Developmental Psychology

1.15 Reinforcement Schedule With the reinforcement of behavior, it important to remember that frequency does matter, just as much as what has been done and what hasn’t been done. The following table shows the five schedules of reinforcement. Schedule Definition Pros Cons Continuous Behaviors that are rewarded every time the behavior is performed Good for initial learning Not easy to maintain Fixed Ratio Rewards are given for behaviors that are performed multiple times Rapid response of desired behavior Not easy to maintain Fixed Interval Rewards are given for good behavior after a certain time (minutes) Very low success rate Variable Ratio Behaviors that are desired will happen a number of times before rewards are given Fairly easy to maintain. Produces a high response rate Variable Interval Desired behaviors will be rewarded after a timeframe that is random has passed Fairly easy to maintain. Produces a low and steady response rate 1.16 Social Learning Theory Alfred Bandura is the individual responsible for proposing social learning theory. He believed that there was a difference between behavior and learning. Bandura also assumed that people can learn from studying or observing others; that reinforcement was not always needed for learning to happen. We have talked about 2 different studies that psychologists have conducted. Bandura conducted a study as well; called the Bobo Doll Study. This experiment included an inflatable doll that has weights on the bottom. This doll was also the common toy that children used during this study. A group of children were chosen for this study, and they were subjected to a video of other children beating up the Bobo doll. In this video, some of the children were rewarded for beating up the Bobo doll, and some of the children in the video were punished for their aggression towards the Bobo doll. Finally, the children who had watched the video could play with their own Bobo doll, and the results were interesting. Some of the children decided to imitate the violent behavior they saw on the video. Only some of the children who watched the video copied the behavior. The children who saw the children in the video get punished were reluctant to do perform the behavior because they didn’t want to get punished. Alfred Bandura concluded that this experiment did show that children can learn by observing others.

©2018

Achieve

Page 18

of 128

Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker