Foreword to Schedules of reinforcement. 1957.
The 1957 Schedules monograph mapped every basic reinforcement pattern, and later studies keep confirming and refining that atlas.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doughty et al. (2002) wrote a short foreword to the 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement. The foreword looks back at the original 700-page monograph. It highlights how the book first mapped reinforcement schedules to behavior patterns.
The authors stress that every graph in the 1957 work was new data. No earlier studies had shown such a complete atlas of schedule effects.
What they found
The foreword finds that the 1957 monograph still stands alone. No later work has matched its scope of schedule-controlled patterns.
The authors call the book a "discovery" text. It revealed how different timing rules create unique response rhythms.
How this fits with other research
Later studies keep extending the 1957 atlas. Dews (1978) added precise numbers to the FI scallop. Two monkeys showed steady within-interval acceleration, sharpening the original qualitative picture.
Hearst (1960) showed that time-correlated schedules can mimic both ratio and interval patterns. This widens the atlas beyond traditional FR, FI, and VR definitions.
Leander et al. (1972) and Tracey et al. (1974) moved the patterns to new responses and species. Monkeys vocalized on FR and FI. Children made matching errors in predictable post-reinforcement bursts. These papers confirm the schedules work across vocal, academic, and human behaviors.
Fujita (1985) adds a twist: ratio schedules maintain discrimination better than continuous reinforcement after early learning. This interaction between schedule type and skill stage was not in the 1957 book.
Why it matters
The 1957 atlas is still your go-to map for schedule effects. When you see odd response patterns, check if the schedule matches the classic shapes. If a client stalls after each reward, think post-reinforcement pause and tweak the ratio size. If progress speeds up within a timed window, expect the FI scallop and plan teaching trials accordingly. Use later extensions to justify schedule use across species, tasks, and skill stages. You are standing on 700 pages of original data—let it guide your next reinforcement plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Schedules of Reinforcement (Schedules) is an extraordinary monograph. It is an account of exciting scientific discoveries that were both important and original. The material was quite unfamiliar except to a small coterie who had been close to the work. A monograph of this magnitude is normally preceded by a series of technical papers in the scientific literature, describing reasonably coherent fragments of the work as it progresses, so that people in the field can have some familiarity (which often passes as understanding) with the new discoveries. But Schedules was not preceded by papers. It appeared full grown in 700 pages of almost entirely original material. To most psychologists even the nomenclature was unfamiliar, although some terms had been used before. In a word, it was an uncompromising challenge. Here it is, a mother lode of information on new discoveries: Go ahead and mine it. There are substantive written sections, mostly in the early chapters, but the bulk of Schedules is the 921 figures and their accompanying description. This atlas of figures contrasts sharply with the careful, analytical development in earlier books by Skinner (The Behavior of Organisms and Science and Human Behavior) and even more with other books in psychology. An account of why Schedules is such a different book will give some perspective on the historical importance of the research and may help those approaching the book for the first time to understand it and appreciate its significance. Ferster and Skinner discovered the incredible power of schedules of reinforcement to engender patterns of behavior. Their own behavior was so reinforced by the phenomena associated with schedule-controlled respond-
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2002 · doi:10.1901/jeab.2002.77-313