We hear the term reinforcers and reinforcement often and I think it's time we talk about what the difference is between them and the types of reinforcers we come into contact with daily and during the delivery of ABA.
A while back, we discussed the 2 types of behaviors, respondent and operant. Today we are going to break it down a bit further.
In simple terms, reinforcement is the act of adding or taking away a stimulus that increase the future frequency of the behavior occurring. The stimuli I am referring to can be either a primary or secondary reinforcer.
A primary reinforcer, is a reinforcer that doesn't have to be taught. It naturally is motivating for us. Primary reinforcers vary, but are biologically important and, those include:
- Food
- Water
- Shelter
- Saftey
- Sex
- Pleasure
So why does it matter? In our field specifically, it always comes down to the motivation. It's hard to motivate a client who has no interests motivation for things like toys or verbal praise. This is where we need to use a stronger motivator at that usually falls into the realm of Primary Reinforcers.
Now, there is a lot of controversy with using food as a reinforcer, due to the stigma that we are training or manipulating the client, but it doesn't have to be. For example, if the client is have snack time at 12:00pm, you can pair yourself with verbal praise!
Just remember, primary reinforcers do not need to be learned, and these are instinctual as an organism.
Happy Studying!
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