THE MEASUREMENT AND REINFORCEMENT OF BEHAVIOR OF PSYCHOTICS¹

TLDR

Operant reinforcement was applied in a mental hospital ward, using activity opportunities and token conditioned reinforcers, with objective criteria and standardized procedures to strengthen necessary patient behaviors. The reinforcement program maintained adaptive behaviors while in effect, and when discontinued behaviors fell and immediately rebounded upon reintroduction.

Abstract

An attempt was made to strengthen behaviors of psychotics by applying operant reinforcement principles in a mental hospital ward. The behaviors studied were necessary and/or useful for the patient to function in the hospital environment. Reinforcement consisted of the opportunity to engage in activities that had a high level of occurrence when freely allowed. Tokens were used as conditioned reinforcers to bridge the delay between behavior and reinforcement. Emphasis was placed on objective definition and quantification of the responses and reinforcers and upon programming and recording procedures. Standardizing the objective criteria permitted ward attendants to administer the program. The procedures were found to be effective in maintaining the desired adaptive behaviors for as long as the procedures were in effect. In a series of six experiments, reinforced behaviors were considerably reduced when the reinforcement procedure was discontinued; the adaptive behaviors increased immediately when the reinforcement procedure was re-introduced.