Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement are from Operant Conditioning theory, part of the Behaviourist Approach to explaining behaviour.  Behaviourism is a way of explaining human behaviour that ignores everything that is not observable.  Schedules of Reinforcement are different ways of delivering a reinforcer with the aim of maintaining a person’s present rate of response.  Continuous or full reinforcement ensures a rapid acquisition of behaviour, but once a rate of response is achieved, it is best to switch to partial reinforcement to maintain the response rate at the desired level, both fixed and variable interval and ratio.  There are many examples in real life, gamboling strategies being often cited in literature.  It is suggested that our behaviour is maintained over a much longer period if partial reinforcement schedules are used.  I might suggest there is a price to pay, a cognitive debt, if you like.

Technological Breakdown

Technology has been failing me over the last few months.  For the stereotypical woman that is a sort of a simpering statement as those sort of toys are definitely for boys.  Not for me, I love technology, love computers and gadgets and am the proud owner of an Iphone 4, a Nexus 7 and a Lenovo Ideapad laptop.  Those of you switched onto technology will note that none of these items is ’top of the range’, that is perhaps were the girl in me comes in.