Speed as an indicator of response effort in human behavior: A brief report
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31211/rpics.2025.11.2.396Keywords:
Response Effort, Physical Response effort, Physical effort, Psychomotor performance, Human behavior, Behavioral interventionsAbstract
Background: Response effort is a central dimension in behavior analysis and can modulate responding in contexts related to safety, health, and sustainability. Although response effort has been extensively studied through manipulations of ratio and force requirements, little is known about the effects of response speed. Objective: To examine the effects of different speed requirements, as manipulations of response effort, on human response rates. Method: Six undergraduate students participated in an A–B–A single-case design using a computer-based task involving the destruction of “pollution sources,” under a multiple variable-interval schedule (VI 15s / VI 30s). The speed requirement (20%, 40%, 80%, or 100% of screen length per second) varied across sessions and returned to the initial value in the final phase. Results: In general, increases in the speed requirement were accompanied by reductions in response rates, with no consistent effects of reinforcement rate between components. Asymmetrical patterns between groups exposed to increasing versus decreasing speed, as well as individual differences, suggested variability in sensitivity to effort. Conclusions: The findings suggest that speed functions as a dimension of response effort with predominantly suppressive effects on responding, offering an additional parameter that may be useful in nonpunitive behavioral interventions in clinical, educational, and organizational contexts.
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Copyright (c) 2025 André Connor de Méo Luiz, Myenne Mieko Ayres Tsutsumi , José Martins da Silva Neto, Julia Rocker dos Santos , Kauane de Kássia Mussett Lazaniri , Luis Humbert Andrade de Lemos , Rafael Tresso Terrin
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