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Reinforcement is simply defined as an effect that increases the probability of a response. It is, therefore, discussed in terms of observable or measurable events. We reward people, we reinforce the behavior.
- Aversive Stimulus: Aversives are unpleasant stimuli that induce changes in behavior with the help of negative reinforcement or positive punishment.
- By the application of an aversive stimulus, immediately before or after a behavior, target behavior in the future is reduced.
- Aversives can vary from being slightly unpleasant or irritating to physically, psychologically, and/or emotionally damaging.
Types of Reinforcement: In operant conditioning, the following reinforcements have been described:
- Positive reinforcement: It occurs when behavior is followed by a favorable consequence that encourages the repetition of that behavior.
- For example, a supervisor may praise the employee for a job well done.
- In this case, praise serves as a positive reinforcer that strengthens high-quality work.
- Other common positive reinforcers are recognition, promotion, money, approval, fringe benefits, etc.
- Negative reinforcement: It occurs when behavior is accompanied by the removal of an unfavorable consequence that results in the strengthening of that behavior.
- For example, an employee may work till late at the office to revise a sales presentation to prevent being rebuked by the boss the next morning.
- In this example, rebuking serves as a negative reinforcer that encourages avoidance behavior.
- Punishment: Punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. Punishment weakens behavior. There are two kinds of punishment:
- Positive punishment sometimes referred to as punishment by application, involves the presentation of an unfavorable event or outcome to weaken the response it follows.
- Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when a favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs.
- The reward is a stimulus that is administered to an organism and serves to reinforce the desired response.
- A reward is an appetitive stimulus given to a human or some other animal to alter its behavior.
- Rewards typically serve as reinforcers.
- Shaping is a conditioning procedure.
- In shaping, the form of an existing response is gradually changed across successive trials towards the desired target behavior using differential reinforcement.
- Shaping is the process of reinforcing successively closer and closer approximations to a desired terminal behavior.
- Although positive reinforcement plays an important role in encouraging the adoption of desirable behaviors, sometimes punishment is also necessary to weaken and eliminate undesirable behaviors.
- However, punishment alone in behavior modification can have negative repercussions. For instance, punishment creates negative feelings and tension in people and may cause a strengthening of the undesirable behavior due to rebelliousness.
Hence, we can conclude that the application of an 'aversive stimulus' is Negative reinforcement.
Last updated on Sep 22, 2022
The exam dates for the HTET 2022 have been postponed. Due to the General Elections, the exam dates for the HTET have been revised. The exam will be conducted on the 3rd and 4th of December 2022 instead of the 12th and 13th of November 2022. The exam is conducted by the Board of School Education, Haryana to shortlist eligible candidates for PGT and TGT posts in Government schools across Haryana. The exam is conducted for 150 marks. The HTET Exam Pattern for Level I, Level II, and Level III exams is different. There will be no negative marking in the exam.
In Applied Behavior Analysis, there are two types of reinforcement and
punishment: positive and negative. It can be difficult to distinguish between the four of these. Therefore, the purpose of this blog is to explain the differences in order to help parents and professionals develop appropriate interventions to improve behavior. Updated August 3, 2022 Positive reinforcement works by presenting a motivating/reinforcing stimulus to the person after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future. The following are some examples of positive reinforcement:
Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement
- A mother gives her son praise (reinforcing stimulus) for doing homework (behavior).
- The little boy receives $5.00 (reinforcing stimulus) for every A he earns on his report card (behavior).
- A father gives his daughter candy (reinforcing stimulus) for cleaning up toys (behavior).
Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement occurs when a certain stimulus (usually an aversive stimulus) is removed after a particular behavior is exhibited. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative consequence.
Negative reinforcement should not be thought of as a punishment procedure. With negative reinforcement, you are increasing a behavior, whereas with punishment, you are decreasing a behavior.
The following are some examples of negative reinforcement:
- Bob does the dishes (behavior) in order to stop his mother’s nagging (aversive stimulus).
- Natalie can get up from the dinner table (aversive stimulus) when she eats 2 bites of her broccoli (behavior).
- Joe presses a button (behavior) that turns off a loud alarm (aversive stimulus)
When thinking about reinforcement, always remember that the end result is to try to increase the behavior, whereas punishment procedures are used to decrease behavior. For positive reinforcement, think of it as adding something positive in order to increase a response. For negative reinforcement, think of it as taking something negative away in order to increase a response.
Punishment
- When people hear that punishment procedures are being used, they typically think of an aversive or harmful consequence. This is not always the case as you can see below.
- Punishment is a process by which a consequence immediately follows a behavior which decreases the future frequency of that behavior. Like reinforcement, a stimulus can be added (positive punishment) or removed (negative punishment).
- There are two types of punishment: positive and negative, and it can be difficult to tell the difference between the two. Below are some examples to help clear up the confusion.
What is Positive Punishment?
Positive punishment works by presenting an aversive consequence after an undesired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior less likely to happen in the future. The following are some examples of positive punishment:
- A child picks his nose during class (behavior) and the teacher reprimands him (aversive stimulus) in front of his classmates.
- A child touches a hot stove (behavior) and feels pain (aversive stimulus).
- A person eats spoiled food (behavior) and gets a bad taste in his/her mouth (aversive stimulus).
What is Negative Punishment?
Negative punishment happens when a certain reinforcing stimulus is removed after a particular undesired behavior is exhibited, resulting in the behavior happening less often in the future.
The following are some examples of negative punishment:
- A child kicks a peer (behavior), and is removed from his/her favorite activity (reinforcing stimulus removed)
- A child yells out in class (behavior), loses a token for good behavior on his/her token board (reinforcing stimulus removed) that could have later be cashed in for a prize.
- A child fights with her brother (behavior) and has her favorite toy taken away (reinforcing stimulus removed).
With punishment, always remember that the end result is to try to decrease the undesired behavior. Positive punishment involves adding an aversive consequence after an undesired behavior is emitted to decrease future responses. Negative punishment includes taking away a certain reinforcing item after the undesired behavior happens in order to decrease future responses.
It should be noted that research shows that positive consequences are more powerful than negative consequences for improving behavior. Therefore, it is always suggested that these interventions be tried prior to negative consequences. Do you have any experiences with reinforcement or punishment that you would like to share in the comment section below?
Also check out our blog post on how to teach your child to accept being told “No” !
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