Schedules of Reinforcement:
The schedule of reinforcement is the rate at which you reward the animal for their behaviors. There are 4 types of reinforcement schedules, including continuous, fixed, variable, ratio, and interval.
A continuous schedule of reinforcement has you rewarding the animal every time they complete the wanted behavior.
(Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. Each time they do so, they get a treat.)
A partial schedule of reinforcement can be broken down into 4 different reinforcement schedules:
(Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. Each time they do so, they get a treat.)
A partial schedule of reinforcement can be broken down into 4 different reinforcement schedules:
- Fixed-ratio schedule: You only reward the animal after a specific number of repetitions. (Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. You only reward them every fourth push.)
- Variable-ratio schedule: You reward the animal in an unpredictable manner, after a "random" number of responses. (Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. Sometimes you reward them after 1 push, sometimes after 5 pushes, sometimes after 2 pushes, and so on.)
- Fixed-interval schedule: You reward the animal for their first response, but only after a certain amount of time. (Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. You only reward pushes done after 30 seconds.)
- Variable-interval schedule: You reward the animal for their first response after a certain amount of time has passed, but variate the amount of time that must pass with each trial. (Example. Your rat is trained to push a lever. You reward the first push after 15 seconds, the first push after 45 seconds, and the first push after 2 minutes.)
- Variable-ratio schedule: You reward the animal in an unpredictable manner, after a "random" number of responses. (Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. Sometimes you reward them after 1 push, sometimes after 5 pushes, sometimes after 2 pushes, and so on.)
- Fixed-interval schedule: You reward the animal for their first response, but only after a certain amount of time. (Example: Your rat is trained to push a lever. You only reward pushes done after 30 seconds.)
- Variable-interval schedule: You reward the animal for their first response after a certain amount of time has passed, but variate the amount of time that must pass with each trial. (Example. Your rat is trained to push a lever. You reward the first push after 15 seconds, the first push after 45 seconds, and the first push after 2 minutes.)
So which is the best reinforcement schedule for trick-training?
Continuous reinforcement is always the best way to go when first training a new behavior or trick. Any other reinforcement schedule will just serve to confuse the animal. Once they have the behavior down pat, then you can begin to introduce a more varied reinforcement schedule (variable-ratio is best) to create a higher and more reliable rat of response (think humans and gambling - win every time, and you'll eventually get bored. Win once in a while, and you'll want to keep gambling forever!)
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