What is positive or negative reinforcement in Psychology?

B. F. Skinner, one of the key theorists of behaviorist orientation, defined reinforcement as a type of learning based on association of a behavior with the consequences derived from it, which increase or decrease the probability that it will be executed again. When they are negative we talk about punishment, and when they are positive about reinforcement.

Within reinforcement learning we distinguish two types of consequence: positive and negative reinforcement. While positive reinforcement occurs when the behavior leads to the obtaining of a reward, negative reinforcement consists of the avoidance or withdrawal of an aversive stimulus. Let's see the main characteristics of both procedures.

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Reinforcement and operant conditioning

The concepts "positive reinforcement" and "negative reinforcement" They are framed in the paradigm of instrumental or operant conditioning. Unlike classical or Pavlovian conditioning, in which the association between a stimulus and a answer, in the instrumental the subject associates the performance of a behavior with consequences determined.

Operant conditioning arose out of the work of the behaviorists Edward Thorndike, who studied the process by which cats managed to escape from "problem boxes", and Burrhus F. Skinner, who systematically described the characteristics of this learning procedure and applied it to various fields, especially education.

Skinner distinguished three types of instrumental learning: the punishment, which consists of the appearance of an aversive stimulus after the execution of the behavior, the omission, in which the response is associated with the absence of reward, and that of reinforcement, in which the behavior is rewarded. Within this procedure we find positive and negative reinforcement.

Within the framework of operant conditioning, the consequences of behavior can be positive or negative for the person who receives them; However, this differentiation is not what separates positive from negative reinforcement, but rather when the behavior has appetitive consequences we talk about reinforcement, and punishment when they are aversive.

When we refer to reinforcement or punishment, the terms "positive" and "negative" do not refer to the pleasantness of the consequence, but to the appearance or disappearance of a certain stimulus: in positive reinforcement you learn that you will get a reward if you do something, and in negative reinforcement that an unpleasant stimulus will be avoided or eliminated.

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What is positive reinforcement?

In positive reinforcement learning, the performance of a behavior is associated with obtaining a pleasant consequence. This does not have to be an object, not even tangible; Food, substances, a smile, a verbal message or the appearance of a pleasant emotion are likely to be understood as positive reinforcement in many contexts.

A father who congratulates his young daughter every time he uses the toilet correctly strengthens positive reinforcement learning; The same thing happens when a company gives financial bonuses to its most productive workers, and even when we get a bag of potato chips after putting a coin in a vending machine.

The concept "positive reinforcement" refers to the awardthat follows the behavior, while positive reinforcement is the procedure by which the learner makes the association. However, the terms “reinforcement” and “reinforcement” are often used interchangeably, probably because there is no such distinction in English.

From a technical point of view we can say that in positive reinforcement there is a positive contingency between a specific response and an appetitive stimulus. The awareness of this contingency motivates the subject to execute the behavior in order to obtain the reward (or reinforcement).

Defining negative reinforcement

Unlike what happens in the positive, in the negative reinforcement the instrumental response leads to the disappearance of an aversive stimulus, that is, an object or situation that motivates the subject to escape or to try not to come into contact with it.

In behavioral terms, in this procedure the reinforcement is the disappearance or non-appearance of the aversive stimulation. As we have previously stated, the word "negative" refers to the fact that the reward does not consist in obtaining a stimulus but in its absence.

This type of learning is divided into two procedures: escape training and avoidance training. In the negative reinforcement of avoidance the behavior prevents the appearance of the aversive stimulus; for example, when an agoraphobic person avoids using public transport to avoid the anxiety that this supposes, it is being negatively reinforced.

On the contrary, the escape consists of the disappearance of an aversive stimulus that is present before the subject executes the behavior. Some examples of negative exhaust reinforcement They are that an alarm clock stops when a button is pressed, that a mother buys her son what she asks him to stop crying or that consuming an analgesic relieves pain.