A pigeon in operant chamber #1 regularly receives a pellet of food after every 10 pecks at a red disk, no matter how long it takes. A rat in operant chamber #2 regularly receives a pellet of food for the first bar press it makes after 10 minutes have passed, no matter how many bar presses it makes. The pigeon is on a _____ schedule of reinforcement, and the rat is on a _____ schedule of reinforcement.
A) fixed-ratio; fixed-interval
B) fixed-interval; fixed-ratio
C) fixed-ratio; variable-interval
D) fixed-ratio; variable-ratio

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The pigeon in operant chamber #1 is receiving a pellet of food for every fixed number of responses (in this case 10 pecks), which makes it a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement. On the other hand, the rat in operant chamber #2 is getting a pellet of food for the first response it makes after a fixed amount of time (10 minutes), which is a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement.

A Pigeon in Operant Chamber #1 Regularly Receives a Pellet