Token economies are commonly used in educational and clinical settings as tools for reinforcing appropriate behavior. However, little applied research has been conducted to investigate the behavioral mechanisms involved. What’s more, research with non-human animals suggests that tokens may serve discriminative functions which may actually suppress responding under high schedule requirements. This study explores the relationship between schedules of token production (i.e., dense, lean, and yoked reinforcement) and response patterns in three children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Relative to yoked reinforcement schedules, token production corresponded with higher response rates and shorter pre-ratio pauses (PRPs) under low schedule requirements. Under high schedule requirements, all three participants demonstrated higher response rates and shorter PRPs in the yoked reinforcement condition relative to either token production condition. These findings are consistent with research involving non-human animals suggesting that, under high schedule requirements, tokens may signal lengthy delays to reinforcement and potentially even suppress responding. Thus, we provide preliminary recommendations for using token reinforcement systems most effectively in applied contexts.

代币经济通常在教育和临床环境中用作加强适当行为的工具。但是，很少进行应用研究来研究涉及的行为机制。此外，对非人类动物的研究表明，代币可能具有判别功能，实际上可以抑制在高进度要求下的响应。这项研究探讨了三名自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的代币生产计划（即致密，瘦肉和带轭强化）与反应模式之间的关系。相对于折弯的加固计划，在低计划需求下，代币生产具有较高的响应率和较短的比例前停顿（PRP）。在高进度要求下，相对于任一代币生产条件，在带轭强化条件下，所有三个参与者均表现出较高的响应率和较短的PRP。这些发现与涉及非人类动物的研究一致，该研究表明，在高进度要求下，令牌可能表示加固的漫长延迟，甚至可能抑制响应。因此，我们提供了在应用环境中最有效地使用令牌增强系统的初步建议。