Lesson 8 - Types of Consequences

Presentation of Theoretical Construct

 

Lecture Information: Types of Consequences

	Behavior Encouraged	Behavior Suppressed
Stimulus Presented	Positive Reinforcement - Reward	Presentation Punishment - Aversive
	Giving grades is a form of Positive Reinforcement	Giving a student a "time-out" is a form of Presentation Punishment
Stimulus Removed	Negative Reinforcement - Escape	Removal Punishment - Take away a privilege
	"If you get all "A's" on each of your quizzes you don't have to take the final examination" is an example of Negative Reinforcement.	Keeping an athlete off the team for poor grades

Negative Reinforcement:
One of the most common mistakes concerning the different types of behaviorism's consequences is to confuse "Negative Reinforcement" with "Punishment.   Even though the term has the word "Negative" in the title, it is still a reward for the actor.  You are in fact subtracting an  annoyance from their environment.  In this way it is very much like the old mathematical rule of a "Negative" times a "Negative" is a positive.  This is a mistake that many practicing teachers make as well.

Authority Figure Intentions:
The second topic of concern for any discussion of rewards and punishments from a behavioral point of view is the fact that it does not matter one wit what you, as the authority figure, intend to accomplish; it only  matters how it is taken by the receiver of the consequence.  As a teacher you can fully intend to punish a student with a huge tongue-lashing, a vein-in-the-forehead-popping tirade, only to have the students be rather amused by the outburst.  They are very likely to try and get your goat again.  In other words, you just accidentally reinforced that exact behavior that you wanted to quell. 

The opposite is also true. You can point out to the whole class how well Suzy has organized her desk to perform the project calling everybody's attention to her and her beautiful desk.  She then turns bright red in the face and slinks to the back of the with her hand over her mouth.  You have just punished her behavior.  She is now less likely be organized next time.  My point in this is that it is very, very easy to make a mistake with rewards and punishments.  You can only be sure of a success by the impact on the behavior.

 

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