Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz
Presentation given at the 2017 Conference
Once a behavior is learned, trainers often ask if they have to keep delivering a reinforcer for each response. They wonder if they can effectively maintain behavior by continuing to click each correct response, but by only delivering an occasional unconditioned reinforcer. The answer to this question varies, and it can be confusing to know what to do. Some trainers and theories advocate that each and every click should be followed by a reinforcer. Others argue that once a behavior is learned, clicks don’t always have to be followed by reinforcers. This presentation will discuss the scientific evidence for these two positions and show some research that suggests that it is best to follow each click with an unconditioned reinforcer.