The effects of fixed versus escalating reinforcement schedules on smoking abstinence.
Studies indicate that when abstinence is initiated, escalating reinforcement schedules maintain continuous abstinence longer than fixed reinforcement schedules. However, these studies were conducted for shorter durations than most clinical trials and also resulted in larger reinforcer value for escalating participants during the 1st week of the experiment. We tested whether escalating reinforcement schedules maintained abstinence longer than fixed reinforcement schedules in a 12-week clinical trial. Smokers (146) were randomized to an escalating reinforcement schedule, a fixed reinforcement schedule, or a control condition. Escalating reinforcement participants received $5.00 for their first breath carbon monoxide (CO) sample <3 ppm, with a $0.50 increase for each consecutive sample. Fixed reinforcement participants received $19.75 for each breath CO sample <3 ppm. Control participants received payments only for delivering a breath CO sample. Similar proportions of escalating and fixed reinforcement participants met the breath CO criterion at least once. Escalating reinforcement participants maintained criterion breath CO levels longer than fixed reinforcement and control participants. Similar to previous short-term studies, escalating reinforcement schedules maintained longer durations of abstinence than fixed reinforcement schedules during a clinical trial.
['Romanowich|Paul|P|', 'Lamb|R J|RJ|']
D000328:Adult D001944:Breath Tests D002248:Carbon Monoxide D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009042:Motivation D012055:Reinforcement Schedule D012907:Smoking D016540:Smoking Cessation D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
contingency management differential reinforcement nicotine schedule of reinforcement smoking cessation tobacco