Hi Deborah, I would say that your example below is punishment, but remember that punishment, as with reinforcement, can be either positive or negative. It is not negative reinforcement since this is meant to increase desirable behaviors by the removal or reduction of an aversive stimulus. It is best seen as an example of negative punishment, wherein undesirable is decreased or extinguished by the removal of a pleasant stimulus, or loss of privileges, such as taking a toy away from a misbehaving child. So, it's best to explain reinforcement and punishment as being either positive or negative. I've always had students struggle with distinguishing these terms, given that it is difficult to avoid confusing positive and negative with good and bad, which was of course, not Skinner's intention. So, positive punishment would be spanking the child for misbehavior (not recommended) as opposed to negative punishment, another example being a time-out (more recommended) for extinguishing a child's undesirable behavior.
Hope that helps! Mike Lee, MA Dept of Psych University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB, Canada ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 10:26 AM Subject: negative reinforcement vs. punishment > I am fairly new to teaching psychology (my second semester) and to this list > but hopefully someone can help me. > Here is the scenario: A child is playing with a toy and throws it. The > parent reacts by taking the toy away. > I thought this would be a reasonable example for punishment since it is > likely to decrease the throwing. However, as I was discussing it, I realized > that it could also be explained as negative reinforcement since the negative > condition being "removed" (as I explained it to my students) is the child's > throwing, while the behavior of the parent taking the toy away is likely to > be strengthened; this would fit the bill for the typical definition of > negative reinforcement. Am I completely off-base here? I thought that > reinforcement and punishment were mutually exclusive, so how can this be > better explained? > > Thanks in advance for the help, > Deborah Deitcher > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
