Scheduling Reinforcement

Scheduling the rewards on intermittent reinforcement can be used on various schedules, each with its own degree of effectiveness and situations to which it can be appropriately applied. Some of the schedules are:

• Fixed-ratio: used to reward based on the amount of work done.
• Variable-ratio: are unpredictable as the amount of work done between rewards varies. This normally produces more work than any other schedule. (Varying the intervals between rewards also makes it unpredictable, but that often makes people feel unappreciated.)
• Fixed-interval: rewards people for the time spent on a specific task. Response rates on this schedule are low as effort is not rewarded.