By midafternoon in a utility-locate class, "great job" has gone stale and energy is flat. How should the instructor keep reinforcement working?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
The same compliment all day is leftover coffee — fine at dawn and nobody wants it at 3. Change the coin: a named win, a choice of case, a check on the progress board, then a harder locate. The objective stays put; the reinforcer gets a new jacket.
Full Explanation
By midafternoon in a utility-locate class, when "great job" has gone stale, the instructor should rotate the reinforcer across the day—specific praise, a choice of next case, a visible progress mark, then a harder lab—while keeping the same objective. Variety prevents satiation and keeps municipal learners responding to the locate skill rather than tuning out a spent phrase. Repeating "great job" louder fails variety; intensity is not a new technique. Stopping reinforcement until the last ten minutes fails continuous motivation and starves the afternoon of feedback. Switching only to candy because "variety means changing the treat" fails the technique concept: variety includes different forms of recognition and challenge, not merely different sugar. Exam caveat: keep the objective constant while rotating how you reinforce progress toward it. Operational check: after the next correct locate, give specific named praise; later offer choice of case; update a progress board; then release a harder lab—and confirm energy and accuracy recover compared with the flat "great job" period. Utility locate accuracy prevents dig-in damage to civic infrastructure; rotating reinforcers through the afternoon keeps attention on correct locates when a single phrase has gone stale.