POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: CHARACTERISTICS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

Positive and negative reinforcement are psychological processes that aim to increase the probability of repeating a certain behavior.

In the case of positive reinforcement, it is based on offering a reinforcing or appetitive stimulus after the performance of a certain behavior. This is to increase the probability of this response in future situations.

On the other hand, the key to negative reinforcement is to strengthen a certain behavior by eliminating or preventing a stimulus of an aversive nature.

Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement

Positive and negative reinforcement are found within instrumental conditioning. That is, a type of learning that is based on the development, increase and maintenance of behaviors, which can be modified through the management of consequences.

Depending on the situation in which instrumental learning is started, a certain type of response will be carried out with specific results.

If the effect of the behavior is satisfactory for the person, it would be a type of appetitive stimulus. On the other hand, if the reinforcer is negative, we would speak of a stimulus of the aversive type.

In the case of positive reinforcement, an example would be getting a good grade at work or receiving a cash bonus in exchange for a good job done in the office.

On the other hand, in the case of negative reinforcement, the performance of a certain behavior will lead to the disappearance of a stimulus of an aversive nature, reinforcing said behavior.

An example of negative reinforcement would be the child doing homework to prevent the teacher from talking to his parents and punishing him or leaving home early to avoid traffic jams and get to work earlier.

Both types of reinforcement result in increasing the subject's future response rate, either by providing an appetitive stimulus or by eliminating an aversive stimulus.

Positive reinforcement

As has been previously described, positive reinforcement is a conditioning process in which the response emitted by the person increases the probability of obtaining a reinforcing or appetitive stimulus.

This stimulus produces an increase in the response rate of the subject. In fact, to identify it more specifically, it can be thought that the person had to perform a certain type of behavior to achieve something specific.

Along these lines, the characteristics and environment of an individual or group must be taken into account to determine which is the most appropriate stimulus that serves as the most positive reinforcer. For this reason, it is important to know what types of reinforcers are that lead the subject to modify their behavior.

Types of positive reinforcers

Primary reinforcers

There are various types of reinforcers such as primary or unconditioned reinforcers that do not need prior learning to act as such. As an example of this type we would have food or sex.

Secondary reinforcers

Another type of reinforcer would be secondary or conditioned ones, which have required prior learning or association to act as a reinforcer. These types of reinforcers are generalized and have an association with a primary or secondary reinforcer, such as money or attention.

Natural enhancers

On the other hand, there are reinforcers that can be natural or that are used in a normal way in the context of the person. In contrast, there are artificial reinforcers that reward behavior with some game.

Material reinforcers

In turn, there are also material reinforcers such as toys, books, and clothing. And within this category we identify other reinforcers of a social nature such as praise. The latter allow for positive informative feedback that allows the person to be informed about their behavior.

In another area, activity reinforcers stand out where the subject performs a series of activities set in motion by himself to receive a reward.

Extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcers

Within this list, extrinsic reinforcers are also identified whose behavior is reinforced by external factors.

On the other hand, the intrinsic reinforcer is distinguished where the behavior is maintained and carried out without the appearance of external reinforcers. In this case the behavior acts by itself as a reinforcer due to a previous history of extrinsic reinforcement.

In general, the connection between the behavior and the reinforcer will be stronger when the time between the two is shorter.

In turn, different factors also influence that allow the reinforcer to be positive or negative for the subjects, such as: the type of reinforcement program, its intensity, magnitude and duration, among others. Thus, it is advisable to adapt these named reinforcers to the type of person and the situation in which the conditioning is to be carried out.

To make the previous task easier, I leave you a practical guide to apply positive reinforcement:

• Define the conduct or behaviors that you want to increase.
• Choose reinforcers adapted to the specific person.
• Choose reinforcers that are often out of reach for that person.
• Report on the contingency or relationship between stimulus, response and consequent (reinforcer).
• If the behavior to be achieved does not exist in the behavioral repertoire of the person, techniques such as modeling, instructions or guides can be used.
• The reinforcer has to be contingent on the subject's response or behavior.
• The reinforcer must be delivered immediately after the behavior, for example if it is material.
• Also use social reinforcers as well as indicate the correct behavior carried out.
• Use continuous reinforcement at the beginning of conditioning, then move on to an intermittent reinforcement program that maintains the behavior.

