Page 3 - Operant Conditioning
P. 3

Positive & Negative in Reinforcement and Punishment






                     There are two types of each in reinforcement

                     and  punishment  which  are  positive  and
                     negative  reinforcement  and  positive  and
                     negative punishment. But,  often people get

                     confuse between negative reinforcement and
                     punishment as they are hard to distinguish.


                                    Reinforcement                              Punishment


                                    Something is added to increase the         Something is added to decrease the likelihood
                        Positive
                                    likelihood of a behavior.                  of a behavior.

                                    Something is removed to increase the       Something is removed to decrease the
                       Negative
                                    likelihood of a behavior.                  likelihood of a behavior.


                                            Positive & Negative in Reinforcement and Punishment

                     Some problems may occur if we use

                     punishment.  For  instance  the
                     behavior  will  only  be  suppressed
                     and       not      forgotten,       increase

                     aggression in individual, create fear
                     and  some  punishment  might  be

                     useless  as  they  do  not  necessarily
                     lead to the desired behavior.
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