Ratio Strainย refers to a condition in which a subject experiences a breakdown in responding due to an abrupt or too-rapid increase in the response-to-reinforcement ratio. In other words, when the demand for the number of responses required to earn reinforcement is increased too quickly, theย behaviorย may weaken or stop entirely.
Example
A teacher uses a token economy where a student earns one token for every 5 math problems completed, and the student exchanges 10 tokens for a prize. If the teacher abruptly changes the requirement to 20 math problems per token without gradually increasing the ratio, the student may stop engaging in theย behaviorย of completing math problems due to the sudden and overwhelming increase in effort required. This is an example of ratio strain.