Reinforcement schedules can be continuous or variable; those established through variable or intermittent reinforcement are tougher to extinguish. Which statement about reinforcement schedules is true?

• A. They are always continuous
• B. They can be continuous or variable
• C. They never include variable ratio
• D. They must be fixed

Answer: (B)

Reinforcement schedules describe when reinforcement is provided for a response. They come in two broad forms: continuous reinforcement, where every correct response is reinforced, and intermittent (partial) reinforcement, where reinforcement occurs only some of the time or after varying conditions. The statement is true because reinforcement schedules can be either continuous or variable (intermittent), and the intermittent/variable patterns (like variable ratio or variable interval) are actually the ones that tend to make learning more persistent and harder to extinguish. The other options don’t fit because reinforcement doesn’t have to be always continuous, there are variable schedules, and reinforcement patterns include both fixed and variable types.