Enforcing punishment

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A presentation on Operant Conditioning

Transcript of Enforcing punishment

Page 1: Enforcing punishment

A presentation on Operant Conditioning

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*What does it mean?

*Positive Reinforcement

*Negative Reinforcement

*Positive Punishment

*Negative Punishment

*Working Together

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*Hearing how punishment can be positive or

how reinforcement can be negative might

sound a bit confusing, but once it is broken

down, you can see how it all works together.

This presentation will explain how each

combination of positive and negative with

reinforcement or punishment.

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*Positive Reinforcement is one of the better

known forms of Operant Conditioning because

many people do it instinctively. Each time you

congratulate someone or tell them thank you,

you are using Positive Reinforcement. Positive

Reinforcement is the act of adding stimuli to

attempt to increase the likelihood of a

behavior being repeated.

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*Telling someone “Good Job”

*Rewarding a child for behaving by giving them

a treat

*Petting a dog for obeying a command

*Giving a good worker a raise

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*Negative Reinforcement is the oddball of the

four, which is the act of removing a stimulus to

try to increase the likelihood of an action or

behavior being repeated in the future.

Typically, these refer to methods of removing

pain or discomfort. They may seem odd, but

the following examples may help to explain it.

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*Rewarding a child asking politely for the

Television to be turned down by doing so

*Applying a heated patch to a sore muscle

*Having your hair cut when it becomes so long it

obscures your vision

*Taking medicine to relieve a headache

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*Punishment, contrary to Reinforcement, seeks

to decrease the likelihood of a behavior being

repeated. Positive Punishment seeks to do so

by adding unpleasant stimuli to try to decrease

the likelihood of an action being repeated.

Most people have probably experienced this as

a child, but here are some examples just in

case.

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*Spanking a child for screaming at their parents

*Scolding an employee for not performing their

job well enough

*Giving additional chores to a teenager who

routinely skips curfew

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*Anyone who’s been grounded can tell you that

Negative Punishment is not fun. Negative

Punishment seeks to remove stimuli in an

attempt to decrease the chance of a certain

behavior being repeated and, depending on the

stimulus removed, can prove extremely

effective.

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*Revoking Internet privileges from a child

*Reducing a bad worker’s paycheck

*Expelling a trouble making student

*Pointedly ignoring someone who is being

annoying

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*Now, one may think that it would be best to

stick to one form Operant Conditioning, such as

only Negative Reinforcement, but when

attempting more complex behavioral

modifications, you’ll often find that it isn’t

enough, especially when attempting to teach a

behavior that the individual does not initially

wish to do. This is because, sometimes, the

“cost” of the behavior is not worth the

“reward” of the Reinforcement or avoiding the

Punishment. Here is an example of a situation

that many parents can find themselves in.

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*The couple’s teenage child is getting bad

grades in school

*The child’s teachers regularly give tests

*The parents want to use a form of Operant

Conditioning to try to improve their child’s

study habits

*For sake of the example, let’s say the child has

is looking forward to a game that is coming out

soon

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*Let’s assume at first the parents decide to try

using Positive Reinforcement. The parents

might try giving the child extra money for

getting good grades on his tests. Now this

would likely work well at first, since he would

want the extra money for the game. However,

once he has the game, the motivation of the

extra money, the “reward”, may not be worth

the time spent studying for the tests, the

“cost”.

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*Now, let’s assume they instead decide to try

Negative Punishment. The parents tell the

child that unless he begins making better

grades, they will take away his video games.

This will work just after his new game comes

out because he will want to play it, but once

he beats the game, the motivation of getting

to play his video games may not work as

well, possibly causing him to slack off the

studies for other activities, such as going to the

movies.

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*Clearly, Punishment and Reinforcement have

limits to how well they preform alone. Now,

picture how it might work if they used both of

the previous methods together. Before getting

the game, he would be motivated by the

promise of extra money. After getting it, he

would be motivated by the desire to not loose

the game. Since new games routinely come

out, this cycle would likely continue to work

for some time. Though they can work apart,

Punishment and Reinforcement work best

together.

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*Psychsmart by McGraw-Hill

*ITELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications’s

Youtube Channel

*Wikipedia