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Related Experiment Videos

Overjustification effects in token economies.

E B Fisher

    Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
    |January 1, 1979
    PubMed
    Summary
    This summary is machine-generated.

    The overjustification hypothesis suggests rewards decrease intrinsic interest. This study found little evidence for this in token economies, but reward amount influenced behavior maintenance.

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    Area of Science:

    • Behavioral Psychology
    • Clinical Psychology
    • Psychiatric Rehabilitation

    Background:

    • The overjustification hypothesis posits that external rewards can diminish intrinsic motivation for behaviors.
    • Token economies are widely used in clinical settings to reinforce target behaviors in psychiatric patients.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate the applicability of the overjustification hypothesis within a clinical token economy.
    • To examine if tangible rewards (tokens) affect intrinsic interest in target behaviors among chronic psychiatric patients.

    Main Methods:

    • The study was conducted in an established token economy for chronic psychiatric patients.
    • Toothbrushing behavior was alternated between weeks with token rewards and weeks without token rewards over an 8-week period.

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  • Two different magnitudes of token rewards were used to assess the impact of reward size on overjustification effects.

    • Main Results:

    • Little evidence supporting the overjustification hypothesis was observed in the token economy setting.
    • Toothbrushing behavior maintenance was higher during no-token weeks that followed weeks with low token rewards compared to those following high token rewards.
    • Reward magnitude demonstrated a complex relationship with behavior maintenance, challenging simple predictions of the overjustification effect.

    Conclusions:

    • The overjustification effect may not be as prevalent or straightforward in clinical token economies as hypothesized.
    • The magnitude of tangible rewards in token economies can influence the long-term maintenance of target behaviors in intricate ways.
    • Further research is needed to understand these complex functional relationships for optimizing behavioral interventions in psychiatric settings.