Question

Demarco's psychology professor gave the class a lab assignment to condition rats to press a lever to obtain food pellets. Demarco's lab group was designated to use a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement. When should the group's rat receive a food pellet?

Answer 1

In a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement, the reward (in this case, a food pellet) is delivered after a fixed number of responses or actions. For example, if the professor specified a Fixed Ratio 5 (FR5) schedule, the rat would receive a food pellet after pressing the lever five times. The number (e.g., 5) is determined by the schedule set by the experimenter. So, in Demarco's lab group using a fixed ratio schedule, the rat should receive a food pellet after completing the predetermined number of lever presses as specified in the experiment.