Unit 6 (Ch. 10)

Question 1

What are the two kinds of schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 1

Simple and complex

Question 2

CRF

Answer 2

Continuous Reinforcement (FR 1)

Question 3

Schedule of reinforcement

Answer 3

A schedule of reinforcement is a rule describing the delivery of reinforcement. A particular kind of reinforcement schedule tends to produce a particular pattern and rate of performance, and these schedule effects are remarkably reliable.

Question 4

Run rate

Answer 4

The run rate is the rate at which the organism performs once it has resumed work after reinforcement. Run rate = rate at which a behaviour occurs once it has begun.

Question 5

Post-reinforcement pause

Answer 5

After reinforcement there may be a pause, called a post-reinforcement pause. This is influenced by the amount of work required for each reinforcement, which correlated with the ratio of responses to reinforcement. This means pauses are longer in an FR 100 schedule than an FR 20 schedule.

Question 6

Fixed-ration schedule of reinforcement

Answer 6

A Fixed Ratio (FR) schedule (FR Schedule) reinforces behaviour when it has occurred a fixed number of times. The naming convention for Fixed Ratio schedules is FR # (number of times the behaviour must occur for each reinforcement).

Question 7

Variable-ratio schedule

Answer 7

In a Variable-Ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement (VR Schedule), the number of times an activity must be performed before reinforcement varies around an average.
The response pattern for VR has fewer and shorter post-reinforcement pauses and so more behaviour in a given period than FR.

Question 8

Fixed-interval schedule

Answer 8

A Fixed-Interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement reinforces behaviour the first time it occurs after a constant/fixed interval.
The response pattern for FI shows a scalloped shape, as since the FI doesn’t reinforce steady performance it doesn’t produce a steady run rate. There is no reinforcement for continuing to perform until near the end of the interval.

Question 9

Fixed-duration (FD) schedule

Answer 9

In Fixed-Duration (FD) schedules of reinforcement, reinforcement depends on the continuous performance of a behaviour for a period of time.

Question 10

Variable-duration schedule

Answer 10

In Variable-Duration (VD) schedules of reinforcement, the required period for performing the behaviour varies around an average.

Question 11

Which schedules aren’t affected by the behaviour of the subject?

Answer 11

Fixed-Time (FT) and Variable-Time (VT) schedules of reinforcement aren’t contingent on any behaviour by the subject. The reinforcer is delivered regardless of what the subject does.

Question 12

Ratio strain

Answer 12

Ratio strain happens when stretching the ratio is done too quickly or too far, causing the tendency to perform to break down.

Question 13

Thinning

Answer 13

Thinning a reinforcement schedule is a type of shaping that involves “thinning” the reinforcement schedule to fewer and fewer reinforcements for a behaviour.

Question 14

Stretching the ratio

Answer 14

Stretching the ratio means to progressively increase the ratio of behaviour to reinforcement.

Question 15

Partial reinforcement effect

Answer 15

The Partial-Reinforcement Effect (PRE) says that behaviours that have been on intermittent schedule are more resistant to extinction than behaviour that has been on continuous reinforcement.

Question 16

What are the 4 hypotheses to explain PRE?

Answer 16

• Discrimination Hypothesis
• Frustration Hypothesis
• Sequential Hypothesis
• Response Unit Hypothesis

Question 17

Discrimination hypothesis

Answer 17

Discrimination Hypothesis says that extinction takes longer after intermittent reinforcement because it’s harder to discriminate between extinction and an intermittent schedule than it is to discriminate between extinction and continuous reinforcement, and a say FR 30 schedule will take you 30 times before you even start to question if something has changed, and longer still to stop trying.

Question 18

Frustration hypothesis

Answer 18

Frustration Hypothesis = discrimination, explains PRE by saying that extinction takes longer after intermittent reinforcement because, in effect, lever pressing while frustrated has been reinforced. If you’ve always been reinforced for a behaviour, then never are, you will experience frustration, and that will act as negative reinforcement. But if you’ve been intermittently reinforced for the behaviour, you’ve been reinforced for performing the behaviour while reinforced, and so that frustration becomes an S+ for lever pressing (and the frustration from that causes S+ for more lever pressing, and so on). - the stimuli present during training become S+ for behaviour, and the S+ is inside the subject (frustration)

Question 19

Sequential hypothesis

Answer 19

Sequential Hypothesis = discrimination, focuses on differences in the sequence of cues during training. In continuous reinforcement the behaviour is followed by reinforcement every time, so the reinforcement is an S+ for that behaviour. In intermittent reinforcement, some behaviours are followed by reinforcement and some not, but that interval itself becomes a bit of an S+ for the behaviour, since the subject is used to performing X number (or for X long) that behaviour before reinforcement. The thinner the reinforcement schedule, the more resistant the behaviour to extinction.- the stimuli present during training become S+ for behaviour, and the S+ is outside the subject (the sequence of reinforcement and nonreinforcement).

Question 20

Response unit hypothesis

Answer 20

Response Unit Hypothesis is quite different, doesn’t focus on discrimination. It distinguishes between what is actually creating reinforcement in CRF and other forms of reinforcement. The typical understanding is to define the reinforced behaviour as, for example, pressing the lever. And in CRF this would be correct, just that is enough to produce reinforcement. In other forms of reinforcement, however, there is more involved in getting the reinforcer. On an FR 3 schedule, for example, the unit of behaviour is three lever presses, not one. In VR schedules, the unit of behaviour is a range of behaviour, rather than just the one original unit.

Question 21

Matching law

Answer 21

Matching law is a formula that states that the distribution of behaviours matches the availability of reinforcement. The subject will start by moving back and forth between the two, but eventually land on the side associated with the richer reinforcement schedule.

Question 22

Complex schedules of reinforcement

Answer 22

Multiple- 2 or more
Mixed- same, but no stimuli to “tip off” which you’re on
• Chain: only reinforced for end of chain
Tandem: same, but no clear mark between end of one event and beginning of next.

Question 23

The only schedule with more than one subject

Answer 23

cooperative

Question 24

The only schedule with more than 1 available at a time

Answer 24

concurrent

Question 25

Herrnstein’s formula

Answer 25

Herrnstein triangle formula
Herrnstein’s formula uses a reformulation of the matching law:

BA = rA
BA + BB rA + rB

Bs are the behaviours, rs are the reinforcement rates.
Example: if rA is 10 and rB is 30, then 75% of reinforcement and time should go to rA, and 25% to rB.

Question 26

Herrnstein’s formula for multiple choice

Answer 26

“O” for any Other behaviour (but the same as regular Herrnstein’s formula otherwise)

Question 27

Cumulative record with scallops

Answer 27

The schedule that is likely to produce a cumulative record with scallops is the FI fixed interval schedule.

Question 28

The explanation of the PRE Partial Reinforcement Effect that puts greatest emphasis on internal cues

Answer 28

Frustration hypothesis

Question 29

Schedule effects

Answer 29

The term schedule effects refers to the pattern and rate of performance produced by a particular reinforcement schedule.