What I would like you to do for this topical blog is to have some fun and find some websites places or organizations that use or tried to use token economies. Please try to incorporate the behavioral terms we are learning into your writing and some material from the lecture on token economies.
1) Please discuss your topic in general, why it interests you (or not) and how it relates to behavior modification.
2) Post at least 2 links to the sites you visited that were most informative about token economies.
3) Discuss how these sites further expanded your understanding of token economies (kind of like a conclusion).
4) Make a list of behavioral terms you used in this post (this is to help get you focused on using behavioral terms in your regular writings).
Thanks.
Essentially token economies are places that reward people based on good behaviors. What they are looking to do is increase the target behavior by giving out tokens, by doing this they also want to decrease unwanted behavior in the hopes of using tokens to just condition the person to emit the target behaviors by being given tokens.
http://www.behavioradvisor.com/Tokens.html
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
Some more modern examples of token economies that are not set in an academic environment would include places like Dave and Busters, ESPN Zone, and Chuck E Cheeses. These places use such things as meal deals where if you buy a meal over this certain amount of money you get a "game card" which gives you so many tokens to be able to play the games there. In other businesses they have you put money in the machines, play the game, and you receive tickets to be redeemed for prizes.
http://www.daveandbusters.com/Play/Default.aspx
http://www.chuckecheese.com/the-experience/games-rides.php
I think what these businesses are trying to do is to get their customers to spend more time in their stores by playing all these games and in turn spending more money there. I say this because to get tickets, tokens, points etc. you have to spend money either at a cash machine, at a counter for a points card, or at the actually gaming machine to receive tickets back for playing the game. Also, depending on what they have at the prize or redemption counter can act as a reinforcement for children or adults in wanting a certain prize or toy.
TERMS: emit, target behavior, token economy,
I too noticed how Chucky Chesse does their token of economy!
Token economies are a perfect example of the utilization of behavior modification. Businesses and organizations strive to earn people’s business and get them to come back by reinforcing them with money, points, or other reinforcers. The examples I used for this topical blog are ones that I have fallen subject to, and actually use frequently—so obviously they work.
http://www.ae.com/web/myaccount/aerewards.jsp
http://shop.pacsun.com/customerservice/pacloot/
For the American eagle example, you receive a card and for every dollar you spend at the American eagle stores or on their website, you receive one point. At the end of three months, the points are totaled and you receive either a 15, 20, 30, or 40 percent discount coupons in the mail. In addition, for using this system, you are reinforced with other incentives beyond just the point discounts, like coupons for your birthday and other events and exclusive offers. I immediately thought about the aerorewards system for this assignment because it is one that I actually use often, but never actually thought about the behavior modification process behind it.
When I was in high school, I used the pacloot incentive often. Although it’s not as good as the aerorewards progam, It still does basically the same thing. For every 50 dollars you spend, you receive a card that allows you to take 30 percent of anything in the store (or online) from up to 100 dollars. This is pretty easy to do, though because most things at pac sun are pretty expensive.
Using these programs, I never really thought about the behavior modification that was involved in it until I look back on them now and realize how my OWN behavior has been modified. The point is for these retail stores to get you coming back and spending a lot of money, so you can get the best rewards possible and save money on future purchase—so basically it’s a big cycle of spending money. I have fallen victim to both of these, especially the aerorewards program. For instance, I really only buy my jeans through American eagle because I know I’ll receive a lot of points and get a good discount on future purchases, so it keeps me coming back.
terms: reinforcement, emit, token economy
I actually had got myself into some trouble with store credit cards because I wanted to earn more points to get more cash credits to be able to buy more clothes with great discounts.
Token economies are utilized by almost every major retailer, it seems. Between punch cards, points systems, and extra coupons just for shopping, I can probably only name a few places that I shop at where there are no incentives. Obviously these work, but some are better than others.
