Schedules of Reinforcement

The term schedule of reinforcement refers to the timing with which reinforcement is delivered for a certain behavior. This scheduling is important because different schedules produce different effects on behavior. The most basic type of schedule is one in which reinforcement follows every occurrence of the behavior. This type of schedule is referred to as continuous reinforcement (CRF) and should be used when teaching new behaviors; it is characterized by high rates of responding. For example, if Bob is shy but responds well to teacher praise, the teacher may institute a CRF schedule in which every time Bob offers an answer in class, teacher praise immediately follows. For this type of schedule to be truly continuous, each and every instance of the behavior must be followed by reinforcement.

A classroom teacher with many students and responsibilities may find it difficult and cumbersome to try to reinforce each and every occurrence of a particular behavior. Fortunately, the principles of learning and what we know about the effects of different schedules of reinforcement suggest that the teacher doesn't have to, and actually shouldn't, reinforce on a continuous schedule for very long. In fact, once the teacher gets the behavior going in the desired direction (e.g., it starts to increase and shows signs of acquisition), it is actually better to start to gradually taper the frequency of reinforcement. Teachers must be careful, however, not to terminate or fade the schedule too quickly once the student begins to respond under the CRF schedule.

In contrast to CRF, the term intermittent reinforcement is used to describe schedules in which reinforcement occurs every so often, but not after each response. In classrooms, intermittent schedules are very useful because they are not as prone to satiation effects (behaviors stop because too many reinforcers have been delivered) as are CRF schedules, are not as cumbersome to implement and administer, and produce behaviors that are more resistant to extinction, meaning that these behaviors won't extinguish easily if the teacher forgets to reinforce occasionally. Intermittent schedules also produce behavior that occurs at a high, steady rate. In general, intermittent schedules can be categorized into ratio and interval schedules, and each of these can be further classified as fixed or variable; thus, we can have fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval schedules.