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A SIMPLE BASIC PROGRAM TO GENERATE VALUES FOR VARIABLE‐INTERVAL SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
Author(s) -
Hantula Donald A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of applied behavior analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1938-3703
pISSN - 0021-8855
DOI - 10.1901/jaba.1991.24-799
Subject(s) - reinforcement , schedule , constant (computer programming) , variable (mathematics) , arithmetic , computer science , mathematics , statistics , psychology , mathematical analysis , social psychology , programming language , operating system
A BASIC program to generate values for variable‐interval (VI) schedules of reinforcement is presented. A VI schedule should provide access to reinforcement with a constant probability over a time horizon. If the values in a VI schedule are calculated from an arithmetic progression, the probability of reinforcement is positively correlated with the time since the last reinforcer was delivered. Fleshler and Hoffman (1962) developed an iterative equation to calculate VI schedule values so that the probability of reinforcement remains constant. This easy‐to‐use program generates VI schedule values according to the Fleshler and Hoffman equation, randomizes the values, and saves the values in ASCII to a disk file.