Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 15. Skinner: Behavioral
Analysis© The McGraw−Hill^461
Companies, 2009or held, they are also receiving attention. After food and attention are paired a num-
ber of times, attention itself becomes reinforcing through the process of respondent
(classical) conditioning. Children, and adults too, will work for attention with no ex-
pectation of receiving food or physical contact. In much the same way, approval, af-
fection, submission of others, and money acquire generalized reinforcement value.
Behavior can be shaped and responses learned with generalized conditioned rein-
forcers supplying the sole reinforcement.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Any behavior followed immediately by the presentation of a positive reinforcer or
the removal of an aversive stimulus tends thereafter to occur more frequently. The
frequency of that behavior, however, is subject to the conditions under which train-
ing occurred, more specifically, to the various schedules of reinforcement (Ferster &
Skinner, 1957).
Reinforcement can follow behavior on either a continuous schedule or an in-
termittent one. With a continuous schedule,the organism is reinforced for every re-
sponse. This type of schedule increases the frequency of a response but is an ineffi-
cient use of the reinforcer. Skinner preferred intermittent schedulesnot only
because they make more efficient use of the reinforcer but because they produce re-
sponses that are more resistant to extinction. Interestingly, Skinner first began using
intermittent schedules because he was running low on food pellets (Wiener, 1996).
Intermittent schedules are based either on the behavior of the organism or on elapsed
time; they either can be set at a fixed rate or can vary according to a randomized pro-
gram. Ferster and Skinner (1957) recognized a large number of reinforcement
schedules, but the four basic intermittent schedules are fixed-ratio, variable-ratio,
fixed-interval,and variable-interval.
Fixed-Ratio With a fixed-ratio schedule,the organism is reinforced intermittently
according to the number of responses it makes. Ratio refers to the ratio of responses
to reinforcers. An experimenter may decide to reward a pigeon with a grain pellet for
every fifth peck it makes at a disc. The pigeon is then conditioned at a fixed-ratio
schedule of 5 to 1, that is, FR 5.
Nearly all reinforcement schedules begin on a continuous basis, but soon the
experimenter can move from continuous reward to an intermittent reinforcement. In
the same way, extremely high fixed-ratio schedules, like 200 to 1, must begin at a low
rate of responses and gradually build to a higher one. A pigeon can be conditioned
to work long and rapidly in exchange for one food pellet provided it has been previ-
ously reinforced at lower rates.
Technically, almost no pay scale for humans follows a fixed-ratio or any other
schedule because workers ordinarily do not begin with a continuous schedule of im-
mediate reinforcement. An approximation of a fixed-ratio schedule would be the pay
to bricklayers who receive a fixed amount of money for each brick they lay.
Variable-Ratio With a fixed-ratio schedule, the organism is reinforced after every
nth response. With the variable-ratio schedule,it is reinforced after thenth response
on the average.Again, training must start with continuous reinforcement, proceed to
Chapter 15 Skinner: Behavioral Analysis 455