Evaluating the impact of reinforcer magnitude on response allocation across two communication modalities under a concurrent schedule arrangement

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of reinforcer magnitude on response allocation across two different communication modalities (vocalizations and picture exchange). A single-subject reversal design was used to evaluate the effects of altering the magnitude of requested items with one male participant who engaged in limited and inconsistent vocalizations. This study took place in a classroom that served students with intellectual disabilities and autism for kindergarten to second grade students, as well as in a teachers workroom. Before each intervention, the researcher conducted forced trials to ensure the participant contacted the different reinforcement magnitudes assigned to the responses. In the first intervention, the participant received high magnitude reinforcement for vocalizations and low magnitude reinforcement for picture exchange. In the second intervention, the participant received low magnitude reinforcement for vocalizations and high magnitude reinforcement for picture exchange. The results showed that the participant allocated responding to the communication modality that received higher magnitude of the requested item.