Negative reinforcement

With this procedure it is possible to get the person to increase the response rate of a certain behavior to avoid the appearance of a stimulus or negative consequent. In this sense, the response removes or prevents an unpleasant event.

There are two types of negative reinforcement procedures: avoidance and escape. By avoidance is understood the realization of an instrumental response that prevents the arrival of an aversive stimulus. An example of this would be the young man who places the computer inside his room so that his parents do not disturb him. Aversive stimuli involve physical and psychological discomfort.

As an important fact, negative reinforcement should not be confused with punishment; more and more frequent error.

Punishment is a procedure that weakens or decreases the response rate in the individual by providing an aversive stimulus (positive punishment) or by removing a pleasant or positive stimulus (negative punishment). In this link you can consult some forms of effective punishment.

As with positive reinforcement, I leave you a very useful guide to start this last type of reinforcement explained:

• Determine the behaviors that you want to increase.
• Select an aversive stimulus or stimuli for the person.
• In the case of the escape procedure, eliminate the aversive stimulus each time the behavior occurs. And in avoidance, every time the person does not perform the behavior, apply the aversive stimulus.
• The avoidance procedure is better than the escape procedure, since in the former the negative stimulus appears only when the behavior does not occur and here the behavior tends to be maintained despite the absence of this aversive stimulus.
• Use stimuli such as verbal or written instructions to explain to the person that if they emit a certain behavior they can prevent or eliminate that annoying stimulus for them.
• These procedures, when involving aversive stimuli, should be used with caution since they can be harmful to the person, appearing side effects such as hostility or aggressiveness.
• To strengthen and increase the probability of occurrence of the desired behavior and reduce the possible side effects of these procedures, they should be used in conjunction with positive reinforcement techniques.

What is a reinforcement program?

In operant conditioning, reinforcement programs are very important when starting a learning process. They are rules that determine when and how a behavior will be followed by a reinforcer.

These programs influence the speed of learning, the frequency of the response and the pauses after the reinforcement, or the time in which the response continues after the reinforcement has ceased.

Types of reinforcement programs

In order for the behavior to be acquired quickly, a continuous reinforcement would be used and subsequently a partial or intermittent reinforcement so that the learned behavior is maintained, thus avoiding its extinction. The ideal is to play to combine both.

Continuous reinforcement

In the early stages of learning, it is the type of reinforcement that is most used to establish a strong association between response and consequent or reinforcing stimulus. Once this association is established, reinforcement is usually more intermittent.

It is called continuous because the individual executes a desired instrumental response to reinforce a behavior.

Partial reinforcement

In this case, the responses or behaviors are reinforced on some occasions and not continuously as in the previous case.

Behaviors are acquired more slowly but are more resistant to extinction or cessation of the learned behavior because reinforcement becomes unpredictable, producing a more persistent response pattern. Also, within this type there are four subtypes:

1- Fixed ratio

Continuous reinforcement programs are also partial reinforcement programs with a fixed ratio of 1, since each time the subject gives a response he will obtain the reinforcer.

2- Variable ratio

In this case, the number of responses that the subject must make in order to obtain the reinforcer is variable.

This prevents the person from predicting what would be the number of responses to be given in order to get the reinforcer.

3- Fixed interval

In interval programs, obtaining the reinforcer will not depend on the number of responses given, but will be influenced by the passage of time.

In fixed interval programs, the set time to obtain the booster does not vary. In turn, it causes a high response rate when the reinforcer is known to be close.

4- Variable interval

Obtaining the reinforcer in this procedure will also depend on the time that elapses.

The difference with the previous one is that this time is variable, that is, the responses are reinforced if they are made after a variable time interval from the previous reinforcer.

References

1. Domjan, M. Principles of learning and behavior. Auditorium. 5th edition.
2. What Is Negative Reinforcement? Recovered from verywell.com.
3. What Is Positive Reinforcement? Recovered from verywell.com.
4. What Is a Schedule of Reinforcement? Recovered from verywell.com.
5. Operant conditioning. Recovered from explorable.com.
6. Reinforcement programs. Recovered from psicologia.wikia.com.
7. Bados, A., García-Grau, E. (2011). Operant techniques. Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment. Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona.diposit.ub.edu.