PSYC 2330 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Reinforcement

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2330
• Professor: Francesco Leri

Document Summary

Chapter six- schedules of reinforcement and choice behaviour. In simple schedules, a single factor determines which occurrence of the instrumental response is reinforced. Like fixed-interval schedules, the subject has to perform the instrumental response to obtain the reinforcer. If the required number is one, it is called a continuous reinforcement (crf) Situations in which responding is reinforced only some of the time are said to involve partial or intermittent reinforcement. Causal reflection suggests that such a perfect contingency between response and reinforcement is rare in the real world- you do not get a high grade on a test every time you study for it. A schedule of reinforcement= a program or rule that determines which occurrence of a response is followed by the reinforcer. The behavioural effects of drugs, brain lesions, or manipulations of neurotransmitter systems often depend on the schedule of reinforcement that is in effect during the behavioural testing.