Psychology Essays (UOP)

Psy/420 Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of Reinforcement

Samantha Craig, Jesse Trombley, Marcus Niblack, Michela Folino, Sheniky Leslie, Teshell

PSY/420

8/3/2016

Introduction

The four schedules of reinforcement are normally used in operant conditioning. A schedule of reinforcement is a rule stating which instances of a behavior will be reinforced. Sometimes, a behavior may be reinforced every time it happens. Sometimes, the behavior will not be reinforced at all. Positive reinforced or negative reinforced may be used, it all depends on the situation and what is desired to be taught. The goal of reinforcement is always to strengthen the behavior and increase the likelihood that the behavior will continue to occur in the future. Some schedules are best suited to certain types of training situations. In some cases, training may start with one schedule and switch to another once the desired behavior has been learned.

Schedules of Reinforcement

When it comes to what are schedules of reinforcements the best definition comes from (Malott & Shane, 2014) "the way reinforcement occurs because of the number of repsonses, time since reinforcements, time between responses, and the stimulus conditions." Now based on this information there are four reinforcements. The first is fixed-interval (FI) which is when reinforcements occurs only after a certain amount of time has passed since the behavior happened. The second is variable-interval (VI) where even though the schedule of time changes before reinforcement occurs the time passed must average out. Fixed-ratio (FR) is a lot like Variable-interval where reinforcement occurs on an average time frame, however the scheduled time does not change. Last but not least, there is the fourth scheduled reinforcement. This is known as variable-ration this is where the reinforcement can occur anytime and as many times as it wants during the allotted time frame.

Apply Schedules of Reinforcement to Scenario's

Fixed-ratio scenario:

Michela Folino is having trouble in psych/420. Her husband found a tutor to help her better understand this behavior reinforcement assignment. Michela is starting to have success and believes that she will be able to complete a specific assignment by herself. Her tutor pointed out four types of behavior reinforcement and Michela has to explain them correctly, without any help. Michela uses 30 minutes to complete this assignment. Her tutor then uses 10 minutes to look over and correct her work, but decides to wait an additional 20 minutes before he provides Michela with her reinforcement points needed in this class.

Variable-ratio scenario:

Samantha loves to go to the store and play the lottery every year. Samantha gets excited every time she fill out the sheets with numbers and pays her money even know she never wins. Samantha continues to play the lottery no matter how much money she is wasting because she feels if she keeps playing eventually she will hit it big, she just doesn't know when it will happen.

Fixed-interval scenario:

Marcus Niblack works 40 hours five days a week and gets paid every two weeks. Marcus is not given any overtime hours, but his supervisor is always asking him to take on more job duties. The reality is that Marcus is working just to make sure he's able to pay the bills in his house. Because he's working his full 80 hours every two weeks he is guaranteed to receive his check every 14 days.

Variable - interval scenario:

Marcus Niblack continues to work is 40 hours a week with deadlines to meet. His supervisor Travis pops up in on him randomly to see just how much work he is getting down. Because Marcus is never knows when Travis is going to arrive on his job site, he continues to work very efficiently and focus allowing him to always be able to provide Travis with efficient and effective information in progress on his specific job duties.

Conclusion

Reinforcing a behavior every single time it happens can be hard and requires a great deal of attention and resources. Partial schedules may lead to behaviors that are more resistant to extinction; they also reduce the risk that the subject will become satiated. If the reinforcer being used is no longer wanted or rewarding, the individual may stop doing the desired behavior. The four reinforcement schedules are used in different scenarios to gain a certain behavior. Whether the goal is trying to get a child to sit still during class, or wanting a person to stop an undesired behavior, reinforcement schedules can be used to train the individual to do the desired behavior.

References

Malott, R. W., & Shane, J. T. (2014). Principles of behavior (7th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.