Using a guest‐ and confederate‐delivered token economy to increase employee–guest interactions at a zoo

Abstract

The present study used a token economy to promote guest greetings by employees at a zoological facility. Guests and confederate guests delivered tokens to zoo employees for making eye contact from 10 ft (3.05 m) away and verbally greeting guests from 5 ft (1.52 m) away (called a 10-5 interaction) and the tokens were exchangeable for small prizes. An ABAB design was used to evaluate the intervention. Results showed increases of 35.3 and 45.0% in correct employee-guest interactions in each intervention phase compared to baseline, thus suggesting that a guest-delivered token economy is an effective way to improve guest greetings. Limitations of the current study and opportunities for future research are discussed.

A detailed examination of reporting procedural fidelity in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

“…Specifically, the studies included mention of limited resources or setting constraints rather than a lack of knowledge. Lichtblau et al (2018) explained that remote service delivery and limited access to rooms in the home prevented assessing fidelity, and Vergason and Gravina (2020) described that collecting fidelity data was challenging given the setting (i.e., a zoo). Although we did not have an option for an “other” theme, we did not find any articles with rationales that did not fit within the themes identified by St. Peter et al (2023).…”

Effects of a Systems-Level Intervention to Improve Trainer Integrity in a Behavioral Healthcare Organization

“…Interestingly, the costs to the organization were minimal, as many peer trainers had not spent their earnings at the time of the writing of this manuscript. Although studies involving monetary incentives and employee token economies have been published in the literature (e.g., Fox et al, 1987 ; Vergason & Gravina, 2019 ), few are used within human services settings. Luiselli et al ( 2009 ) evaluated the effects of an intervention containing a probabilistic financial incentive on chronic absenteeism of human services employees and showed reductions in the percentage of daily staff absences.…”