I agree that using the term "negative reinforcer" in this way would be confising to students. When I was instructing part-time in grad school, the text I was given used the term negative reinforcer in this way. I didn't use that term in class, and I assume that most intro texts dropped using that term because it would make a difficult concept (negative reinforcement) even more difficult for the novice to understand. I'm just pointing out that I don't think his graphics are technically incorrect. I do however think there are much better ways to try to explain the ideas to intro students.
Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul C. Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 1:08 PM Subject: Re: apparition > Michael Caruso wrote: > > > First off, he doesn't define negative reinforce*ment*, he defines negative > > reinforc*er* as a stimulus that decreases the strength of behavior with > it's > > application. I remember this use of the term negative reinforcer when I > was > > in college. So usually a negative reinforcer is an aversive stimulus > > whereas a positive reinforcer is generally a pleasant stimulus. > > This raises an interesting question about what constitutes authority > about the use of a term. I haven't heard this distinction, but I'm certainly > far from expert in this. In practical terms, I'd think that if on top of the > usual difficult distinctions we make in operant conditioning, we add a > distinction between "negative reinforcement" and "negative reinforcer" we > _deserve_ to have students fail to understand the topic. In addition, we > lose the ability to define "reinforcement" as something that makes a > behavior more likely. When this distinction was made between "negative > reinforcement" and "negative reinforcers", was there to be some kind of > distinction between "negative reinforcer" and "punishment"? > > Paul Smith > Alverno College > Milwaukee > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
