• Explain The Difference Between Positive And Negative Reinforcement

Learning is a process that produces change in an organism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning). This change usually is permanent although extinction can occur. Extinction is when the new behavior happens less frequently due to the reward being withdrawn. Learning through operational conditioning is through manipulating stimulus to increase or decrease responses or a certain behavior. This is seen in positive reinforcement/punishment and negative reinforcement/punishment methods. In the reinforcement aspect this increases a desired behavior and in the punishment aspect it lessens an undesirable behavior.

The two types of reinforcement are positive and negative. Positive reinforcement increases a behavior by making the consequence pleasurable. This can be seen when a parent gives candy or treats to a child when they clean their room or make good grades. The reward encourages the individual to repeat and increase the desired behavior. Negative reinforcement removes an unpleasurable consequence so the behavior increases. An example of this can be seen when a person takes pain medication. The removal of the pain increases the chances of the medicine being used to again. These two types of reinforcement reward positively or reward with removal
Positive punishment is the application of an unpleasant consequence to decrease the behavior/event. An example is when a parent yells at a child when they misbehave. It is called 'positive' because of the applied stimulus of yelling and the punishment is due to the desire to decrease the behavior or response (misbehavior). Negative punishment is the removal of a stimulus to decrease a behavior. This can be seen when a parent takes away a teenager's car when they stay out past their curfew. The negative implies the removal of a stimulus (taking car away) due to the response of staying out past curfew. This removal of stimulus will decrease the undesirable