The first website I looked at was Famous Footwear. http://www.famousfootwear.com/Content.aspx?ContentID=rewardsoverview
Their rewards system is based on a fixed-interval system of points, which are easy to keep track of (it's all done electronically with the swipe of a card), there is no need to replace when because they're not physical tokens, and they can't be replicated. Basically, you apply for the rewards card and every time you make a purchase you either swipe the card or enter the card number online and you receive one point for every one dollar spent. The points-to-money-off ratio is 20 points for one dollar. These points can be redeemed for gift certificates in increments of $5 up to $25. The points aren't really worth a whole lot, and there's an upper limit, so people might not find them to be as reinforcing. It takes 500 points ($500 spent) to get a $25 gift card. At about $50 a pair of shoes, it's like saying "buy ten shoes, get the left shoe of the 11th pair for free!". As a champion bargain hunter, I know I can do way better than that. I could be wrong, but I think it might be ratio strain. The rewards come ever $100, and depending on how recently rent has been paid, that's a lot of money. I mean, the shoes aren't terribly cheap, so it's not like you have to buy more than two or three pairs, but the amount of time it takes to earn the extra spending money sortof factors into the ratio. At least, it does the way I conceptualize it.
For my second website, I discovered that everyone's favorite over-priced coffee shop is jumping on the rewards system bandwagon. http://blogs.starbucks.com/blogs/customer/archive/2009/10/30/introducing-my-starbucks-rewards.aspx
This is a great example of getting the loyalty, shaping a behavior, and reassessing a flawed system to create a better one. They've already got their customers emitting the correct behaviors, but they had two different tokens going at once that were too hard to keep track of. The system of doling out tokens, in this case stars (yes, just like Kindergarten), is extremely simple. One purchase, one star. At least one star, they say. The blog was written before all the kinks were worked out. This fixed-ratio system is really effective because it's a continuous reinforcer. Every single time you emit the behavior of buying a drink/pastry/whatever, you get a star. Every time! And it only takes 15 stars to get a free drink. Plus, the more stars you get, the more crap they give you, like 2 hours a day of free WiFi, a customized membership card, free drink on your birthday, free flavor shots, et cetera. Judging by the blog comments, however, the loyal customers are not happy. Perhaps it's a bad idea to tell your organism that you're going to change their reinforcer and reinforcement schedules before it actually happens.
Finally, my favorite system! Because I love food, and I use this one all the time. http://www.mypanera.com/overview.php
I think I like this one the best because there isn't really a set system to it. It's more of a variable ratio, and the reinforcers aren't always the same. I hand over my little mini-card keychain thing whenever I go there (which is a lot) and sometimes I get a slip of paper back saying that I can come back and get a free drink/bagel/soup/whatever. Or I can use it right there. That's the best part, I can turn right around and use my reward instead of waiting a week to get a coupon emailed to me. I'm pretty sure the system keeps me going back more than I would without. Food is about the same price as somewhere else, even though it's better at Panera, but my friends and I are more likely to choose there over anywhere else since we get stuff for doing it.
Terms: reinforcer, reinforcement schedule, token economy, organism, emit, ratio strain, variable ratio, fixed interval, shaping, fixed ratio
too many stores real you into their token economy bullshit! its great incentives, but sometimes I just wanna shop and not be bothered with them!!
- A token economy is a form of behavior modification designed to increase desirable behavior and decrease undesirable with the use of tokens. The tokens must be given as soon as the behavior occurs that you want to reinforce. The tokens can then be turned in later and exchanged for an object, reward, privilege, etc. Some elements that is required for a token economy. The first element required is obviously tokes. Tokens should be easy to carry and be difficult to counterfeit. Tokens should be given as soon as the desired behavior is emitted. Tokens can be lost if an undesirable behavior is emitted, however that would be a form of punishment which is not as effective. The second element is having a clear target behavior, so individuals know exactly what they need to do to get a token. The third element is to have secondary reinforcers, or options that the tokens can be exchanged for. There should also be a token value system so everyone has a chance to earn a token. However, making token value too high or too low can cause lack of motivation for individuals. So, certain behaviors should have more value than others. A system to record the token data is also required to record a baseline (info from before token economy) and end point. The reinforcement using the tokens should also be consistent. An example of a company that uses a token economy is Cabin Coffee. Cabin coffee uses a token economy through a punch card. You have to purchase ten coffees and then you get any coffee drink free. The punches serve as the token because with each punch you receive your getting closer to reaching the free coffee. So, the punches reinforce your buying behavior. Another example of a token economy is Hy-Vee. Whenever you purchase items in Hy-Vee you get a gas buster, which takes a few cents off each gallon of gas at Hy-Vee gas. The more money you spend at Hy-Vee grocery store, the more cents you get off on each gallon of gas, which causes people to want to buy more groceries at Hy-Vee so they are reinforced with cheaper gas. Even my bank is an example of a token economy! For example, for every thousand dollars I put into my savings account, I get a fifty dollar Visa card. The fifty dollar Visa card reinforces me to want to continue banking with U. S. Bank and also to continue putting more money into my savings account. Before taking Behavior Modification, I had no idea how many businesses uses the token economy approach. I know understand that almost all businesses use some form of token economy to keep their customers returning.
