Response cost

A token economy is a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. A token economy is based on the principles of operant conditioning and behavioral economics and can be situated within applied behavior analysis. In applied settings token economies are used with children and adults; however, they have been successfully modeled with pigeons in lab settings. A token economy is a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. A token economy is based on the principles of operant conditioning and behavioral economics and can be situated within applied behavior analysis. In applied settings token economies are used with children and adults; however, they have been successfully modeled with pigeons in lab settings. Three requirements are basic for a token economy. Tokens must be used as reinforcers to be effective. A token is an object or symbol that can be exchanged for material reinforcers, services, or privileges (back-up reinforcers). In applied settings, a wide range of tokens have been used: coins, checkmarks, images of small suns, points on a counter. These symbols and objects are comparably worthless outside of the patient-clinician relationship, but their value lies in the fact that they can be exchanged for other things. Technically speaking, tokens are not primary reinforcers, but secondary or learned reinforcers. Much research has been conducted on token reinforcement, including animal studies.