8 - A Mixture of Reinforcement, Reward, and Punishment

In this lesson, you have learned about the personal side of learning–self-concept, motivation, and attitudes. You studied Jean Piaget’s stages of human development from infancy to adolescence. In Section 1, Lesson 1 you learned that to enable psychology to advance to the category of experimental science, psychology had to become involved with the scientific testing of data. In preparation for the challenging topics of classical and operant conditioning, your first step is to learn about important variables used in such procedures—reinforcement, intermittent and secondary reinforcement, reward, and punishment.

You remember that a stimulus is an object, event, or situation that causes a person or an animal to behave in a particular way. A stimulus could be a red light, a ringing telephone, a waving hand, or a touch on the arm. A response is the way a person or an animal behaves toward the stimulus. If a situation occurs and a young child responds to it in a favourable way, a parent might attempt to strengthen that connection by providing reinforcement. A reinforcement is a process that increases the chances of a certain behaviour occurring again. For example, a pile of toys are in the living room (stimulus), the child puts them away in the toy cupboard (response). The parent is pleased with the child’s behaviour and, therefore, rewards the child with a cookie and praise (reinforcement).

couple hugging

A cookie, a hug, extra privileges at home, and an allowance are all examples of positive reinforcement. Presenting a reinforcement strengthens the response. But negative reinforcement is also a possibility. A negative reinforcement includes anything negative that is removed from the environment like loud noises, physical pain, punishment, or annoyances of any kind. Removing a reinforcement strengthens the response.

Because negative reinforcement is difficult to visualize, some illustrations may be useful. A little girl knows that if she picks up all her toys she will not get a scolding. Removing the threat of a scolding encourages her to behave in a favourable way. Assume you fell and broke your arm while skating. The pain is intense. When you go to the doctor for treatment, you expect even more pain while your arm is being properly set in a cast. However, you decide to go to the doctor to repair the damage of the broken arm knowing that it will eventually feel better. Both positive and negative reinforcement are rewards.

Positive reinforcement ........................................presenting strengthens response
Negative reinforcement ......................................removing strengthens response

The shorter the time span between a correct response and the reward, the more likely the animal or person will learn that response.

girl with dogComplete reinforcement means that when an animal or person makes a correct response, a reward or reinforcement is given every time it occurs. Complete reinforcement is important in the first stages of learning when habits are becoming established. Partial or intermittent reinforcement means that, when an animal or person makes a correct response, sometimes a reward is given and sometimes it is withheld. Partial reinforcement can follow a definite pattern, or sometimes it is random and unpredictable. For example, every third time your dog does a trick, you give him a dog biscuit. Or, occasionally you give your dog a biscuit for doing a trick if you happen to be in the right mood that day.

Some experimental evidence suggests that both people and animals perform faster and for longer periods of time when given intermittent reinforcement rather than complete reinforcement. If a person is always rewarded, the person may begin to take the reward for granted. Intermittent rewards often increase the individual’s motivation to try harder and, therefore, receive more frequent rewards in the future.

A secondary reinforcement is a reward that has been associated with something that satisfies the actual need. It becomes the reward in a round-about way. The secondary reinforcement is not a direct reward but is a stepping-stone to help you get what you want. Money is a very common example of a secondary reinforcement. Money gives us the opportunity to acquire the things we need and desire. We work for money, which in turn satisfies our needs. Here is another example: when you were in elementary school your teacher gave you stars on your assignments for good work. When you received a certain number of stars, you would get a treat of some kind. The stars you received were secondary reinforcement.

One of the basic learning principles is that reinforcement of desired behaviour with reward is more effective than to punish undesired behaviour. A child is rewarded with love for good behaviour; a child is spanked for bad behaviour. A positive reinforcement does more to motivate good behaviour in the future than the fear of punishment does to make the person avoid negative behaviour. Therefore, reward is usually a more significant influence in shaping or changing one’s behaviour.

Mild punishment might be useful in some circumstances if it cautions people to be more careful about behaviour that could be potentially dangerous. However, the fear and anxiety generated by punishment usually hinders the learning process. Punishment stops undesirable behaviour, but the behaviour may reappear if the punishment ceases. Punishment is not a permanent solution for improving behaviour.

Punishment tells the individual what not to do; it does not indicate what the person should do. Punishment merely says “no”. Suppose you are learning a new skill that you have never seen before. You are handed a strange piece of equipment. You move your hand one way and you are punished. You try another movement and are punished again. You try a third way and receive more punishment. Have you learned the skill? No! But you have probably picked up a great sense of fear. Punishment may make a person or animal so fearful that he or she makes even more mistakes than usual. Punishment may lead to behaviour that is less predictable than behaviour that comes from rewarding desirable responses. Anxiety interferes with learning.