# Positive & Negative reinforcement / punishment



## brian ward (Oct 25, 2007)

Question Ladies and Gents: I'm really having a hard time wrapping my head around this.. I know the definitions of course, but was wondering if anyone could please give me real world examples of each. I don't really know why I'm having an such as issue with it, considering it's been stamped in my head for so long. I'm pretty sure I have a good grasp on all of them EXCEPT negative reinforcement.. but I figured if I was going to ask I would include it all.

Thanks in advance.


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## Jake Brandyberry (Jan 24, 2010)

Positive=ADD 
Negative=SUBTRACT 
Reinforcement=INCREASE possibility of behavior happening again
Punishment=DECREASE possibility of behavior happening again

Positive Reinforcement=Tell the dog to sit, dog sits, you ADD a reinforcer(treat/tug) to INCREASE possibility of the dog sitting again

Positive Punishment=Tell the dog to sit, dog does not sit, you ADD a punisher(verbal/flat/prong/ecollar) to DECREASE the possibility of the dog refusing the sit command

Negative Reinforcement=Tell the dog to sit, dog does not sit, you SUBTRACT the reinforcer, basically withhold the reward

Negative Punishment=Tell the dog to sit while applying stim with the ecollar at the same time, the dog sits, you SUBTRACT the punishment(ecollar stim) 

Another way to think of it is this. 

Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement=clicker training, purely positive, teaching behaviors

Positive Punishment=proofing behaviors, Kohler, correction based training

Negative Punishment=escape/avoidance training

I am aware that those are very broad and general associations but the gist of what they definitions apply to are what I was going for. Hope that helps.


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## brian ward (Oct 25, 2007)

Jake Brandyberry said:


> Positive=ADD
> Negative=SUBTRACT
> Reinforcement=INCREASE possibility of behavior happening again
> Punishment=DECREASE possibility of behavior happening again
> ...


Outstanding! thank you very much, would you mind if I copy and paste your explanations to my notes?


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## Jake Brandyberry (Jan 24, 2010)

Sure thing.


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## Terrasita Cuffie (Jun 8, 2008)

brian ward said:


> Outstanding! thank you very much, would you mind if I copy and paste your explanations to my notes?



As an alternative, consider: http://www.clickertraining.com/glossary


Terrasita


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## Anna Kasho (Jan 16, 2008)

Jake Brandyberry said:


> Positive=ADD
> Negative=SUBTRACT
> Reinforcement=INCREASE possibility of behavior happening again
> Punishment=DECREASE possibility of behavior happening again
> ...


Actually, you got the last two switched around. 

Negative reinforcement is subtracting something from the situation (turn off ecollar stim) to make the behavior more likely to repeat.

Negative punishment is subtracting something from the situation (witholding reward) to make a behavior less likely to repeat.


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## Jake Brandyberry (Jan 24, 2010)

Opps. Sorry about that.


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## brian ward (Oct 25, 2007)

Awesome thanks guys!!


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