FRHD 3150 Lecture Notes - Reinforcement

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 3150
• Professor: Michelle Preyde

Document Summary

Schedules of reinforcement (increasing behaviour: the plan or rule outlining which occurrences of behaviour will be reinforced, continuous reinforcement. Reinforcement may not be available every single time. Behaviour is reinforced based on the # of times that it occurs. Every set # of incidents of the operant receives reinforcement (ie. fr6, fr2), often used in sequence of increasing ratios. Post-reinforcement pause: after reward the receiver will take a bit of a break before working for next reward. Optimal ratio: the reward causes consistent effects. Ratio strain: when the ratio of event to reward is too large, lower# of events slightly to get reward. Operants receive reinforcement sporadically around an average number of behaviours (vr10) No post-reinforcement pause because don"t know if/ when reward so keep working. Less risk of ratio strain because don"t know when next reward comes, just keeps going. Capacity for higher optimal ratio (vr5 to vr10)