Identify the different types of schedules of reinforcement.Explain which of these you,as a manager,would place the greatest emphasis on if you were trying to use verbal compliments to motivate your staff to continue a high level of performance,and why you would do this.Be sure to clarify any assumptions you make in developing your answer.

In general,reinforcement may be continuous or intermittent.Continuous reinforcement is the simplest schedule of reinforcement,and involves reinforcing the behavior each time it occurs.In intermittent reinforcement,a reinforcer is delivered after some,but not every,occurrence of the desired behavior.Intermittent reinforcement can be subdivided into interval and ratio and fixed and variable schedules.The fixed interval schedule gives rewards at regular intervals.In the variable interval schedule,the reward is given around some average time during a specific period of time.The fixed ratio schedule ties rewards to a certain number of responses.Finally,in the variable ratio schedule,the reward is given around some mean,but the number of behaviors varies.The variable ratio schedule tends to lead to very high performance and very slow extinction of behavior.Its use would be most likely to maintain a high level of performance over a long period of time,even when the individual is not being complimented.It is thus a very logical response to this question.Depending upon the specific assumptions made,a student might make a reasonable argument for using a different schedule of reinforcement.The one schedule that would be most difficult to justify would be continuous reinforcement.This is the case because (1)the average manager would have a hard time remembering to continuously compliment staff members exhibiting high levels of performance, (2)the definition of high levels of performance is inherently ambiguous,and (3)the reinforcing value of complimentary comments would be undermined,and may be perceived as insincere,if routinely given out to everyone all of the time.