http://www.usu.edu/teachall/text/behavior/LRBIpdfs/Token.pdf
http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html
Terms: token economy, emit, reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, baseline
I liked your examples of 'punch cards'. I guess I've never really thought of them as token economies but it does fit! And it's good for the business because beings that it's a positive reinforcer it makes the costumers want to come back more to get another punch which will then lead to a free item!
Token economies are where people/place that will reinforce someone for good behavior. For this topical blog it is essentially businesses rewarding their customers for shopping at their store and to have them continue to shop at their business. They are using token economy to keep customers coming in and having a reason to come in. There are so many businesses (at least where I shop) that have some sort of reinforcement to have us continue to shop there and have a reason to shop there. I think it is fascinating how it is used and how people take advantage of it. Also, how businesses use token economy to bring in their customers! It’s an interesting technique and surprising I tend to go back to places that give back to me for shopping there.
Just by looking in my wallet I have found that I have taken advantage of the places that I most frequently visit and their reward system. For example, I have been to the place for awhile because we don’t have one around but when I lived at home I would go to Borders. http://www.borders.com/online/store/BRLandingView They have a great system. They have a free program (which I am involved in that keeps track of what you spend online once you register the card. Every $150 you spend you get $5 off. It doesn’t seem like a lot and really it isn’t but the more you go there and use your BordersRewards card the more coupons you get in your email to take off certain percentages off you next purchase or off one item. I went there a lot more than one of my friends and I would get 30-45% one item and she would receive 20% or so. So, the more you shopped there, the more they would help you out to get to that $150. Since I have been there they haven’t sent me so many coupons but I still get some. It’s a great example of a token economy.
Another example of a token economy would be Hu Hot. They have a loyalty program that every dollar you spend is another point on your card. After you spend $100 there you get $10 off placed on your card. It’s a great token economy where they reward points for the money you spend there. http://huhot.com/HuHot_Community/Loyalty
Several other places that I go to and I know that they have great examples of token economies are pita pit, which is similar to Hu Hot with the point system for every dollar you spend. https://www.mypitapitcard.com/
Also, Victoria’s Secret has the same idea, but you have to use your Angel’s Credit Card to receive points and after so many points (unsure the amount) you get $10 off coupon in the mail. Also, during some months they give you a “Secret’s Reward Card” which you don’t know how much is on it until the next month when you can redeem them. They have anywhere between $10- and $500 on it and no less. So they are using this method or these card emit the behavior of you coming back into their store to redeem them and use what is on the cards. But you have to use them by the end of the month which then they know that you will be back in to shop there. http://www.victoriassecret.com/secret-rewards#/secret_rewards
Terms: Token economy/reinforce(ment)/emit
Token economies are systems used to track reinforcement. Each token is used as a positive reinforcer, and by keeping track of the number of reinforcers that have been given to an individual, you have a great operational definition for success in behavior modification. Tokens, like money, are secondary reinforcers, in that they are not reinforcing in and of themselves. Monopoly money (or "Mom money"), poker chips, and imaginary points are only reinforcing if they are a form of currency (which is why it's called a token "economy").
