Incentives

In education, there is a debate on the use of reward and punishment. Many believe that incentivizing students is a balancing act. Too much, and you can ruin a kid’s motivation to perform well. Variable frequencies of rewards, or too few incentives, can also affect the child negatively. In an experiment by B. F. Skinner, a behaviorist and a professor of psychology at Harvard University, he studies the consequences of different reinforcements over variable ratios and intervals.

This experiment is currently known as Skinner’s Box. The box was designed to test positive and negative reinforcements on rats. The enclosure was constructed so that there was a lever on one side of the box. On the same side, a speaker and signal lights were there to give instruction. When testing positive reinforcements, a hungry rat was placed into his Skinner Box. As the rat moved around, it would naturally bump the lever and cause a pellet of food to drop into a container. Once they understood the necessary action to obtain a reward, the rat would push the lever repeatedly.

To test negative reinforcements, Skinner would deliver electric current to the box. Similarly, as the rat moved around, it would knock the lever and cause the electric current to stop. The rats were quick learners. Skinner also added a feature to the box where if the lever was pressed while a light came on (usually an indicator that the electric current would soon begin) the current would be switched off completely. Skinner also tested the schedules of reinforcement. Would the rats continue pressing the lever after food pellets were no longer delivered? This concept was tracked by measuring the rat’s response rate (how often they pressed the lever) and their extinction rate (the rate in which they stopped using the lever).

With continuous reinforcement, the response rate was slow and the extinction rate was fast. This is similar to the idea of providing too much reward. When using a fixed ratio reinforcement, the response rate was fast and the extinction rate was medium. This is similar to the idea of making someone work for the reward. Only after multiple steps, can one receive their promised prize. There are three other ways Skinner measures response rates and extinction rates, but what he finds is that when there is a variable interval reinforcement, meaning the subject knows they can receive a reward, but they don’t know when, their response rate is very fast. This is similar to people who seek validation from tougher parents, or even just your average casino goer. The reward is given very variably, but it is enough to keep putting in the work and continue playing, solely with the hope of being rewarded again.

So what is the best way to use incentives in education? Variable interval and variable ratio reinforcements are not the way to go. Though they cause fast response rates, they can make people overly reliant on incentives. Using fixed ratio reinforcements is best because it creates an understanding within the student about what is expected of them, and what they rightfully deserve after completing a job well done.