Initials School Itinerary Made Easy

Initials school itinerary

hi my name is Billy Brown and I'm a board certified behavior analyst with Brett DiNovi & Associates today I'm gonna be talking about schedules of reinforcement before we talk about the different types of schedules of reinforcement let's first define it a schedule of reinforcement is a rule specifying the environmental arrangements and responses required for reinforcement or simply a description of a contingency of reinforcement as stated by Cooper et all in their 2007 book when we talk about schedules reinforcement there are two broad terms that encompass the main schedules that we use the first one being continuous schedules of reinforcement a continuous schedule of reinforcement means that every time the target behavior occurs we're gonna reinforce that behavior so for example if we're trying to teach a learner how to request breaks in a situation where they're in a classroom and they request a break every single time they say I'd like to take a break or some form of that we're gonna let them take that break regardless of if they're in the middle of a lesson if they're engaging and other target behavior as long as they do what was asked they get that reinforcement the next type of schedule is intermittent schedules the term intermittent schedule of reinforcement is defined as a contingency of reinforcement in which some but not all occurrences of the behavior produce reinforcement intermittent schedules break down into four different varieties you have fixed interval fixed ratio variable interval and variable ratio now you may have noticed that all of those different schedules are just different combinations of the same four words I feel that when you're learning about these schedules for the first time it makes it a lot easier to break down the words first and then learn how they come together to create all the different types of schedules each of those four words pairs up with another word so when you think about fixed that word is the opposite of variable so you'll never see fixed and variable in the same schedule likewise interval and ratio are opposites they'll never be on the same schedule either so in order to understand what all four of these terms being together it's important that we focus on what the terms ratio and interval mean first ratio refers to the number of responses needed in order to gain access to reinforcement so if learner needs to have five responses before they contact reinforcement we're gonna wait all five of those responses next is the intervals interval refers to the amount of time that needs to go by a for reinforcement is available again our next two are fixed and variable fixed refers to a set number whether that be in a ratio schedule or in an interval schedule it's just gonna be one number when we're looking at variable we're actually looking at the average number now that we've talked about what each of the individual terms means and we're gonna put them together it's important that you know a little bit about how you're gonna see these schedules written out in a behavior intervention plan typically you'll see the initials of each word that we're using so if it was a fixed interval schedule you'd see F I and then I'll be followed by a number the number tells us how many of the either ratio or interval that we need when it comes to the ratio it's very straightforward but when it comes to intervals you need to make sure that you're checking in because the intervals can be in any unit of time so it might be seconds might be minutes might be hours might be days so always make sure you're checking that first when you see an interval scheduled a fixed ratio schedule means that we're looking at a set number of responses needed before we're going to reinforce for example if we had a fixed ratio five schedule then that means that we are looking for a target behavior to occur five times no more no less and then we're gonna reinforce next is a variable ratio schedule these schedules look at an average number of responses before reinforcement can occur for example we have a variable ratio five or vr5 schedule for them to raise their hand that means that about every fifth time we're gonna reinforce that hand raising so the first time we might wait three responses the second time we might wait seven third time five so on and so on as long as the average of all those different ratios is five you're doing the right thing so next we have a fixed interval schedule here we have the interval that's going to denote the time and then fixed means that it's always the same amount of time so if we have a fixed interval five scheduled at fi five scheduled and we're looking at that same learner in a classroom for raising his hand now he raised his hand one time we start our timer once that hits five minutes he can then gain access to reinforcement again after that five-minute period if he raises hang lastly we have variable intervals so again we have our interval which represents the amount of time and in variable meaning an average now that we've talked about what each one of these terms means let's look at the pros and cons of each approach fixed ratios schedules are great at building up fast rates of responding and with moderately steady results the problem with a fixed ratio is that we run in something called post reinforcement pause the term post reinforcement pause is really important to talk about so when we use that term what we really mean is that there's a delay in responding that follows reinforcement during a fixed ratio schedule the size of that ratio directly affects the length of the pause that occurs afterwards so if you have a higher ratio that's gonna result in a longer pause if you have a smaller ratio that's gonna resort in a shorter pause variable schedules of reinforcement are fantastic they're great because they don't let the individual know exactly when they're going to be earning so if they're gaining access to reinforcement on an average of correct responses they can't predict when the next one will come so they might get that reinforcer and it could come immediately on the next response fixed interval schedules work really well when you're not necessarily looking for high rates of responding but a behavior that you need to occur throughout a period of time this is a great one for the hand raising example that we gave earlier because we don't need the kid to raise their hand every single question we just want them to be participating so if we use a fixed interval we take a scalping effect a variable interval schedule is great when we need slow and steady rates of responding typically you'll use this with a learner who you want to slow down between bites while they're eating so if you have someone who's taking bites not chewing fully before swallowing what you can do is introduce this type of schedule and what you'll see is that they will respond periodically because they have no clue in that next piece of reinforcement is gonna come but they're not gonna be doing it rapidly like they would on a variable ratio schedule and to wrap up I figured it'd be a good idea to tell some strategies for how to memorize what each of these terms mean and how they combine with each other for anyone out there who might be sitting for their boards or looking to take the RPG exam for the individual terms think of it like this fixed equals a set set number of something variable equals the average ratio is the responses needed an interval is the time for the schedules think fixed ratio set amount of responses variable ratio average amount of responses fixed interval set amount of time variable interval average amount of time if you'd like to help us disseminate the science feel free to share these videos and if you have any feedback for us comments or questions feel free to comment below