A child does not reliably make his bed in the morning. His parents want to use monetary positive reinforcement to increase bed-making. Describe how the following schedules of reinforcement would operate: continuous reinforcement, fixed-ratio (FR) 7, variable-ratio (VR) 7, fixed-interval (FI) 7 days, variable-interval (VI) 7 days. If you were the parent, which schedule of reinforcement would you employ? Why?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is The answer should provide the following information: (1) Continuous reinforcement: Every instance of bed making would result in money delivery. This probably would result in the child making the bed each day, but the parents would quickly go broke! Moreover, if the parents were to stop reinforcing bed-making, the child would quickly stop making his bed. For these reasons, this schedule is both impractical and not ideal for the long-term maintenance of bed-making; (2) FR 7: Every seven times that the child makes his bed, this behavior will be reinforced with money; (3) VR 7: On the average of every seven times that the child makes his bed, this behavior will be reinforced with money; (4) The FR 7 and VR 7 options both produce reinforcement intermittently. Assuming the child makes his bed only once per day, both of these schedules result in reinforcer delivery once per week, which is a realistic payment schedule for most parents. However, the downside with these schedules is that nothing is stopping the child from making his bed 100 times per day. The parents would quickly go broke! (5) Under a FI 7-day schedule, the first instance of bed-making that occurs after 7 days since the last reinforcement will produce money. Perhaps every Friday the parents will pay the child if he has made the bed that day. If not, they will withhold the money until the next time that he makes the bed. The advantage of this schedule is that it guarantees that the parents will not have to pay out more than once per week. The disadvantage is that the child may quickly learn to behave efficiently under the schedule, making his bed only on Fridays! (6) Under a VI 7-day schedule, the first instance of bed-making that occurs after an average of 7 days since the last reinforcement will produce money. On average, bed-making will pay off once per week. But sometimes reinforcement will come after only one day, and other times it will not come for several weeks. One advantage of this schedule is that it guarantees that the parents will pay money to the child, on average, no more than once per week. Another advantage is that this schedule generates a steady rate of responding. Because reinforcement could come any day, the child probably would make his bed every day. A third advantage is that, because the schedule is time-based, making the bed 100 times per day won't increase the rate of reinforcement as is the case under the FR and VR schedules. There is nothing that the child can do to get paid, on average, more than once per week. Thus, this schedule both maintains a consistent rate of response and is pocketbook friendly. Finally, this schedule is resistant to extinction; if the parents were to stop providing reinforcement for bed-making due to a temporary economic hardship, bed-making would continue unabated. The VI 7-day schedule, then, is the best choice to employ.

A Child Does Not Reliably Make His Bed in the Morning