Final answer:
Variety in reinforcers on a menu or regularly changing them up is crucial to prevent the predictability that can diminish their effectiveness, ensuring that desired behaviors are consistently maintained.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is important to have a variety of back-up reinforcers on a reinforcer menu or to change them up on a regular basis because this variation helps maintain the effectiveness of reinforcement. When dealing with operant conditioning and reinforcement schedules, consistency in the quality of the response can wane if reinforcers become too predictable or less appealing over time. To illustrate, in a variable interval reinforcement schedule, the reinforcement is given at unpredictable time intervals, promoting steady and consistent behavior, as with the restaurant manager who doesn't know when the quality control agent will arrive. On the other hand, a variable ratio reinforcement schedule, which is based on an unpredictable number of responses, tends to produce a high and steady rate of behavior, much like in gambling scenarios. By rotating reinforcers or providing a variety of them, individuals and animals are less likely to lose interest or reduce their efforts, ensuring that the desired behaviors remain steady and persistent.