Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of Reinforcement

"The schedule of reinforcement for a particular behaviour specifies whether every response is followed by reinforcement or whether only some responses are followed by reinforcement"

- Miltenberger (2007, p.86)

Continuous

In a continuous schedule every instance of a desired behavior is reinforced

Intermittent or Partial Schedule

partial schedules only reinforce the desired behavior occasionally.Partial reinforcement schedules are described as either fixed or variable, and as either interval or ratio.

The four intermittent reinforcement schedules are:

Fixed interval schedule (FI)

Fixed ratio schedule (FR)

Variable interval schedule (VI)

Variable ratio schedule (VR

Schedules of reinforcement are the rules that control the timing and frequency of reinforcer delivery to increase the likelihood a target behavior will happen again, strengthen or continue