Question

Design a Reinforcement Schedules pointing out the strengths in your design.

Lana is newly employed as an administrative assistant at a Doctor's office. The three doctors that she works for have become concerned with Lana's lack of attention to errors that she makes when typing out letters to some of their clients. They have figured out that she makes significant typing errors in about four out of every ten letters that she send out. Because she is new, they would like to deal with this problem by offering an incentive (a $25 gift card every month to one of her favorite stores) provided that she makes significantly fewer errors. They want you to set up a reinforcement schedule for Lana. They don't expect perfection, but they want to make sure that there is consistency in her performance.

Answer 1

A fixed-ratio reinforcement design would be apt in the above case. A fixed-interval/ratio schedule refers to reinforcing a behaviour after a fixed period of time. Lana is new and is facing a problem in typing letters. The errors are significant. The fixed-ratio reinforcement would ensure that Lana stays motivated to not make errors as doing so would obtain her an incentive of $25 worth gift card every month at her favorite store. The biggest strength of fixed-ratio reinforcement is that once the behaviour is established, it rarely ever changes even if the reward is taken away. This method works very well with incentives.