Negative Reinforcement and Positive Reinforcement
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Negative reinforcement is "one of the most
consistently misunderstood principles of behaviour." Cooper,
Heron, & Heward (2007, p. 255)
"Positive reinforcement is the most important
and most widely applied principle of behaviour analysis." Cooper, Heron, & Heward
(2007, p. 257)
An important requirement for
something to be termed “reinforcement” (whether positive or negative) is that
the behaviour that led to the reinforcement must be strengthened or increased
(Miltenberger, 2008).
Technically, it is possible to say
that when negative reinforcement occurs then positive reinforcement is also
occurring and vice-versa. Take the example of turning off the light at night
time. If you look at it from the perspective of removing the light then
negative reinforcement has occurred.
However, if you look at it from the
perspective of adding darkness then positive reinforcement has occurred. The
behaviour in both cases is the same (pressing the light switch) and the
outcomes are the same too (light is removed and darkness is added) it just
depends on how you look at it.
There have been a number of articles
written about this (Michael, 1975) and recently the subject was discussed again
in a number of published articles in the 2006 Spring edition of The Behaviour
Analyst. All of these articles are freely available to read if you’re curiosity takes you
there (scroll down to the bottom of that linked page to access those
articles).
Retrieved 9/22/13, from http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/negative-reinforcement.html#.Uj_YRD-4iLc
at Educate Autism, written by Gavin Cosgrave. Gavin currently works as a
Research Consultant for the Eastern Vocational Enterprises (EVE) which
is a programme within the Health
Service Executive (HSE). He has previously worked within an ABA
school teaching children with autism under the supervision of a Behaviour
Analyst. He holds a Higher Diploma in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin, an Honours Degree
in Industrial/Product Design from the National College of Art and
Design, and a FETAC certificate as a Special Needs
Assistant.
References
Cooper, J., Heron, T., &
Heward, W. (2007). Applied Behaviour Analysis. New Jersey: Pearson
Education.
Michael, J. (1975). Positive and
negative reinforcement, a distinction that is no longer necessary; or a better
way to talk about bad things. Behaviourism, 3, 33-44.
Miltenberger, R. (2008). Behaviour
Modification. Belmont, CA. Wadsworth Publishing.
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Examples of
negative reinforcement and explanations at:
http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/examples-of-negative-reinforcement.html#
Examples of
positive reinforcement and explanations at:
http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/positive-reinforcement.html#.Uj_axz-4iLc
Negative Reinforcement vs Positive Reinforcement
A lot of people misunderstand Negative
Reinforcement by confusing it with Punishment.
Remember that Reinforcement is any consequence that
encourages a behavior to continue and a Punishment is any consequence that
discourages a behavior from continuing.
Negative Reinforcement starts with a
negative condition (like pain) that encourages an organism to perform a
behavior that will trigger a reward of relief. The pre-existing negative state
can be natural or induced by a trainer.
Example
of Natural Negative Reinforcement: If a person has a headache, then takes
Tylenol and finds relief, the relief from the headache is reinforcement to take
more Tylenol in the future if the headache returns. This is negative
reinforcement because the person started out in a negative state.
Negative Reinforcement starts with
a negative state and ends with a neutral state.
Positive Reinforcement starts with a
neutral state and ends with a positive state.
In a way, you could say that
Negative reinforcement involves the use of a pre-punishment.
Many scientists in the field of
psychology argue that it is not needed to define the differences between
negative and positive reinforcement because they are both so similar. For
example, if an animal is hungry so you give it some food, you could say that
this was negative reinforcement because he was originally in a negative state
of hunger and now he has food which puts him in a neutral state. You could also
say that this was positive reinforcement because he got a treat that he loves
which probably caused him pleasure.
Example
of Positive Reinforcement:
You tell your nephew that if he says
you’re his favorite uncle you will take him to the Zoo. He then says you are
his favorite uncle and you take him to the zoo. He has been positively
reinforced.
Example
of induced Negative Reinforcement:
You put your nephew in a headlock
and tell him you will only release if he tells you that you are his favorite
uncle. He tells you that you are his favorite uncle and you release.
Which of these two examples do you
think will work to better gain your nephew’s trust?
Written by Jon
Perry, graphic artist/parrot owner, www.featherMe.com; http://www.jonperry.com/
and retrieved 9/22/13, from http://www.featherme.com/index.php/category/bird-blog/parrot-glossary/
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An Animal Trainer's Introduction to Operant
and Classical Conditioning by Stacy Braslau-Schneck, MA. This page attempts to explain Operant
Conditioning, and promote the use of Positive Reinforcement and Negative Punishment in animal training.
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