Skinner and his colleagues found that the schedule of reinforcement used in any particular case has a powerful influence on the rate of responding and on the participant’s resistance to extinction.

You will have an opportunity to test these ideas with your own group of white rats. These rats have been without water for 12 hours so you can assume they are thirsty. You will use drops of water for reinforcement. You can also assume the rats are trained in a Skinner Box.

Vary the reinforcement schedule and carefully observe the rats’ behavior. You should be able to draw some conclusions about the impact of the schedule of reinforcement on behavior.

Test the rats one at a time, but you can test the schedules in any order you wish. After you are done you will be presented the results for comparison.