When I think of token economies, I usually think of classroom applications. These systems give out points or tokens for good classroom behaviors. When I started looking up web sites for this post, I found an online community for parents that discusses token economies (http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html). This site mentioned in passing that credit card companies use token economies to encourage their customers to swipe the card more often. This is more than an analogy: credit card reward systems *are* token economies, if simplistic ones. The target behavior of using the credit card is reinforced with points which have no intrinsic value, but may be exchanged for discounts, airline miles, etc. (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/CreditCardSmarts/20-credit-cards-that-pay-you-back.aspx) Unlike some classroom settings, credit card companies opt for intangible points and miles (although there is the occasional "cash back", which is a bit more tangible). This makes sense for them; after all, they're reinforcing their customers for using a money voucher in everyday life in the form of a credit card, why shouldn't the rewards be in voucher form as well?
Terms: token economies, reinforcement, positive reinforcer, secondary reinforcer
Token Economies are everywhere these days. Everyone is looking for a way to get the behaviors they want out of people and a token economy is a great way to do this. A token economy is based on the systematic positive reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. So for example if a teacher wants her young students to be attentive in class and raise their hands, she could reward the students with a token (sticker, coin, etc.). The students then can collect these coins until they have enough to get a reward (extra play time, no homework, etc. Token economies are all about getting people to emit the behavior you are trying to elicit. You have to make sure that you’re token economy is efficient though. If it’s not, then the behaviors will be lost to extinction and the token economy will fail.
A good example of a token economy would be Best Buy’s Reward Zone. The concept of Reward Zone is that you sign up for an account and every dollar you spend will translate into 1 reward zone point. Eventually when you get enough points you will be reinforced with some money back (250 points equals 5 dollars in store credit.) The point of this token economy is to get people to spend more. The target behavior is people buying things. So if people buy their product they get are reinforced with money. So to make more money they offer this campaign so that people will spend higher amounts of money so they can get more reward zone points. This helps emit the buying behavior by people which is the target behavior Best Buy is trying to elicit.
https://myrewardzone.bestbuy.com/about/;cshid=YocDf9p75TVcVtjL25Ik.832
A-Best Buy wants people to buy more products and spend more money. So they offer money back for money spent at the store.
B-People start to spend more money so they can get more points for money back.
C-Best buy is rewarded with more things being bought, which means more money for them.
Another popular token economy is taking online surveys for money. The concept behind this is that companies want to know how their product is doing once it hits the public or companies want to know what kind of products people want. So the target behavior is getting people to review their product. People usually don’t just go out and review things for free so companies have to figure out ways to get reviews, so they pay people. The way their token economy works is that you write a review about a product or take a survey about it and if the company accepts the review they will pay you. Each review is worth different amounts of points so eventually when you get enough points you’ll get paid. The way companies make sure the reviews are truthful is they go through the surveys and look at the responses and if something don’t match up you won’t get credit and they won’t use your survey. This is for the purpose of people who just click random things in the survey. What happens then is companies get the feedback they want, and people are reinforced with money for complete the surveys.
http://www.surveyclub.com/index/index.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdefault.aspx
A-Companies want to know what products people want or what products that people bought are good. So they offer money for reviews.
B-people sit down and review the products truthfully so they are rewarded with points for money.
C-Companies know what people like and want so they can make that product or produce more of it.
Reinforcement, target behavior, emit, elicit, token economy, behavior, extinction.
I liked how you tied the ABC's into your blog, it was really helpful!
A token economy is a system of behavior modification based on systematic positive reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. The basic requirements of a token economy are to have tokens (object or symbol that can be exchanged for material reinforcers), back-up reinforcers (valued reinforcers that are to be exchanged), specified target behaviors (specified contingencies- how tokens can be earned). Some features of a token economy include social reinforcement (accompanies token reinforcement), and shaping (implies subjects aren’t expected to do everything perfectly at once).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_economy
http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html
These cites helped me understand more about token economies because they took my step by step through the process and understanding of how it works. In a token economy, once a person emits a certain desired behavior, they receive reinforcement with a form of token. Once they get a certain amount of so-called tokens, they can exchange them for an even more desirable form of reinforcement.
