When we perform a task over and over again, it is known as reinforcement. However, the question that arises here is that what tells the brain to do what was done before, again. There is no doubt in the fact that there must be a physiological answer to this question. Many experiments have been conducted by renowned researchers to find out what causes the animals, and humans for that matter, to perform a task again and again.
Reinforcement
The Post-Reinforcement Pause
A behavior pattern that is typically bimodal is produced by a constant ratio schedule of reinforcement (Ferster and Skinner, 1957). It has been observed that the response rate is at a high terminal at some occasions; meanwhile it is at zero at others. The "post-reinforcement pause" represents the most consistent period of zero response that normally occurs right after a period of reinforcement. The common observation is that when the post-reinforcement pause becomes greater, the response rate has the potential to decline to some extent since the ratio requirement also escalates. The aforementioned conclusion finds its basis on the cumulative data that was represented by Skinner and Ferster (1957) as well as distinct records of behavior that are on this schedule.
The study that has been discussed in this article was conducted in a way that would help the researchers to make an analysis of schedules of fixed ratio so that quantitative time data can be obtained pertaining to the post-reinforcement pause as well as the response rate, which will be obtained as a function of the constant ratio requirement.
In this particular study, four White Carneux barren hen pigeons were used that had never been used in an experiment before. It should be noted that the weight of these pigeons was maintained within 15 g of 75% of their weight that result from free feeding. As for the deprivation rhythm, maple peas were used where the need was felt. The pigeons could access water at all times. A special response chamber was also constructed for this purpose. An electrical impulse recorder was used to record the data that was required to make an analysis. After obtaining the data, the analysis of the data was made by plotting graphs.
The suggestion that was made by Ferster and Skinner (1957) was that the post-reinforcement pause escalates and response rate mostly decreases in such cases as the fixed ratio schedule tends to increase simultaneously. The results that were obtained on the basis of this study discretely confirm what is contained in the initial portion of the suggestion that states that stable and consistent increase in what is known as the post-reinforcement pause is true for all birds. On the other hand, on the basis of the obtained data, it was observed that there was a general decline in the rate. However, it was also noted that this decline was neither stable nor consistent. Apart from this, the decline in the response rate is not representative of the outright changes that take place in the local rate. Unluckily for the researchers, the aforementioned interpretation of the results finds its basis only on the review of the cumulative data, since there was no other quantitative data, apart from this, was available.
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