Fixed Interval Schedule
In a fixed interval schedule, a constant amount of time must pass before a reinforcer is pro- vided. The first desired behavior to occur after the interval has elapsed is reinforced. For example, in a fixed interval, one-hour schedule, the first desired behavior that occurs after an hour has elapsed is reinforced. Administering rewards according to this type of schedule tends to produce an uneven pattern of behavior. Prior to the reinforcement, the behavior is frequent and energetic. Immediately following the reinforcement, the behavior becomes less frequent and energetic. Why? Because the individual rather quickly figures out that another reward won’t immediately follow the last one—a certain amount of time must pass before it is given again. A common example of administering rewards on a fixed interval schedule is the payment of employees weekly, biweekly, or monthly. That is, monetary reinforcement comes regularly at the end of a specific period of time. Such time intervals, unfortunately, are generally too long to be an effective form of reinforcement for newly acquired work-related behavior.
Males typically send flowers to their significant other on Valentine’s Day as an expression of their love, devotion, and appreciation. However, as the following Across Cultures competency feature illustrates, sending the right flowers is not as easy as it seems. What color flowers are sent can be seen as either a reward or punisher. Do you remember what the color was of the flowers you sent on Valentine’s Day last year?19
Interval Ratio
Fixed Interval
• reinforcer given after a given period of time
Fixed Ratio
• reinforcer given after a number of behaviors
Variable Interval
• reinforcer given at random times
Variable Ratio
• reinforcer given after a random number of behaviors
Time based Behavior based
Fixed
Variable
FIGU RE 5. 5 Four Types of Intermittent Reinforcement Schedules
According to FTD and Interflora Inc., which send flowers by wire to some 140 countries, the color red is used to cast spells in Mexico, and a white bouquet is necessary to lift the spell. In Spain,
red roses are associated more with lust than with love. In France, a dozen yellow roses are inappro- priate—yellow suggests infidelity—and cut flow- ers by the dozen or any even number are unlucky.
Across Cultures competency
Variable Interval Schedule
A variable interval schedule represents changes in the amount of time between reinforcers.
Sherry Burnside, head of housekeeping at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, uses a variable interval schedule to observe and reinforce the behaviors of housekeeping per- sonnel. An individual receives $100 for perfect attendance and a score above 92 percent on 23 performance indicators (e.g., floor swept, trash baskets emptied, room dusted, etc.). To observe their behavior, Burnside announced to all housekeeping employees that, during the month, she would make seven inspections at random times. During the first week, she observed and recorded the performance of employees on Tuesday between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday from 6:00 to 7:30 a.m. The following week, she made no observations. During the third week, she observed employees on Monday between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. and Friday from 12:00 to 1:45 p.m. During the fourth week, she observed employees on Monday between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. and from 11:00 p.m.
to 12:00 a.m. and on Thursday from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. If she didn’t change her schedule, the employees would anticipate her tours and adjust their behaviors to get a reward.
Fixed Ratio Schedule
In a fixed ratio schedule, the desired behavior must occur a specified number of times before it is reinforced. Administering rewards under a fixed ratio schedule tends to produce a high response rate when the time for reinforcement is close, followed by periods of steady behavior. The employee soon determines that reinforcement is based on the number of responses and performs the responses as quickly as possible in order to receive the reward. The individual piece-rate system used in many manufacturing plants is an example of such a schedule. In the Northern Shipping Company in China, production workers are paid on the basis of pieces. The firm allocates a number of hours per job and assigns a unit price to each piece. The number of hours allocated to each job is reviewed from time to time according to whether production targets are being met. The workers are paid 9.6 RMB (or US $1.24) per piece. Workers can A bouquet of yellow flowers is also inappropriate
in Latin America where yellow is associated with death rather than infidelity. In Africa, yellow is associated with disease. In India, sending green flowers is associated with bad luck. In Italy, roses serve as tokens of affection when they are sent in odd numbers to women. In Japan, on the other hand, men receive flowers from women.
White is an appropriate color for a wedding gown in the United States, yet white is used alternatively with black for mourning in India, Hong Kong, and Japan. Americans see red when they are angry, but red is a lucky color for the Chinese. It is customary for the Chinese to put money in red envelopes as gifts for employees and children on special occasions, especially on the Chinese New Year’s Day. White flowers are used in China as a symbol of mourning.
To learn more about flowers, go to www.teleflora.com.
Although red flowers mean love in U.S. culture, they have other meanings across the globe.
BUCKY_ZA/DREAMSTIME.COM
complete several pieces per hour. If the job is completed on time to the required quality standard, workers will receive the full amount for the job. The norm for pro- duction workers is to work 176 hours per month, but many work up to 250 hours per month. An average production employee can earn 2,500 to 3,000 RMB per month.20
Variable Ratio Schedule
In a variable ratio schedule, a certain number of desired behaviors must occur before the reinforcer is delivered, but the number of behaviors varies around some average. Leaders frequently use a variable ratio schedule with praise and recognition. For example, team leaders at Alcatel vary the frequency of reinforcement when they give employees verbal approval for desired behaviors. Gambling casinos, such as Bally’s and Harrah’s, and state lotteries use this schedule of reinforcement to lure patrons to shoot craps, play poker, feed slot machines, and buy lottery tickets. Patrons win, but not on any regular basis. A variable ratio schedule is effective because it creates uncertainty about when the consequence will occur. The use of this schedule makes sense for giving praise or auditing the behavior of employees. Employees know that a consequence will be delivered, but not when. To avoid consequences of either punishment or extinction, the employee keeps demonstrating the desired behaviors.