An example of a token economy that I have thought of is punch cards for clothing stores. Whenever I buy a pair of jeans at the Buckle, I get one punch for every certain amount of money ($10) that I spent. Once the card is all punched out I get a percentage off of my next purchase. This is reinforcing because although I am draining my bank account on one pair of jeans, I get a discount the next time around. A downfall to this however is that I have to keep track of the punch card and I have lost them before and then I had to start all over because of course no one is expected to take my word about the punch card. Otherwise this token economy is quite rewarding to my wardrobe when I elicit that feeling of needing new jeans ☺
Terms: reinforcement, target behavior, emit, elicit, token economy
I am interested in token of economy because it truly is a way to get people to do things they would not normally do. The token of economy is in a way, a way to keep the economy flowing. All stores have some sort of token of economy weather or not they flaunt it or not. Its retail and business, it’s their job to give you something for shopping or buying their products. Later after getting tokens of economy we are classically conditioned to do something in reward of something else. This is very true at retail stores!
http://www.kohlscorporation.com/ecom/windows/2010_MayUpdate/KCash/10KohlsCash_REDEEM.html
http://www.kohls.com/
For my first website, well I do not even need the website because I use to work there. Kohl’s does this thing called Kohl’s Cash. For every fifty dollars you spend you get ten dollars back. These ten dollars is to be used in the store or online. It’s a way to get the people back into the store to shop some more. People go crazy over this. It makes many aversive or even pleasurable behaviors. The catch is that it’s pretax, which means that you have to spend fifty dollars before tax. People develop very aversive behaviors when they are just short of the fifty dollars. But there are those who are conditioned by repeating the process over and over again, those they know what to expect when they are at the counter. Something else that helps bring more people into the store which is also a token. Many times the people have a percent off of their total. They are able to use their kohl’s cash and their percent at the same time. Which in a sense saves them money. Which personally if they never came shopping in the first place they would of saved lots of money. HAHA
This is just part of my site
Redeem your Kohl's Cash®!
From April 18 through May 4, Kohl's Cash earned April 13-17 is redeemable in store and online!
It's Easy!
Here's how to use your $10 Kohl's Cash coupons!*
1.Spend $50 or more. You'll get $10 in Kohl's Cash for every $50 spent.
2.The Kohl's Cash coupon you earn online will be sent via e-mail.** Follow the e-mail instructions to print out your Kohl's Cash coupon.
3.Take your Kohl's Cash coupon to your nearest Kohl's Department Store or enter your coupon number and pin at checkout on Kohls.com, April 18 through May 4.
4.At checkout, your Kohl's Cash coupon will be deducted from your purchase total!
Here's how easy it is to earn Kohl's Cash!
Spend $50 - $10 Kohl's Cash Coupon
Spend $100 - $20 Kohl's Cash Coupon
Spend $150 - $30 Kohl's Cash Coupon
Spend $200 - $40 Kohl's Cash Coupon
Spend $250 - $50 Kohl's Cash Coupon
Coupon increases with each $50 purchase
http://www.chuckecheese.com/
The second site that I visited was chucky cheese. I picked this site because I remember going there with my boyfriend for the hell of it. You get in for free but in order to play any games or get prizes you need tokens. When you play a game, you usually always get one ticket. This way you keep playing their games because you always getting something in return. But if you have some skills at the game that you are playing you are able to get many more tickets. For children this is very fun because they are able to save all their tickets and get a prize. Many times they are able to get multiple toys or candy.( prizes) Yes it’s expensive that this is also a way for people not to have to watch their children if they are older. Like most places there is coupons online and also coupons in the ad/ all the other coupons book that comes in the paper. ALSO if you join their email club your kid gets free tokens on their birthday. Join now and save up to 30 dollars. Also you will receive the best coupon deals. This all is token of economy, Chucky Cheese has so many ways of getting you to spend your time and money at their place where kids can be a kid.
Overall the target behaviors that these two stores have are for you to emit the behavior of spend spend spend and to get a little token of economy in return .
