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Operant conditioning occurs most rapidly when a reinforcer is given after every instance of a desired behavior.

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This is called continuous reinforcement.

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But B. F. Skinner realized that in the real world, reinforcement is not likely to happen after every desired behavior.

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Reinforcement will occur less consistently and in different ways.

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This is called partial reinforcement.

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Skinner studied four basic schedules, or rules, of partial reinforcement:

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fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable ratio, and variable interval.

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To study these schedules and their effects on behavior,

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B. F. Skinner developed the operant conditioning chamber that we usually call the Skinner Box.

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In it, either a rat presses a bar or…

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A pigeon pecks at a disk to receive food or some other reinforcer.

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A separate device records the rats’ and pigeons’ responses on a continuous paper chart.

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Let’s look more closely at each of these schedules of reinforcement.