Chapter 10 – Developing Behavioral Persistence With Schedules of Reinforcement

This chapter discusses four types of intermittent schedule for increasing and maintaining behavior: ratio schedules, simple interval schedules, schedules with limited hold, and duration schedules. For a discussion of problems with progressive ratio schedules in applied settings, see Poling, 2010. Although the preceding discussion pertains to ratio schedules in a free-operant procedure, ratio schedules have also been studied in discrete-trials procedures. Because ratio schedules already generate high rates of response, it is not common for a limited hold to be added to ratio schedules. Interval schedules with short limited holds produce effects similar to those caused by ratio schedules. Several examples of fixed-duration schedules occur in the natural environment. Behavior modification programs use duration schedules only when the target behavior can be measured continuously and reinforced based on its duration. Eye contact is a behavior that is commonly reinforced on duration schedules in training programs for children with developmental disabilities.