Reinforcers are items or activities utilised to increase the future likelihood of behavior. Reinforcers fall into 2 domains. These would be ‘Primary Reinforcers’ and ‘Secondary Reinforcers’.
Primary Reinforcers ‘aka’ Unconditioned Reinforcers
These serve as reinforcers naturally due to the biological needs of the learner (i.e. water, food, sleep, warmth, sex, etc.).
Secondary Reinforcers ‘aka’ Conditioned Reinforcers
These serve as reinforcers due to neutral stimuli being paired with positive things – such as unconditioned or other conditioned reinforcers – teaching the learner that these are valuable via stimulus-stimulus pairing (i.e. money, tokens, etc.).
Subset Categories of Reinforcers
Edibles (i.e. food/drink – chocolate, bread, cookies, milk, juice, etc.)
Sensory (i.e. tickles, lights, music, vibrations, brushing)
Tangibles (i.e. stickers, cars, ball, puzzles, etc.)
Activities (i.e. playing board games, playing iPad, listening to music, going to the mall, painting)
Social (i.e. high-5, hugs)
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To learn about how reinforces can be utilised, feel free to check out my post on reinforcement and punishment.
Let us know what types of reinforcers you like to or have been utilising with your learners.
Happy Teaching!
Behavior Bubbles 