![]() Just like with reinforcement, punishment can be both positive and negative (technically speaking). This is not to be confused with punishment – the aim of which is to discourage a pet from a particular behaviour. ![]() Negative reinforcement means taking away something the animal finds unpleasant, in order for them to continue with a certain behaviour. Positive and negative reinforcement – what’s the difference? So ‘positive reinforcement’ = adding something positive to the dog’s environment that results in them successfully continuing with a particular behaviour. ‘Reinforcement’ refers, in this context, to the successful continuation of behaviour. ‘Positive’ means ‘adding something’, while ‘negative’ means ‘taking something away’. In behavioural training however, their meanings are more mathematical. The behavior of getting good grades would then have been reinforced.In most subjects, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ have emotional connotations. Taking away something your subject wants (TV) in order to discourage a behavior (getting bad grades) really is an example of “negative punishment” not “negative reinforcement.” “Negative reinforcement” would be if your mother stopped nagging you (took away something bad) when you brought home an A+ report card. “Negative reinforcement sounds better.”ĭear shock-collar dog-smacking kennel guy, this instructional video is for you. This kennel owner's methods? Those were just forms of punishment. When people torture each other to get information, that's also negative reinforcement: Someone finally snitches in order to make something painful stop. You move your car when someone is honking at you and the horn sound goes away (disappearance of sound = negative) and you've therefore been reinforced for moving. “Negative” just means that something is taken away in order to increase the chance that a behavior will increase. I attempted to explain that the word that negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement aren't opposites. Punishments, I said, decrease the likelihood that behaviors will continue to occur. Both? I took a deep breath and told him that these were actually punishment methods. Was I upset that he abuses dogs or that he was screwing up the nomenclature? I don't know. “I believe in negative reinforcement.” Then he told me about how he prefers training dogs with a snap of a choke collar or an occasional smack. ![]() “You see, I just don't buy that stuff,” he said. Just the other day, I was telling a Park Slope kennel owner that I was a positive reinforcement trainer and I could see him rolling his eyes. It must be how my mom feels when someone uses “me” as a subject pronoun. Behaviorist nerd that I am, it always rankles me. These terms are constantly misused and misunderstood. Brilliant guy, but not great at branding his ideas. Skinner coined the terms negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, negative punishment and positive punishment in the mid-1900s. This is Thorndike's Law of Effect: behaviors that are reinforced will become more likely to occur, and behaviors that are not reinforced will become less likely to occur.ī.F. Receiving comments on a blog post? Positively reinforcing. Getting paid for your work, for instance, is positively reinforcing. Positive reinforcement gets us pretty far in life. The “positive” refers to the fact that you're encouraging something by adding to it, rather than taking something away. So what does it mean? It refers to my belief that it is possible–and not hard!–to educate all animals by controlling the consequences of their behaviors in a way that will encourage the kinds of behavior you want. It doesn't mean that I'm always quick with a compliment. ![]() It doesn't mean that I smile all the time, or that I never yell in frustration when I find some darn cur has torn a hole in my favorite blanket. This does not mean that I throw a party whenever Amos poops outside. I am a positive reinforcement dog trainer.
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