What reinforcement schedule is being illustrated in each example?

Question

What reinforcement schedule is being illustrated in each example? § 1. Mrs. McLemore circulates among her students doing seatwork, periodically making comments and offering suggestions.

§ 2. When Mrs. Hernandez’s students write a good response to essay items, she will often write comments such as, “Very well done,” on their papers near the response.

§ 3. Mr. Lombardo assigns problems every night, and he collects them on Monday’s and Thursdays. Mrs. Chang also collects homework twice a week, sometimes on Mondays and Thursdays, but also other days as well. They both give a quiz on Fridays. (Three answers: one each Mr. Lombardo’s and for Mrs. Chang’s homework, and one for the quizzes).

4. Mr. Lombardo often gives his students time to do their homework in class. Any students who finish before the end of the period are allowed to go to the back of the room and talk quietly to each other until the end of the period.

5. You have a new car, and it’s very reliable, meaning it starts every time. You have an old pickup truck that starts, but only after repeated attempts to start it. (Two answers, one for the new car and one for the old pickup truck.

Answer 1

There are two types of reinforcement schedules: interval (meaning dependent on time), and ratio (dependent on number of actions). Both of these can be either fixed (the same every time) or variable (changing).

For example, a fixed ratio of reinforcement might require an action to be repeated twice in order to receive a reward, but it's twice every single time. If you experience a variable interval, reinforcement might occur after a minute, then five minutes, then three minutes of an action. It is inconsistent.

1. Fixed Interval Schedule: Mrs. McLemore circles periodically, implying roughly the same amount of time passes between each of her comments.
2. Fixed Ratio Schedule: Mrs. Hernandez consistently leaves good remarks, meaning her ratio of responses does not change.
3. Fixed Interval, Variable Interval, Fixed Interval: Mr. Lombardo always collects assignments at the same time, Mrs. Change changes the amount of time between collections, and they both give quizzes at the same time each week.
4. Fixed Ratio: The behavior being reinforced is the homework. A student needs to do the same volume of homework (finished) every time in order to be rewarded.
5. Fixed Ratio, Variable Ratio: The new car starts consistently, but the new car sometimes requires a different number of tries to start.