Contingency Management in a Cellblock Token Economy: Reducing Rule Violations and Maximizing the Effects of Token Reinforcement

Two studies were performed with imprisoned adult felons (I) to expand the generality of the use of positive reinforcement procedures as alternatives to intensification of punishment for the reduction of undesirable behavior with this client population; and (2) to identify the functional relationship between the magnitude of token reinforcement and the performance of a desired activity. In Study 1, a reversal design with a follow-up component indicated that the positive reinforcement of rule following was effective in reducing the occurrence of rule violations and that the effect of the procedure appeared to be partially irreversible. Study 2 used an expanded reversal design to determine the progressive effects on performance of successive increases in the magnitude of token reinforcement and to compare these effects for clients with and without a long history of participation in a token economy. It was found that each successive increase in reinforcement magnitude produced proportionally smaller increases in group performance, and that the effects were markedly similar for groups with differing histories of participation in the economy. Group and individual performance records are compared, and the manner in which group data may mask individual response patterns is discussed.