Theo Odoemene

Behavior Modification

Practicum #3

My discussion group identified behaviors that are maintained during the reinforcement schedules. Reinforcement schedules are considered in relation to applied behavior. For each reinforcement, we specify the response that is being reinforced and the nature of the reinforcer. Clinical psychologist Raymond G. Miltenberger stated that the schedule of reinforcement for a particular behavior specifies whether every response is followed by reinforcement or whether only some responses are followed by reinforcement. (Miltenberger, 2007). The following schedules that were being reinforced was continuous reinforcement, fix ratio, fix interval, variable interval and fix duration. In continuous reinforcement, desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs. This type of reinforcement schedule is most often used when first teaching learners new skills. For example, during the toilet training process a toddler might be continuously reinforced by parents after every toileting attempt or toileting success with candy, sticker, or other small reinforcer that is motivating to the child. Therefore the toilet training should be continuously reinforced and the reinforcer was pressing the child for toileting training. Author John Cooper emphasize that continuous reinforcement schedules are more often used when teaching new behaviors, while intermittent reinforcement schedules are used when maintaining previously learned behaviors (Cooper, 2007). Fix ratio is where a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses. This schedule produces a high, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause after the delivery of the reinforcer. Giving a child desert after you tell him to clean up his room for the next two days of the week. The problem is that the child will begin to realize that he can get away with requests before he has to act. Therefore, the behavior does not tend to change until right before the preset number. The reinforcer would be child getting desert after cleaning his room and the reposed will be no dirty laundry in the child bedroom. Research suggest that fixed interval first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. This schedule causes high amounts of responding near the end of the interval, but much slower responding. For example,