FACILITATION OF LARGE RATIO PERFORMANCE BY USE OF CONDITIONED REINFORCEMENT.

Scientists worked with two chimpanzees on a large fixed-ratio 200 schedule.

They split the ratio into four chunks of 50 responses.

After each chunk the chimp heard a click that had been paired with food.

The team then switched back to a plain FR 200 to see which version the apes liked.

The click during the ratio cut both pause time and total work time in half.

When the apes could choose, they picked the chunked schedule almost every time.

One simple sound kept the animals moving faster through the same amount of work.

FIELPREMACK et al. (1963) showed chimps can master four different schedules in one session.

Findley et al. (1965) took that idea and added tiny reinforcers inside one big schedule.

Wilson et al. (2016) later used the same chunk idea to set thicker FCT schedules for kids.

Najdowski et al. (2003) proved preference can flip fast; the 1965 data show it flips immediately when tokens appear.

You can turn any long response run into smaller pieces with a quick token or praise.

Try giving a thumbs-up every 10 math problems instead of waiting for 40.

Your learner will start sooner, finish faster, and ask for that format again.