Question: This type of reinforcer assessment is helpful in deciding the effectiveness of a preferred item as a reinforcer when there are higher response requirements.

And the answer is… Progressive Ratio Reinforcer Assessment. In this assessment, we’re specifically looking at how reinforcing a particular item is. How far will it go? We systematically increase the response requirements to earn that particular reinforcer, despite how the client is responding. You keep that up until there is a breaking point. The breaking point is when responding stops or decreases, and now the client is no longer motivated by the item because the cost is just too high. For example, a handful of M&Ms is awesome for a few math problems, but is it still awesome for six hours of math homework?

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Stimulus preference assessment

A collection of assessment activities used to identify preferred stimuli that are likely to function as reinforcers.

Reinforcer assessment

A collection of assessment activities that test preferred stimuli to determine their effectiveness as reinforcers for specific target behaviors by measuring increases in target behaviors contingent on the immediate presentation…

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