The Fort Ord Merit-Reward System

Abstract

The paper describes the development of a program of contingency management (incentive manipulation) in recruit training at Fort Ord, California. This program is called the Merit-Reward System (MRS). The MRS can be viewed as an applied outgrowth of behaviorism, specifically Skinnerian operant conditioning in a social system. The MRS was developed by conducting reinforcement surveys of the recruits, selecting those incentives rated as very strong and which could be manipulated, devising means for assigning/recording secondary reinforcement (token allocation), selecting/defining the behaviors to be shaped and maintained (i.e., rewarded), communicating the system to the participants, and constructing means for monitoring the execution of the system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 08, 1972
Accession Number
AD0743213

Entities

People

  • William E. Datel

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attrition
  • Basic Training
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • California
  • Classification
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Systems
  • Monitoring
  • Motivation
  • Processing Equipment
  • Psychology
  • Security
  • Students
  • Trainees
  • Training
  • Training Management
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Engineering.
  • Naval Personnel Management