Studying operant conditioning, B.F. Skinner found that when a reward arrives — not just whether — shapes how fast and how steadily a behavior repeats. Pick a schedule to watch its signature pattern draw itself on a live cumulative-response graph.
Two questions, four answersRatio vs. interval: is the reward earned by a number of responses or by the passage of time? Fixed vs. variable: is that requirement predictable or does it vary? Ratio schedules drive higher rates; variable schedules drive steadier responding that is harder to stop.