Reinforcement Schedule Impact on Performance

Consider the following scenario based on operant conditioning principles. A psychologist administers a study where participants are rewarded with points for every correct answer on a quiz. These points can later be exchanged for various rewards.

After several sessions, one participant, Alex, notices that he is making more mistakes on the quizzes whenever he is rewarded with points only for streaks of three correct answers, rather than for every correct answer. This scenario suggests a potential impact of reinforcement schedules on learning.

Given this context, which of the following concepts best explains why Alex's performance may be deteriorating?