Research-to-practice and practice-to-research: closing the gap through improving implementation of token economies and reducing classroom transitions

The increasing emphasis on implementation of evidence-based practices has been accompanied by a growing awareness of the gap between research and practice, and has become a matter of concern. This dissertation presents two manuscripts linked by the interaction between research and practice. The first manuscript progressed from the need to connect research to practice and highlights problematic scenarios encountered during implementation of token economies and how revisiting basic experimental research can guide practitioners as to how to integrate this seemingly esoteric research into their everyday practices. The second manuscript exemplifies the progression from practice to research. Conceived through practical observations (and subsequent frustrations), it presents a research study that is directly applicable to everyday problems confronted in practice: that of inefficient and lengthy transitions.