

Training Humans - mad44
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/training_humans/

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RiderOfGiraffes
One of the things that's rarely mentioned in these training attempts: Start by
rewarding consistently, then become inconsistent, only rewarding, say, one
time in 3. Or 4.

Why?

If you consistently reward every instance of good behavior, then when you
stop, the good behavior will tail off remarkably quickly. You are caught in
the trap of having to reward every good instance.

On the other hand, suppose the trainee has got used to being rewarded at
random for good behavior. Then you stop entirely.

The first time the trainee says "Yes? Oh, no. Oh well, maybe next time." The
next time the trainee says "Yes? Oh, no. Oh well, maybe next time."

And on it goes. Randomly reinforced good behavior persists for a very long
time after the rewards stop. Very occasional rewards makes it even longer.

~~~
chris11
Actually that is not quite the most effective way to do it. You want to start
out rewarding randomly, and keep rewarding randomly. Basically you want to set
up a lottery where on average, every x times the person is rewarded once. But
you should keep the chance of getting rewarded constant.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement#Simple_schedules>

This is also the most effective way to combat extinction. Near extinction,
there is usually an extinction burst. And to keep the person or animal
motivated, you want to up the rewards when they are about to quit. Just think
of someone addicted to drugs or alcohol. When they are trying to quit, they
get cravings, and can binge on the substance.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_(psychology)>

~~~
eru
But you may still profit from increasing x over time. Especially if your
subject is learning how to perform what you want better and better. (Compare
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_(psychology)>)

If you want to mess with your probands mind, at some point switch silently to
a variable time schedule. ("Variable Time (VT) provides reinforcement at an
average variable time since last reinforcement, regardless of whether the
subject has responded or not." from the Wikipedia article)

By the way, for example computer games usually combine several reinforcement
techniques.

