Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment

This video describes the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment. Reinforcement is adding something desirable or removing something undesirable in an effort to increase the probability of a target behavior. Punishment is adding something undesirable or removing something desirable in an effort to decrease the probability of a target behavior. The terms positive and negative refer to the adding or removing function in reinforcement and punishment. Positive refers to adding something and negative refers to removing something. Reinforcement and punishment are used to modify behavior. Research indicates that reinforcement is more effective than punishment in most instances. Reinforcement and punishment are sometimes used in certain behavior and cognitive behavior modalities.