The document summarizes key concepts from B.F. Skinner's research on operant conditioning and schedules of reinforcement. It discusses Skinner's experiment using rats in a Skinner box, where pressing a lever led to food rewards. This established the concept of positive reinforcement, where behaviors followed by favorable consequences increase in likelihood. The document also defines negative reinforcement and punishment. Finally, it examines different schedules of reinforcement like continuous and partial reinforcement on variable and fixed intervals/ratios that were used in Skinner's experiments.

1. INTERNATINAL UNIVERSITY
OF BUSINESS AGRICULTURE
AND TECHNOLOGY
WELCOME TO OUR PRESENTATION ON
The Consequences of Behavior &
Schedules of Reinforcement.
Prepared for :
Faculty, Department of Psychology
Sec : C
Date : 22/10/2018
1. ID :
1

2. Content
• What is Behavior?
• Skinner Box Experiment.
• Three Specific Consequences & Their Defination.
• Example Of Three Consequences
• Schedules of Reinforcement
• Example Of Schedules of Reinforcement
• Conclusion
2

3. Behavior
• People do what they do because of the consequences they experience for
their behavior. These Behavioral Consequences can strengthen or weaken
desired and undesired behaviors.
• The Law of Effect-Thorndike In Behavior :
• “Behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and
that behaviors followed be unfavorable consequences become less
likely”.
3

4. Skinner Box Experiment
Fig:Skinner box
•A rat placed in the Skinner Box (see Fig), after
running around to find a way to escape the box,
would accidentally push a level fixed on a wall.
The level pushed down would operate the food
mechanism set outside the box, which
subsequently delivered food pellets through a
hole into a small tray inside the box. After
repeated occurrences of food delivering, the rat
gradually formed the habit of lever pushing. This
habit formation was the result of operant
conditioning with the use of food as a
reinforcing stimulus.
4

5. Three Specific Consequences
• Through His experiments, Skinner Identified Three Specific Consequences
of behavior that would be affect the rat at which the rat bar pressed :
1. Positive Reinforcement.
2. Negative Reinforcement &
3. Punishment.
5

6. Definition
• Positive reinforcement : The administration of a stimulus to increase the
probability of a behavior’s being repeated, e.g. requiring a rat to press a
button to get food, a reward.
• Negative reinforcement : The removal of a stimulus to increase the
probability of a behavior’s being repeated, e.g. requiring a rat to press a
lever to turn off a shock.
• Punishment : Punishment reduces the probability that a behavior will recur.
6

7. Example Of Three Consequences
7

8. Schedules of Reinforcement
• How often should reinforcers be given?
• Continuous reinforcement: A type of learning in which behavior is
reinforced each time it occurs.
• Examples of Continuous Reinforcement :
• Giving a child a chocolate every day after he finishes his math
homework.
• You can teach your dog to sit down every time you say sit by giving it
a treat every time it obeys, or in other words – elicits correct response.
8

9. Schedules of Reinforcement
• Partial reinforcement: A type of learning in which behavior is
reinforced intermittently.
• Partial reinforcement’s effect on conditioning depends on the
reinforcement schedule.
• The definition of partial reinforcement as inconsistent or random
reinforcement of responses could complicate the matter in a learner’s
point of view. Researchers have classified four basic schedules of
partial reinforcement that attempts to cover various kinds of interval
and ratios between reinforcements.
9

10. Example Of Schedules of Reinforcement
10

11. Conclusion
• The major influence on human behavior is learning from our environment.
In the Skinner study, because food followed a particular behavior the rats
learned to repeat that behavior.
• Among the reinforcement schedules, variable ratio is the most productive
and the most resistant to extinction. Fixed interval is the least productive
and the easiest to extinguish.
11

12. 12