ABSTRACT
This chapter describes continuous reinforcement and resistance to extinction on this schedule. It illustrates the influence of to-be-completed response requirements on Fixed-ratio pausing. A schedule of reinforcement is a prescription that states how and when discriminative stimuli and behavioral consequences will be presented. In the laboratory, sounding a buzzer in an operant chamber may be a signal that sets the occasion for lever pressing to produce food. In 1957, Charles Bohris Ferster together with B. F. Skinner published Schedules of Reinforcement, the most comprehensive description of the behavior generated by different schedules of reinforcement. The experimental analysis of behavior is a progressive enterprise. Research findings are accumulated and integrated to provide a general account of the behavior of organisms. The steady-state behavior generated when a fixed number of responses are reinforced illustrates one of these patterns. Variable-ratio schedules are similar to fixed ratio except that the number of responses required for reinforcement changes after each reinforcer is presented.
