The problem here is defining the behavior being negatively reinforced. The terms positive and negative reinforcement are always defined in terms of a specific behavior. You would have to specify the behaviors (e.g., eating healthy food, exercising) that made the aversive outcome less likely.
As for the etymology of this use of ‘negative’, I have no recollection of Skinner deriving the term from medical outcomes. He was more interested in defining the difference between punishment and (negative) reinforcement, since the same aversive event could be either punishing or reinforcing, depending on its specific relationship to a particular response. In fact, in many situations one behavior is punished while another behavior is negatively reinforced because it is incompatible with the behavior which produces punishment. On Oct 30, 2014, at 12:05 PM, Joan Warmbold <[email protected]> wrote: > One approach to teaching negative reinforcement that helps my students > 'get it' is using the example of how receiving NEGATIVE results from a > medical test is a pay-off because you have avoided some type of health > problem. That is negative results are good news telling you that you do > not have strep throat or a cancerous tumor or whatever other disease or > infection was being investigated. > > I wonder to this day if the medical diagnosis of absence of a disease was > possibly the context Skinner was considering when he developed the term, > negative reinforcement. I mean, in what other context is the term > negative very good news indeed. > > For whatever it's worth . . . . > > Joan > [email protected] > > ____________________________________ >>> YouTube is considering using negative reinforcement (but not giving >>> credit to Skinner naturally) >>> >>> In an example of negative reinforcement that most students should be >>> able to recognize: YouTube might remove ads if you pay a fee. So: >>> >>> If you do this: pay a fee >>> They’ll do this: remove ads (take away a negative thing) >>> >>> http://recode.net/2014/10/27/susan-wojcicki-code-mobile-2014/ Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=39750 or send a blank email to leave-39750-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
