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.
Basic requirements Three requirements are basic for a token economy: tokens, back-up reinforcers, and specified target behaviours.
Tokens 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 or stars, points on a counter, and checkmarks on a poster. These symbols and objects are comparably worthless outside of the patient–clinician or teacher–student 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.
Back-up reinforcers Tokens have no intrinsic value, but can be exchanged for other valued reinforcing events: back-up reinforcers, which act as rewards. Most token economies offer a choice of differing back-up reinforcers that can be virtually anything. Some possible reinforcers might be:
Material reinforcers: candy, cigarettes, journals, money Services: breakfast in bed, room cleaned, enjoyable activities Privileges and other extras: passes for leaving a building or area, permission to stay in bed, break from work-related tasks, phone calls, having one's name or picture on a wall, access to TV, videos or video games. Back-up reinforcers are chosen in function of the individual or group for which the token economy is set up, or depending upon the possibilities available to the staff. Prior to starting the staff decides how many tokens have to be paid for each back-up reinforcer. Often, price lists are exposed or given to the clients. Some back-up reinforcers can be bought anytime, for other exchange times are limited (e.g. opening times of a token shop).
Specified target behaviors There is a broad range of possible target behaviors: doing self-care such as washing, attending scheduled activities, having good academic behavior, or avoiding disruptive behavior. A token economy is more than just using exchangeable tokens. For a token economy to work, criteria have to be specified and clear. A staff member giving tokens to a client just because they judge them to be behaving positively is not part of a token economy because it is not done in a systematic way. Sometimes client manuals have specifications how many tokens can be earned by each target behavior. For instance, if making the bed is a target behavior, staff and clients have to know how a well-made bed looks like. However, often these specifications are hard to make: behavior such as eating politely and positive cooperation are hard to specify. While planning how many tokens can be earned by each target behavior some factors have to be considered: on the one hand clients should be able to earn a minimal amount of tokens for a minimal effort, and on the other hand clients should not earn too much too soon, making more effort useless. Sometimes the possibility of punishment by token loss is included, technically called response cost: disruptive behavior can be fined with the loss of tokens. This is also clearly specified before the application starts. Clients can be involved in the specifying of the contingencies.
Other features Besides the three basic requirements, other features are often present: social reinforcement, shaping, immediacy of reinforcement, forward planning, and consistency.
Social reinforcement Token reinforcement is always accompanied by social reinforcement. Tokens are intended to make reinforcement explicit and immediate, and to strengthen behavior, but in the end social reinforcement should be sufficient to maintain what's been learned.
Shaping Shaping implies clients aren't expected to do everything perfectly at once; behavior can be acquired in steps. Initially clients can be reinforced for behavior that approaches the target. If the target behavior is keeping attention during a 30 minutes session, clients can initially already get (perhaps smaller) reinforcement for 5 minutes of attention.
Immediacy of reinforcement Reinforcement is more likely to influence behavior if given shortly after the response is emitted. The longer people have to wait for a reward, the less effect and the less they will learn. This is the principle of delay discounting. Immediate token reinforcement can bridge later reinforcement.
Saving Sometimes clients can earn larger rewards like the permission to spend a weekend at home, going to a movie, or having a class excursion. When such rewards would be given at once for one instance of a target behavior, the scarce resources would soon be depleted and consequently the incentives would be lost. One advantage of tokens is they can be used to divide larger rewards into parts: clients can save tokens to buy more expensive rewards later. This implies they shouldn't immediately spend all earned tokens on attractive smaller rewards, and instead learn to plan ahead. This way they can acquire self-control. (See Delayed gratification.)
Individual and group contingencies Many token economies are designed for groups. The system is running for a whole ward or class. Within this group contingency specific individual goals and reinforcers can be added, though sometimes a token economy is designed for only one specific individual.
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