ABSTRACT
When I ask students if they think Jamie will behave the same way toward each of the relatives, almost all say no. They expect different patterns to emerge because of the different ways in which they respond to pestering. I ask the students if the ways in which the adults respond remind them of previously described reinforcement schedules. It is determined that Aunt Lucy, by providing attention after different amounts of pestering was implementing a variable ratio (VR) schedule. Aunt Rose’s strategy resulted in a variable interval (VI) schedule with the length of each interval determined by how long it took her to finish an article. Uncle Harry, by not paying attention at all, was applying the extinction procedure. After repeatedly being exposed to these contingencies, Jamie would be expected to respond with the characteristic pattern associated with each reinforcement schedule: continuously pestering Aunt Lucy at a very high rate, consistently pestering Aunt Rose at a moderate rate, and not
pestering Uncle Harry at all. The described scenario with Jamie is an example of a multiple schedule, whereby different reinforcement contingencies are reliably associated with distinct antecedent stimuli. Another example, provided in Chapter 6, occurs when cheering out loud is reinforced in athletic stadiums but not in the library.