Pioneer Telephone Cooperative of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, was facing severe competition from other telephone and cable companies, such as AT&T, Cingular, and Time Warner.21 The firm’s leaders had developed the idea of a triple play—high-speed Internet, phone service, and TV service—all from one company. Pioneer needed its sales representatives to sell this new service to its customers. The triple play provided customers with advanced video services, including pay-per-view, high-definition programming, and gaming.
With only 600 employees and a little more than $100 million in sales, Pioneer is a small fish in a big pond dominated by major companies. So how does Pioneer get new subscribers? All employees at Pioneer are salespeople. Employees refer qualified leads to the company via Pioneer’s intranet. A lead is qualified when employees, on their own time, recommend the triple play to customers and ask them to contact them at work. Employees are rewarded for each successful lead; bonuses are deposited in their company accounts and paid each quarter. Pioneer periodically offers double points for leads. To ensure that all employees are aware of the triple play, each month they receive a computer-based learning module. Each topic is designed to be an interactive experience. Employees read the information and answer 10 questions. Those who cor- rectly answer at least 90 percent of the questions received $5. Pioneer also introduced an e-billing service. It offered a free T-shirt to the first 100 employees who enrolled in the program to learn about its e-billing service.
Pioneer used the same type of reinforcement program to get customers involved in the triple play. Called Take 5–Win $25, this program required custom- ers to read the information in the company’s newsletter, answer five questions, and send it back to Pioneer with a chance to win $25. Each month, one winner is drawn from each of Pioneer’s 13 districts. Several thousand customers participated in a chance to win $25.
Loyd Benson believes that rewarding employees to promote Pioneer achieves four things: It (1) educates employees about Pioneer’s products and services, (2) increases sales through solid leads, (3) reduces sales expenses, and (4) makes employees ambas- sadors for the company.
Table 5.2 summarizes the four types of intermittent reinforcement schedules.
The ratio schedules—fixed or variable—usually lead to better performance than do interval schedules. The reason is that ratio schedules are more closely related to the occurrence of desired behaviors than are interval schedules, which are based on the passage of time. The particular schedule of reinforcement is not as critical as the fact that reinforcement is based on the performance of desired behaviors.
Social Learning Theory
Operant conditioning accurately describes some of the major factors that may influ- ence learning. Certain aspects of learning, however, are not addressed by operant conditioning. For example, an individual’s feelings and thoughts aren’t considered.
Albert Bandura and others have demonstrated that people can learn new behavior by watching others in a social situation and then imitating their behavior.22 Social learning theory refers to knowledge acquisition through the mental processing of informa- tion by observing and imitating others. The social part acknowledges that individuals learn by being part of a society, and the learning part recognizes that individuals use thought processes to make decisions. People actively process
information to learn. By watching others perform a task, people develop mental pictures of how to perform the task. Observers often learn faster than those who do not observe the behaviors of others because they don’t need to unlearn behaviors and can avoid needless and costly mistakes that often accompany trial- and-error learning.
Social learning theory includes five dimensions—symbolizing, forethought, vicarious learning, self-control, and self-efficacy—as shown in Figure 5.6. These five dimensions can help explain why different employees may behave differently when facing the same situation.
Symbolizing
Symbolizing is the process of creating a mental image to guide an individual’s behavior. People imitate parents, friends, teachers, heroes, and others because they can identify with them. If a golfer observes the swings of Tiger Woods or Anika Sorenstam on their web pages, this observation creates an image (symbol) in that individual’s mind of what a good golf swing looks like. Such images or symbols help the person swing a golf club the next time he plays golf. In a social situation, when those at the head of the table at a formal dinner begin to eat, their actions let the other diners know that starting to eat now is appropriate.
Forethought
Forethought refers to the individual planning his or her actions based on the level of perfor- mance he or she desires. For example, when a golfer who has watched an instructional video of Woods or Sorenstam getting out of a sand trap approaches the same type of shot, she recalls what she learned in the video. As a result, she adjusts her hands, feet, and body posture to the correct playing position to hit the shot. She anticipates where the ball will land and mentally plans her next shot.
Learning Goal
4. Describe how social learning theory can be used by individuals to improve their performance.
TABLE 5.2 Comparison of Reinforcement Schedules
SCHEDULE
INFLUENCE ON
PERFORMANCE EXAMPLE
Fixed interval Leads to average performance Monthly paycheck Fixed ratio Leads quickly to high and stable
performance
Piece-rate pay Variable interval Leads to moderately high and stable
performance
Occasional praise by team members
Variable ratio Leads to very high performance Random quality checks with praise for zero defects