What are the Schedules of Reinforcement Anyway??

Reinforcement is arguably the most important principle of behavior analysis. At its core, reinforcement is the delivery of a preferred stimulus (e.g., toy, food, drink, praise, high-five, attention, escape, etc.) following a specific behavior. Humans encounter and use reinforcement throughout the day. When I was a special education teacher, I considered my attention, praise, and other reinforcers as hundred-dollar bills – I’d “hand” it out for the things I wanted to occur more often.

However, we cannot reinforce every single instance of a desired behavior; there’s just not enough time in the day. After establishing a behavior with consistent reinforcement, you should consider ways of “thinning” or reducing how often you provide that reinforcement. For example, I might start by providing a ton of super energetic praise for my student getting their math fact correct. Over time, I will begin to reduce the “energy” (intensity) of the praise and may shift to offering praise after 2 correct math facts. Over time I continued to “thin” my schedule, offering praise after 5 then 10 correct math facts.

There are four basic schedules of reinforcement – fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, and variable internal. In addition, there are at least 7 schedules which combine elements of the four basic schedules. Below are two slides I use to review the schedules of reinforcement with my students.

I find this is a complex set of information for ABA students. So below I’ve compiled a collection of freely accessible resources and information all around schedules of reinforcement – enjoy!

Basic Schedules:

• Some informative websites about the basic schedules of reinforcement:

  • https://www.simplypsychology.org/schedules-of-reinforcement.html

  • https://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/schedules-of-reinforcement.html

  • https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-schedule-of-reinforcement-2794864

Compound Schedules:

• A Quizlet set of flashcards with definitions, examples, fill-in-the-blank, etc. all related to compounded schedules of reinforcement (and aligned with BCBA Task List B-5): https://quizlet.com/525188374/bcba-task-list-b-5-flash-cards/

• Some informative websites about the compound (or more complex) schedules of reinforcement:

  • https://bcbastudy.com/compound-schedules-of-reinforcement/

  • https://www.abamindset.com/blog/blog-post-compoundschedules

• Some graphics to help differentiate between the different compound schedules: https://www.rogueaba.com/graphics/