Negative reinforcement

From WikEd

Brief Overview

This is form of operant conditioning that stems from the research of B.F. Skinner. This is one form of operant conditioning where there are three others, but this form is designed to discuss negative reinforcement. A negative reinforcement is anything that, when taken away contingent on a response, tends to increase the probalility or rate of that response. Stopping an electrical shock to a rat in order to increase the positive behavior (Mayer, 2002) and cancelling an examination for a student are examples of a negative reinforcement.

Punishment, on the other hand, weakens a behavior because a negative condition is introduced or experienced as a consequence of the behavior.

Negative reinforcement is devised to guide a person to the appropriate action in order to avoid the unwanted consequence, known as the aversive stimulus (Wolfgang 32). Negative reinforcement can have long-term effects and must be used sparingly with paying careful attention to the aversive stimuli used (Wolfgang 32).

With negative reinforcement, behavior is increased or maintained in order to escape or avoid a stimulus (Bowen, Jenson, and Clark, 2004). For example, a student may misbehave in order to be sent out of a class he dislikes. According to Bowen et al., many of the problem behaviors that teachers experience from their students have a long history of negative reinforcement.

Personal Experience

When I have been in a lot of classrooms (I'm a sub so I change classrooms a lot), one problem I see is that people use negative reinforcement thinking they are using discipline or punishment. An example is a student who gets out of his seat, disturbs others and won't respond to requests to behave. The next step is usually a warning about what will and then does happen. The warning usually requires the student to be sent out of the classroom. The behavior does not decrease it increases. Why? You have to decide what the child is getting out of the behavior and you have to understand negative reinforcement.In cases, where the behavior increases or doesn't change the student feels that the "punishment" is better than the alternative(staying in the classroom). It is important to find out when the child misbehaves ( is it during reading, can the child read) and determine how to address the problem and not the behavior. school-based interventions for interventions.

Ralph Alexander This is a story I always tell when teachers are sitting around the teachers lounge discussing discipline problems and how to handle them. I heard this story from an Admiral during a winterim class at William Jewell College, I think it was William Crowe, but I cannot be sure it was over ten years ago. The story goes: There was an Israeli airforce instructer pilot and he was telling a pyschologist that everytime he praised a students performance on a certain task the student invariably did it worse the next time. Everytime he chewed the student pilot out for a bad performance he invariably did it better. This story would make one believe negative reinforcement is better than positive reinforcement. However, it really shows regression to the mean. Something to think about when discussion this type of punishment.

In my experience, negative reinforcement has not worked for the population I worked with before becoming a full-time teacher. I worked with a student with moderate developmental delays. He looked like a typical person and a person who does not know his history probably could not tell he had a disability. His social skills were a major issue that held him back from jobs, potential friends, etc. I attempted to use Negative Reinforcement when he had inappropriate verbal remarks; this only increased his negative behavior. I use to reinforce the good he did and ignore his negative remarks until they naturally were extinguished. Negative Reinforcement does not work well for everyone. Emily Kaffel.

Links of interest:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement Reinforcement
• http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/wasserman/Glossary/reinforcement.html

Source

Bowen, J. M., Jenson, W. R., & Clark, E. (2004). School-based interventions for students with behavior problems. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

Wolfgang, Charles H., Solving Discipline And Classroom Management Problems: Methods and Models for Today’s Teachers; U.S.A, John Wiley and Sons, 2001.