Psychology for Dummies (29 page)
Read Psychology for Dummies Online
Authors: Adam Cash
Tags: #Psychology, #General, #Body; Mind & Spirit, #Spirituality
What would happen if I suddenly stopped providing the reinforcement after successfully increasing a behavior’s occurrence? The behavior would eventually cease, depending on how often it was reinforced. I guarantee that if I stopped getting paid at work, my working behavior would cease, and it probably wouldn’t take very long either. This phenomenon is called
extinction,
the cessation of a behavior after the removal of a reinforcer. Just like punishment, extinction is used as a method to stop a behavior from occurring again. Chapter 8 has more information about extinction.
Have you ever wondered why people keep going back to places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City time and time again to donate their money to the casino expansion fund? The bottom line with gambling is that the big winner is the house, the casino. But people can’t stay away. The last time I was in Vegas I really enjoyed the multimillion-dollar casinos and resorts. I guess I have the gamblers to thank for that.
People keep going back because of something called a
schedule of reinforcement,
a schedule or determination as to what responses to reinforce and when to reinforce them. There are four different schedules of reinforcement, each with different effects on the response in question.
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Perhaps the most common form of reinforcement is called
continuous reinforcement.
This involves reinforcing a behavior every time it occurs. Every time I pull the slot machine handle, I win! Yeah right, I wish. Continuous reinforcement is good for the shaping phase of learning or for what is called the
acquisition phase.
Anytime I am learning a new behavior, it is going to take time to learn it. Continuous reinforcement helps me learn faster. The problem with continuous reinforcement, however, is that it extinguishes quickly. If I’m reinforced every time I return to work on time from lunch, the minute my boss stops reinforcing me, I’ll stop coming back on time.
Most reinforcement in our world, however, is more intermittent and sporadic. Of course we don’t win every time we pull the lever on the slot machine. B. F. Skinner didn’t design slots; B. A. Loser, the casino behavioral psychologist, did. Reinforcement on a less frequent basis is called
partial reinforcement.
There are two types of partial reinforcement schedules, each further divided by how predictably or randomly the reinforcers come.
The first type of partial reinforcement is called a
ratio schedule.
With a ratio schedule, reinforcement is only given after a specific number of responses have been given. If a parent was using this schedule with his children, he might only give a reward for some number of A’s his child gets or after a certain number of times his child cleans his/her room.
• Ratio schedules can then vary based on whether a fixed number of responses or a variable number of responses are required. A
fixed ratio
reinforcement schedule (see Figure 9-1) involves always reinforcing for the same number of given responses. If I’m going to reward my child for every two A’s s/he earns, that never changes, reinforcement follows every two A’s.
• A
variable ratio
reinforcement schedule (see Figure 9-2) involves giving reinforcement for a varied number of responses provided. I might reinforce my child for two A’s now, but then I might reinforce her for one A, three A’s, or 10 A’s. The key is to keep the recipient guessing. This approach has a powerful effect on the persistence of a response because people will keep doing the requisite behavior because they don’t know when the reinforcement will come. It’s much more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement.
Figure 9-1: |  |
Figure 9-2: |  |
The other type of partial reinforcement schedule, an
interval schedule,
is based on the amount of time that has passed between reinforcements.
• I get paid once a month. Time determines when I get paid. My pay schedule is an example of a
fixed interval
reinforcement schedule (see Figure 9-3). The time frame never varies.
• The other type of interval schedule is a
variable interval
reinforcement schedule (see Figure 9-4). Here, responses are reinforced per a varied amount of time passed since the last reinforcement. It would be like getting paid at the end of the month, and then getting paid two days later, and then getting paid three weeks later, and so on. Variable interval schedules are also very resistant to extinction for the same reason as variable ratio schedules. The responder never knows when he is going to get reinforced, so he has to keep responding to find out.
Figure 9-3: |  |
Figure 9-4: |  |