I have gotten very confused by the idea of drug reinforcement to avoid withdrawl symptons... I have interpreted the notes in the CC wrong and I was hoping to clear this up. So a positive /negative thing is either the addition or removal of something. Now, is this positive/negative referring to the affect felt by the individual? I.e. a positive thing would be the addition of a treat to a dog because the dog gets the addition of pleasure, or would it be positive because we are giving it something? Because then I think about spanking a child. Would this be positive because we are giving it the addition of pain, or positive because we are adding the act of spanking?

How does this all relate to Q20?

Thanks!

Hi Josh,


Excellent question, I'm going to take a stab at clarifying:

+ vs -: these simply refer to whether something is being added (positive) or removed (negative) in an attempt to change the behaviour/induce learning. If you are INTRODUCING spanking, yes, it would be positive since it is the addition.

reinforcement vs punishment: these terms refer to whether you are INCREASING the LIKELIHOOD of the behaviour (reinforcement) or DECREASING the likelihood of the behaviour (punishment).

Therefore, adding spanking would be a positive punishment - i.e. the addition of something (spanking) that has the effect of decreasing the likelihood of the behaviour (at least we hope!).


I recommend drawing out a 2 by 2 table, along the column headers write punishment vs reinforcement, on the row headers write positive vs negative. Then fill in the 4 boxes with the definitions and examples.

See if this helps in relation to Q20. Let me know if you have follow up questions.