The unsung heroes of the psych world are the trillions of lab rats who faithfully ran mazes, pressed levers and endured mild electric shocks in order to further our knowledge of human behavior. One of the experimental findings I use often in my practice is the theory of schedules of reinforcement.
In short, there are two variables that seem to make a difference in how animals react – number of trials, and elapsed time. Number of trials means how many times you have to do something in hopes of getting a reward. For the rats, this was pressing a lever to dispense a food pellet. Elapsed time means that there is a set (or variable) amount of time before another food pellet appears regardless of the number of attempted trials.
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