






I learned that a token economy system is effective in encouraging responses. According to Doll, McLaughlin and Barretto (2013), token economies are effective in increasing target behaviours. It is based on the concept of positive reinforcement where the tokens, which can be exchanged for previously reinforced items, are given to the participant after they accomplish a task. During the event, we applied the token economy system into our activity “Where should I go?”. This game adapts the concept of Monopoly and aims to educate participants on how to seek help for problem gambling (PG). It involves rolling a dice which determines the number of steps that the participant can advance. The target behaviour identified for our token economy system was the number of responses given by the participants. Whenever the participants gave a correct answer, they would receive a token which can then be exchanged for a snack. Considering the fact that some of them might be rushing for class, we also gave our participants the choice to leave the game when they were satisfied with the number of tokens they had received. To our surprise, most participants rolled the dice at least 2 times and there was a particular participant who was so determined to complete the round even though she kept rolling ‘1’s. I remember her exclaiming how happy she was when she received the tokens and her saying that she wants to “finish the whole round to get all the tokens”. This supports the findings that token economies are less likely to be affected by satiation as it serves as a visual reminder of the progress (Kazdin & Bootzin, 1972). Hence, the token economy system was effective in encouraging the participants to continue playing and generating more responses.
Snacks
1 token = 1 snack
2 tokens = 2 snacks
3 tokens = 3 snacks
4 tokens = 4 snacks
References
Doll, C., McLaughlin T. F., & Barretto, A. (2013). The token economy: A recent review and
evaluation. International Journal of Basic and Applied Science, 2(1), 131-149.
Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1870/ad57056432dd3ddb78733879569e21
3bab13.pdf
Kazdin, A. E., & Bootzin, R. R. (1972). The token economy: An evaluative review 1. Journal
of Applied Behavior Analysis, 5(3), 343-372. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1972.5-343