Terms pleasurable, aversive, classical conditioning target behaviors, emit
For my first example of token economies, I looked at Maurices. I couldn't find anything on their website about it, but because I frequently shop there I know about their "take 10 cards." Essentially what this is, is you get a punch card and for every $10 you spend, they will punch your card. When you have 25 punches, you get $10 off of your next purchase.
http://www.maurices.com/helpdesk/index.jsp
For the next example, I too used Chuck e cheese. Once you get enough tickets, you are able to chose your prize.
http://www.chuckecheese.com/index.php
Token economies are very common. It seems like every shoe store and clothing store has some kind of punch card. A token economy is used to try to change a behavior through positive reinforcement. It is a lot like operant conditioning in that the behaviors are voluntary. There is a lot that needs to be taken into account when coming up with a successful token economy. The first that needs to be done is to define the target behavior that you are trying to change. Once you have defined that behavior, you need to determine the setting, such as at work or in a classroom. Next is to determine what kind of tokens you are going to use. Punch cards are very common in stores, but there are a lot of different things that can be used, such as: points, poker chip, stickers, etc. Next you need to select backup reinforcers. This basically means, what can the tokens buy. The next step is to set token values. This means how much for each behavior. Next is to set reinforcer costs. It is important to not set the reinforcer too high or too low because if it is too high, the goal may be unrealistic for the person. Constructing a bank is the next step. How do you keep track of the tokens is what is meant by this statement. There are a lot of considerations to this because you have to take into account what kind of tokens you are using, and also for what age group. If you are dealing with children, you want to make sure the tokes are not really small so they eat it. You also want to figure out what would happen if the tokens were stolen or lost, or even if the person took the token home. The next step is to set up business hours. This means deciding when the tokens are going to be given to the individual. Are the individuals going to be reinforced right after the target behavior is emitted? Or is it going to be reinforced at the end of the day, etc. Next is to explain the system. You would want to explain it to the organization where the token economy is taking place, and also you may want to tell the parents if you are targeting children. The last step in setting up a token economy is to evaluate for potential problems. There are a lot of things that could go wrong with a token economy, but it is important to switch things up if something is not working the way it should instead of giving up completely.
terms: token economy, positive reinforcement, reinforcers, operant conditioning, target behavior, emitted
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
GREAT example!! I am a Maurices shopper myself and have gone through plenty of those punch cards. It is crazy how well they work. Although I know it is not that great of a deal because you have to spend like $250 to get $10 off on the NEXT purchase it draws you in and makes you want to fill the punch card. Without it you would proabably save money. Most shopping places use this as a way to get their customers back such as The Buckle, Maurices, Aerie, American Eagle, Younkers, Kohls and I am sure many more.
“A Token Economy is a system of behavior modification through positive reinforcement derived from the principals of operant conditioning”. This quote for me sums up exactly what a token economy is trying to accomplish. Through my further research of token economies I was able to gain a stronger understanding of what a token economy is. The base of a token economy is based on operant conditioning. A token economy is trying to reward you for a particular behavior by rewards to get you to continue to admit that behavior and to not admit the undesirable response. The larger goal of a token economy is to teach appropriate behaviors and social skill that can be used in our everyday environment. This is a reason why you will see token economies so often in schools, but can be used in almost any type of group settings.
The specifics of a token economy are that the reward needs to be visible and countable. The desired behavior and undesired behavior are explained ahead of time. The tokens have no specific value at the time given, as they will be turned in later for a reward. The rewards in a token economy must be constant, as it is essential for this so that the participants know they will be rewarded.
Examples that are in our everyday life’s are places such as Chuck E Cheese’s, and Dave and Busters. As well everyday classrooms where teachers use things such as an amount of stickers allows for a pizza party for the students.
http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Token-economy-system.html
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
Token economies are a very effective way of influencing consumer decisions and also to pursued individuals to follow your system, such as a teacher with students in a class room. A great example is the way this bmod class is set up. We recieve tokens for doing what we are suppose to do, these tokens are in the form of points that ultimately equate to our final grade. If we do everything we are suppose to and attend class we will receive all of our tokens or what translates to an overall grade of an A. If we decide to be lazy or get caught up in all that life can throw at us, we can begin to put off what we need to do to recieve our tokens. Therefore, we are taking a cut in the amount of tokens we aquire, or in this case a cut in our grade.
