Reinforcement

…You might have heard about Pavlov's dogs.…Ivan Pavlov was collecting dog saliva in order to study their gastric function.…He noticed that his dogs would start drooling more…when they heard the sounds associated with food preparation.…He experimented further, pairing the concept of food with the sound of a bell.…When he subsequently rang the bell, the dogs…would drool even though no food was present.…This was a continuous reinforcement schedule.…Every stimulus was associated with a reward.…The dogs would stop responding, drooling pretty quickly…if no food appeared after the bell was rung.…

Later, B.F. Skinner was performing learning experiments with…rats and pigeons when he found out that sometimes…withholding the reward for a correct behavior led to…the animals continuing to exhibit the behavior for longer.…This became known as a partial reinforcement schedule.…Unlike Pavlov's dogs who pretty quickly stopped responding to the…bell if no food was given to them, Skinner's rats and…pigeons would continue at the task for much longer if they…