Unconditioned Reinforcer is also called a primary reinforcer. These are reinforcers that do not need to be learned, such as food, water, oxygen, warmth and sex. These are all primary drives that we have for basic survival and if they are deprived in any way, gaining access to these reinforcers is very motivating.
Conditioned Reinforcer is also called a secondary reinforcer. It is something that needs to be learned through pairings with unconditioned reinforcers. For example, money is a learned reinforcer. By itself, money is a useless piece of paper, but with the pairing of money and access to unconditioned reinforcers, money becomes a valuable thing.
Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer
Reinforcers can be classified by their attributes:
These reinforcer types remind me of the “5 Love Languages.” The premise behind the Love Language book is that people find different things reinforcing and they want to receive positives from others in different ways. The Love Languages are like Reinforcers in that everyone has different things that they find desirable and therefore reinforcing.
In order to find what is reinforcing to an individual, a preference assessment can be performed.