
• Evaluation of token economy?

  • 😊research support- Allyon and Azrin - using TE on female schizophrenics, increased desirable behaviours
  • 😊no damaging side effects compared to antipsychotic medication- (a)typical antipsychotics block too many dopamine pathways
  • ☹️difficulties assessing success- Comer, studies of use of TE = uncontrolled, all patients put into programme rather than exp group and control group. So improvements can only be measured against past behaviours
  • ☹️less useful for patients in community- no 24hr care and monitoring, results may not be maintained in non hospital environment