BA400 Unit 5 Schedules of Reinforcement Paper Example

Tokens, Mail and Reprimands on Different Schedules: A BA400 Unit 5 Schedules of Reinforcement Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

BA400: Foundations of Behavior Analysis

Unit 5 Schedules of Reinforcement Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, the group home, the residents and every figure are composite and illustrative; the books cited are real.

Why Schedules Matter

Routines run the day in the group home where I work, and each one turned out to carry its own schedule. When I first learned the term reinforcement, I imagined that a behavior is either reinforced or not. Real routines are more complicated. Most behavior is reinforced some of the time, on patterns that shape how often and how steadily it occurs.

Ferster and Skinner (1957) studied schedules of reinforcement in extensive laboratory work and showed that each schedule produces a characteristic pattern of responding. Cooper et al. (2020) summarize the four basic intermittent schedules: fixed ratio, in which reinforcement follows a set number of responses; variable ratio, in which it follows an unpredictable number around an average; fixed interval, in which the first response after a set time is reinforced; and variable interval, in which the first response after an unpredictable time is reinforced. This paper looks for each in our house.

Fixed Ratio: Marcus's Chore Tokens

Marcus, 34, earns a token for every three chores he completes, such as making his bed, setting the table and sorting laundry, and exchanges ten tokens for an outing. Earning a token is a fixed ratio three schedule. The pattern Ferster and Skinner described for fixed ratios is a high, steady rate of responding, often followed by a pause after each reinforcer, called a postreinforcement pause. Marcus fits the pattern. He usually completes three chores in quick succession, then rests for a while after receiving the token before starting the next set. The pause is longer after he has just exchanged tokens for an outing, when the next large reinforcer is far away.

Variable Ratio: Gail and the Reprimands

Gail's food-taking at dinner, described in Unit 4, offers the second routine. Last month, staff reprimanded her most of the time, but not always: on busy evenings, about one food-taking in three went unnoticed. Because the reprimand turned out to be reinforcing, Gail's food-taking was reinforced after an unpredictable number of occurrences. That is close to a variable ratio schedule. Ferster and Skinner found that responding on variable ratio schedules runs high and steady of responding without long pauses, and that behavior maintained on them is especially resistant to extinction.

The nights staff missed Gail's food-taking did not weaken the behavior; they made it harder to stop.

That resistance matters for the plan. When staff stopped reprimanding food-taking altogether, the behavior did not disappear quickly. Because Gail had learned that reinforcement often comes after several unreinforced attempts, she kept trying for a while before the behavior declined.

Fixed Interval: Payday

All four residents work at a day program where they earn a small paycheck every two weeks. Staff noticed that Dolores, 58, asks about her paycheck rarely in the first week of a pay period and then more and more often as payday approaches, sometimes several times on the last day. Asking does not make payday arrive sooner, so her asking is not strictly reinforced on the schedule, but the pattern resembles the scallop that Ferster and Skinner described for fixed intervals: little responding just after reinforcement, accelerating as the time for the next one approaches. The resemblance shows how time-based reinforcement shapes the timing of related behavior.

Variable Interval: Kevin and the Mailbox

Kevin, 29, loves receiving mail, especially magazines and cards from his sister. The mail arrives once a day at an unpredictable time between eleven and three. Kevin checks the mailbox several times during that window, at a fairly steady pace, and the first check after the mail arrives is reinforced. That is a variable interval schedule. Ferster and Skinner found that variable interval schedules produce moderate, steady rates of responding, because reinforcement could become available at any time. Kevin's checking, about every thirty to forty minutes, fits.

What Schedules Mean for Plans

The analysis changed how our team thinks about plans. When teaching a new skill, the behavior specialist now recommends starting with continuous reinforcement, reinforcing every correct response, and then thinning the schedule to an intermittent one so the skill lasts when reinforcement becomes less frequent. When reducing a problem behavior, she warns that behavior with a history of intermittent reinforcement, like Gail's food-taking, may take longer to decline and may briefly increase.

Schedules also explain why consistency across staff matters. If two staff ignore a behavior and a third responds, the behavior is not on extinction; it is on an intermittent schedule, which may make it more persistent than before.

Thinning a Schedule in Practice

The team put this into practice with Marcus's laundry skill. When he first learned to sort laundry by color, staff praised and gave him a token after every correct load, continuous reinforcement. Once he sorted correctly for two weeks, the behavior specialist moved token delivery to every second load, then every third, folding laundry into his fixed ratio three chore system. Praise continued on a looser, unpredictable basis. Skinner (1953) argued that intermittent reinforcement is the normal condition of everyday life, and that behavior maintained this way is better prepared for a world that does not reward every response. Marcus's sorting stayed accurate through the thinning, and he now sorts laundry at his sister's home, where no tokens are given at all.

The example also shows a risk. Thinning too quickly can produce ratio strain, in which responding breaks down because the requirement has outpaced the reinforcement. The specialist moved one step at a time and watched the data, returning to the previous step for a few days when Marcus skipped a load.

Limits of the Analysis

The routines in our house are not laboratory schedules. Reinforcers vary in size and timing, several schedules operate at once, and residents' behavior is affected by mood, health and history. The labels are useful as approximations that predict general patterns, not as precise descriptions.

Conclusion

Four routines in one group home show the four basic schedules at work: a fixed ratio for Marcus's tokens, something close to a variable ratio for Gail's food-taking, a fixed interval pattern around payday and a variable interval for Kevin's mail. Each produces the general pattern Ferster and Skinner described, and recognizing them helps staff predict how behavior will respond to changes, especially why intermittently reinforced behavior is hard to stop.

References

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. Macmillan.