THE MOMENTUM OF COMPLIANCE

Abstract

Compliance with demanding requests that are normally ineffective may be increased by presenting a series of easy or high‐probability (high‐ p ) requests before the more demanding requests. Mace and his colleagues have discussed the effectiveness of the high‐ p procedure in relation to behavioral momentum—the tendency for behavior, once initiated and reinforced, to persist in the face of a challenge. The high‐ p procedure differs in several ways from that employed in laboratory research on momentum, and the methods and findings of basic research may not be relevant to applied work on compliance. This article reviews some laboratory procedures used in research on behavioral momentum, summarizes the major findings of that research, and discusses its relevance to the high‐ p procedure and its outcomes. Increased compliance with demanding requests following the high‐ p procedure can be understood in relation to the procedures and findings of basic research, but some questions arise in the process of translating research into application via the metaphor of momentum. These questions suggest some new directions for both experimental and applied behavior analysis.