This paper investigates the effect of reinforcement schedules on biofeedback games for stress self-regulation. In particular, it examines whether partial reinforcement can improve resistance to extinction of relaxation behaviors, i.e., once biofeedback is removed. Namely, we compare two types of reinforcement schedules (partial and continuous) in a mobile biofeedback game that encourages players to slow their breathing during gameplay. The game uses a negative-reinforcement instrumental conditioning paradigm, removing an aversive stimulus (random actions in the game) if players slows down their breathing. We conducted an experimental trial with 24 participants to compare the two reinforcement schedules against a control condition. Our results indicate that partial reinforcement improves resistance to extinction, as measured by breathing rate and skin conductance post-treatment. In addition, based on slope and correlation analysis we found that participants in the partial reinforcement learned to slow their breathing at the same pace as those under continuous reinforcement. The article discusses the implications of these results and directions for future work.

中文翻译：

---

放松训练游戏生物反馈中的部分强化

本文研究了强化计划对压力自我调节的生物反馈游戏的影响。特别是，它检查了部分强化是否可以提高对放松行为消失的抵抗力，即一旦生物反馈被移除。也就是说，我们比较了移动生物反馈游戏中鼓励玩家在游戏过程中放慢呼吸的两种类型的强化计划（部分和连续）。游戏使用负强化工具性条件反射范式，如果玩家放慢呼吸，则会消除厌恶刺激（游戏中的随机动作）。我们对 24 名参与者进行了一项实验性试验，以将两种强化计划与对照条件进行比较。我们的结果表明，部分强化提高了对灭绝的抵抗力，通过治疗后的呼吸频率和皮肤电导测量。此外，基于斜率和相关性分析，我们发现部分强化的参与者学会了以与持续强化相同的速度减慢呼吸的速度。文章讨论了这些结果的影响和未来工作的方向。