Question

Imagine a jilted lover who persists on calling his or her  X-lover 30 times a day, despite the fact that he or she  only picked up the phone on the 29^th time that the jilted lover made the call. The jilted lover then begins to call 40, 50, 60, 70, 100 times a day. Provide an probable explanation for the increase in behavior rate (the rate of phone calls) as a function of reinforcement schedules.

Answer 1

This behavior of the jilted lover could be explained by the variable-ratio interval schedule of reinforcement of operant conditioning. The picking up of call by the ex-lover of the jilted lover at the unpredictable number of phone calls increases this behavior of making phone calls. The jilted lover is rewarded at every random call that is attended by the ex-lover. This rewarding response highly and steadily reinforces the behavior of the jilted lover that results in increasing the rate of phone calls with each day.