PSY 3103 Chapter 13: Schedules
5 Oct 2015
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Some people stay hooked on the ponies even when they have fewer big wins than in the early lucky period: early periods of generous reinforcement can have major effects on our later behavioural decisions. If the machine fails to give you four quarters, you complain and the defective machine gets repaired and disappears from your environment: knowledge about behaviour principles helps us understand how schedules work. The ever-present effects of schedules: timing, spacing, and randomness of consequences can have dramatic effects on behaviour. Schedules of reinforcement: describe the timing, spacing, and variability of the reinforcers that follow operant behaviour: most schedules of reinforcement lie somewhere in our environment. Some schedules are determined by our own behaviour: ex: jake rewards himself every time he does a good behaviour, but jenn rewards herself only sometimes. Schedule effects also interact with effects of differential reinforcement, shaping, models, prompts, and rules.