It is amazing how many businesses take advantage of token economy systems in order to elicit a buying behavior from the consumer. It is a great marketing idea to utilize such systems. It is always rewarding to the consumer when they are positively reinforced for shopping where they want to shop. In this poor economy, more and more businesses may see the benefit of these token economy systems and impliment a similar strategy of their own.
Many airlines have a frequent flyer program where the more miles you fly the more free miles you accumulate. The free miles are reinforcing for the consumer. Although they are spending a lot of money on airline tickets to accumulate a large amount of the "free miles." It is reinforcing to both parties, the airlines who profits from you transactions and you, the consumer, who gets a free ride after you have emitted the proper amount of your spending behavior. Kohl's offers a similar program, for every 50 dollars you spend at their store, you will be reinforced with a 10 dollar coupon. The more incraments of 50 dollars you spend, the more your coupon will be worth. They call this program Kohl's cash. Just like the airlines, the more you spend, the more positively you are reinforced. Chuck-e-cheese (CEC) is also a classic and very popular example of a token economy. The money is turned into coins (that can only be used at CEC) that you can use to play the games in an attempt to collect as many tickets as you can. Once you are out of coins, the tickets that you have earned can then be exchanged for the cheap prizes that CEC offers. CEC chooses to focus their token economy system towards kids. The parents spend a lot of money on tokens and the tokens turn into tickets that turn into a prize that would have been cheaper to buy at the store. The kids however don't think like this quite yet and feel as though they are getting a hell of a deal! In reality their parents are getting ripped off but at least the kids are happy! CEC has a great system and it has worked and continues to work wonderfully for them.
Terms: Token economy, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement
http://www.kohlscorporation.com/ecom/windows/Update/KohlsCash/10KohlsCash.html
http://www.chuckecheese.com/the-experience/prizes.php
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_miles/pay_miles/index.jsp
Token economies are ways places and people reinforce a certain desired behavior behaviors emitted. At Old Chicago where I work we have “The World Beer Tour,” it’s our special beer club where you earn prizes by drinking beer, the more beer you drink the better prizes you receive, also the you are given incentives of special rewards and discounts only to the members of the WBT, by giving you prizes for drinking beer we are reinforcing you to keep up the desired behavior with the prizes. It’s interesting to me because of how many people buy into the world beer to and get super excited to try the new beers and get better prizes each time, plus they love the recognition by the staff and other people that come to Old Chicago for the work they have done. At first when you start the world beer tour you get like a deck of cards, a compass watch, a bottle opener, Old Chicago t-shirt, Old Chicago sweat shirt, but by the time you really get up there you get money on your card for drinking beers, a grill set, a duffle bag, a cooler, a windbreak jacket, and when you get 10 world beer tours, you get a 32 out stein that you only have to pay the 25oz price for. http://www.oldchicago.com/wbt. I also signed up for the Pay Pal MasterCard, where the more money I spend I gain points to be able to cash in for cash, or prizes, if I spend money on gas or food it’s 3 points per dollar, 2 points on eBay and pay pal purchases, and 1 point for all other purchases made. I don’t know why I bought into this, because it turns out the “cash back” isn’t really cash back on everything, you have to gain the points to be able to get the cash, it’s somewhat misleading actually, and most of prizes seem cheap or you need too many points to get them. https://personal.paypal.com/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/paypal_credit_card
We buy into this crap because we liked being rewarded for our behaviors and we like free stuff, companies almost take advantage of the fact that we love discounts and free items so they reinforce us with those things.
TERMS: emitted, reinforce, and desired behavior,
Token economies interest me because, well everyone loves getting something in return for their behavior.
I searched token economy and found the 'history of token economy' which I found to be interesting. The first token economy was in 1960 and was created by Teodoro Ayllon. He first used tokens in prisions and mental institutions. He wanted to see whether or not a token economy would change the behaviors of these patients/criminals into a more desirable behavior.
