The slides on chapter six and the book contain information about operant conditioning. According to Powell, Symbaluk, and Honey (2009), operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the future probability of a behavior is affected by its consequences. There are four types of learning processes in operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. It is sometimes hard to differentiate these types of learning processes. However, if you remember key words such as increase, decrease, removal, and addition the concept becomes much easier to understand and you won’t become confused. Positive reinforcement occurs when the likelihood of a certain behavior increases as a result of the presentation of something pleasant after the behavior. An example of this is praising a child for good behavior. Negative reinforcement occurs when the likelihood of a certain behavior increases as the result of removing something unpleasant after the behavior. This is best exemplified in the following example. John’s mom always nags him about taking out the trash. Once day John decided to take out the trash before his mother could tell him to do it. Subsequently, the nagging stopped and John now takes out the trash without ever being told. Positive punishment occurs when the likelihood of a certain behavior decreases as the result of the presentation of something unpleasant after the behavior. An example of positive punishment is putting a child in time out for misbehaving. Negative punishment occurs when the likelihood of a certain behavior decreases as the result of the removal of something pleasant after the behavior. An example of negative punishment is when a parent grounds their child because of poor grades. I found two videos that further explain these types of learning processes.
References
Powell, R. A., Symbaluk, D. G., & Honey, P. L. (2009). Introduction to learning and behavior (3rd ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9ZZaPDtPk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKvXyN_t7UA&NR=1
Usually I completely disagree with negative reinforcement but this video was a prime example where is it needed. Unless the child was not originally praised for getting good grades negative reinforcement would be the last resort. In order for the son to get better grades something had to be taken away for him to realize if he wants one thing he has to do the other first. Good example!
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