Premack Principle

The Premack principle is an observation about the effectiveness of using certain types of behavior or activities as reinforcement. According to David Premack, “Any response A will reinforce any other response B, if and only if the independent rate of A is greater than that of B” (1959, p. 219). Another way to say this is that a more preferred activity, that with a high independent rate, can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity, that with a low independent rate. Or, a high-probability event can be used to increase the frequency of a low-probability event.

The principle fits within the realm of operant conditioning, the use of a stimulus to elicit a response and the use of a consequence, or reinforcement, to increase the probability of the response occurring again. The principle is noteworthy because it expanded the understanding of what constitutes reinforcement to include activities and behavior. The opportunity to engage in a preferred activity, one that is considered a high-probability event, can be used to increase the probability of, or reinforce, a less-preferred or less frequent activity.

In 1959, this occurrence was first identified by Premack in his early work with primates and replicated with young children. He used children’s [Page 1292]preferences to determine reinforcing events and demonstrated the effectiveness of using these events as consequences to strengthen the probability of specific behaviors. Some suggest that Premack identified an obvious relationship and elevated it to a principle of behavior.

This principle has broad application in areas of education and management. The application of the principle can be seen in a wide array of procedures and settings to increase the concurrence of positive or productive behavior. These include, for example, the scheduling of activities in preschool settings that alternate more difficult tasks with more preferred activities, the contingency management of adolescent delinquents to obtain privileges if they engage in productive behaviors, self-management programs for weight reduction by suggesting access to a fun activity after exercise, or management of employees to increase productivity by scheduling breaks contingent on outcomes. The principle is also widely applied in parenting practice and is informally known as “Grandma’s law” or “Do your math homework and then you can play with your toys.”

Considerations of its application include an understanding of satiation and deprivation. As with the use of any type of reinforcement, one element that needs to be considered when selecting and using a particular reinforcement is the motivational strength of the consequence. Satiation suggests that the consequence is overused and that the probability of the event occurring independently is reduced. The concept of deprivation addresses the extent to which an individual is deprived of, or prevented from, performing the more-liked or higher probability event or behavior. This theory suggests that the behavior being used as reinforcement will only be effective if access to that behavior is reduced below baseline levels.

See also Behaviorism; Operant Conditioning; Punishment; Reinforcement