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
One site I found used token economy in patients with eating disorders. Whenever the patient engaged in a target behavior (ie. eating meal, not overly exercising) they were then given a token which the patient could exchange for a high frequency behavior. I thought this was interesting, however this is an extremely hard behavior to stop and i don't think that tokens are the solid way to do it.
http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Describe-And-Evaluate-Token-Economy-Programme/645826
The other place that I've been to millions of times that has a sort of 'token economy' is Dave and Busters. This is a nice resturant with an arcade. They give you a 'power card' which you can then exchange for tickets to play the games. Which you can then exchange the tickets for prizes! So, it's like a giant heirarchy of tokens.
http://www.daveandbusters.com/play/arcade.aspx\
These sites expanded my knowledge because i was totally unaware of all the different settings you could place token economies in! And, learning about the history was pretty cool.
Terms:target behavior, reinforcers, desired behavior,
Great example with Dave and Busters. That token economy also relates to your first resource "kids making change" because it mentions that token economies work for adults too and Dave and Busters is a big arcade for adults.
I chose this article because the first paragraph defined a token economy better than any other website I stumbled upon. The more I read through this website the more interesting it got. It defines what a token economy is in lamens terms and refers it back to behavior modification, operant conditioning and even Pavlov. I thought this was a very appropriate site to choose and I thought it was interesting becuase behavior modification starts with children. The first time ANYONE has ever experienced a token economy was as a child. Regardless of where they came from or what the norms were, some form of positive reinforcement is used to teach children right from wrong.
The token economy was first used in the 1960's by Teodoro Ayllon. This system was used in health institutions and prison's to determine its effectiveness. The Token economy works for children, mentally disabled, adults, individual households and many more environments.
In prison, the inmates still have to work and in return they recieve a payment in order for them to buy certain things such as snack foods and such. The token in this case is money. Although the inmates are given a certain amount of food no matter what they still are restricted to the amount they can do. With the little amounts of money they get they can spend it on the only available amenities. This goes hand in hand with self directed behavior and other directed behavior. Once the inmates realize that money can get them what they want they self direct their behavior to working in order to get payed. Also, an inmate with "good behavior" recieves more freedom than those without it. Inmates will try to continue their good behavior which is self directed in order to get what they want. Whereas the gaurds and the warden reinforce the good behavior, they have control of those positive reinforcers (other directed behavior). The good behavior and working are seen as the target behaviors in this environment. Knowing that they will be continuously reinforced for these target behaviors will modivate them to behave. However, if for some reason the warden or gaurds decided not to reinforce those good behaviors, I would not want to see that extinction burst.
In a happier environment, teachers use the token economy with every student, especially in early education. These reward could be as simple as recess, snacks during class, playing a game instead of reading and so one. The tokens are the objects given to show the improvement.
Token economy, self directed behavior, other directed behavior, positive reinforcers, target behaviors, continuous reinforcers, extinction burst,
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
http://www.rewardingkids.com/tools-to-change-behavior/token-economy/
For my examples of token economy, I chose Kohls because I am suckered all the time into spending a few extra bucks so I can get my Kohls cash to come back and spend more money the next time. For every $50 spent, you earn $10 Kohls cash. I shop there a lot so this is something I see and do a lot. Another example of sort of the same thing is a lot of websites (including Kohls) when shopping online, have free shipping if you spend X amount of dollars. So if Im buyin something that is $20 and if you spend $25 it ships for free instead of paying $4 for shipping, I find something else to add so I spend that $ on something rather than shipping. However, there is rarely anything I find for $5 so I end up spending more. www.kohls.com
Another example of a token economy is progressive insurance’s snap shot discount. They send you a monitor device to put in your car that measures your hard breaks, late night driving, mileage, etc. If these things are low, you receive a good driver discount and your insurance rates go down. http://www.progressive.com/auto/snapshot-discount.aspx
A token economy is a system of behavior modification based on systematic positive reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. Token economies is are based on operant conditioning principles. The basic requirements of a token economy are to have tokens (object or symbol that can be exchanged for primary reinforcers), back-up reinforcers (primary reinforcer), specified target behaviors (specified contingencies- how tokens can be earned. Thank you Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_economy
I know the buckle which I shop at too much has a token system. They have punch cards and when it is all filled up with punches you get ten percent off your purchase. Every ten dollars spent gets one punch. It adds up pretty quickly considering the jeans there are at least 80$
http://www.buckle.com/info/info.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673642831&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474395181121
And this is definitely not the only store that partakes in token economies. Many stores have a system like this.