Schedules of Reinforcement and Gambling Behaviour

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Schedules of Reinforcement and Gambling Behaviour

• In operant conditioning, a subject receives
  reinforcement for performing a certain action.
  If the subject receives reinforcement every time
  they perform the action, they receive continuous
  reinforcement (CRF). However, in many cases,
  reinforcement is only delivered intermittently.
  There are four types of schedules that can be
  used
• Fixed Ratio Schedule (FR) reinforcement is
  delivered after the subject performs the desired
  behaviour a specific number of times
• Variable Ratio Schedule (VR) reinforcement is
  delivered after the subject performs the desired
  behaviour a number of times, the specific number
  varies around an average
• Fixed Interval Schedule (FI) reinforcement is
  delivered after the first response after a
  certain amount of time has passed
• Variable Interval Schedule (VI) reinforcement
  is delivered after the first response after an
  amount of time has passed, the specific amount of
  time varies around an average

The different schedules of reinforcement yield
different rats of responding, as shown in the
graph to the right. The VR schedule produces the
highest rate of responding, because the subject
never knows when they will be reinforced next.
FR schedules can produce high levels of
responding but reinforcement is often followed by
times of not responding, called a
post-reinforcement pause. VI schedules produce a
fairly constant level of responding since it is
hard to predict how long the time interval will
be, whereas on FI schedules subjects respond most
as the time interval comes to an end.
Most often, these schedules of reinforcement are
described in terms of a rat pressing a lever.
However, examples of these schedules can also be
found in real life. An example of the VR
schedule in the real world is gambling,
especially video lottery terminals (VLTs) and
slot machines.
Although FR schedules also produce fairly
constant levels of responding, the VR schedule is
most effective in terms of maintaining the
gambling industry. In the FR schedule,
post-reinforcement pauses often occur directly
after a reward in gambling, this would mean
people would be more likely to quit while
theyre ahead . In contrast, there are no
post-reinforcement pauses in the VR schedule,
meaning people will continue to gamble even after
receiving a payout.
A VI schedule can also produce constant levels of
responding, however with a long base interval,
subjects will respond less initially after
reinforcement since it is less likely to have a
very short interval. Thus, to maintain constant
responding in the gambling industry, payouts
would have to occur fairly frequently, decreasing
the profit margin for casinos.