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Golden Rule of Reinforcement

The Golden Rule of Reinforcement states that a behavior is more likely to increase if the rewards received for performing it outweigh the costs, such as time and effort. When using rewards to motivate a child's behavior, the rewarding value must balance the task difficulty. For example, a child may do easier homework for 15 minutes to watch a video but not harder homework for 30 minutes. Additionally, reinforcers can lose value if used too frequently without variation. Proper balancing of task costs and reward values is necessary to effectively apply reinforcement principles.

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183 views1 page

Golden Rule of Reinforcement

The Golden Rule of Reinforcement states that a behavior is more likely to increase if the rewards received for performing it outweigh the costs, such as time and effort. When using rewards to motivate a child's behavior, the rewarding value must balance the task difficulty. For example, a child may do easier homework for 15 minutes to watch a video but not harder homework for 30 minutes. Additionally, reinforcers can lose value if used too frequently without variation. Proper balancing of task costs and reward values is necessary to effectively apply reinforcement principles.

Uploaded by

AlexandruIulianDorneanu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Golden Rule of Reinforcement! Rewards received outweighs the costs incurred!

Understand this principle and maximize likelihood of success. Simply identifying


what the child likes is not necessarily going to mean the child will work for i
t. Whether an event is reinforcing will depend on the formula weighing the rewar
ds received vs. costs incurred. The more the positive characteristics of the eve
nt outweigh the time, effort, and "boringness" of performing the desired behavio
r, the more likely that item/event will increase that behavior. So, we have to b
e very careful in balancing the rewarding value of the reinforcement to the effo
rt it takes to perform the desired behavior.
For example, let's say your son loves to watch "Thomas the Train". You purchase
the series of videos. You decide to use watching these videos contingent upon th
e child doing a variety of tasks at home. You may find that the child will make
his bed, take a bath, help with laundry, or sweep the driveway to watch one vide
o, but will not do his homework, clean his room, or clean the toilet to watch Th
omas the Train. More than likely the amount of time, effort, or "boringness" of
these tasks are too great for the positive value of watching Thomas the Train.
Now let's look at one task, doing homework. It may be the child will do his read
ing homework, but not his math homework, to watch the video. More than likely th
e reading is either easier for him, or more interesting, than doing the math. Or
, we may find out that the child will do homework for 15 minutes to watch the vi
deo, but will not work for 30 minutes to get the video. Simply speaking, the eff
ort to do the homework for 30 minutes is too strong for the rewards recieved.
The reinforcer can lose its reinforcing values if used to frequently. You may fi
nd that the child did homework for 20 minutes the last five nights in a row, to
watch the Thomas the Train video. Now, on the sixth day the child refuses to do
his homework. Assuming that the homework was equal each day, it could be that th
e positive value of watching the video was weaker, since he already watched the
videos the last five nights, and is not interested any longer. Just like I like
pizza, but after eating it three nights in a row, I will not be interested in ea
ting pizza for a while.
If you are using a token system, we often have a variety of tasks that the child
can earn tokens for, as well as a variety of reinforcers the child can purchase
. Now the secret of a good token system is identifying how many tokens each task
will be worth, depending on how much effort the task requires (hanging up coat,
compared to mowing the lawn). Also, how many tokens each reinforcer will cost t
he child, based on the value of the event/item for him (going out to eat, as com
pared to having a cookie). If the tokens earned do not outweigh the cost of doin
g the task, the child may not do it.
So, whether an event will be reinforcing will depend on the time, effort, and de
gree of interest (boringness) of what you are asking the child to do. When the r
ewards received outweigh the costs incurred, the child will likely do the desire
d response. However, this balance can vary from day to day, and from task to tas
k. Finding the balance is the key.

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