Thread by @sentientist

People, even very educated people, are very confused about behaviorist terms that deal with reinforcement and punishment-positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment- so here is a quick disambiguation- thread 🧵

1/4 Positive reinforcement is adding a reinforcing stimulus- like food, warmth or positive social appraisal ("good job")

2/4 Negative reinforcement is when an aversive stimulus is removed to reinforce a behavior- eg applying sunscreen or putting on your windshield wipers so you can see through them. Here aversive stimulus = not seeing through your window -> negatively reinforced to turn wipers on

3/4 Positive punishment is adding aversive stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior- often this is pain, like shocking or hitting someone or yelling at them

4/4 Negative punishment is removing a positive stimulus in order to decrease or stop a behavior- eg silent treatment (if you like it when someone talks to you), removing food or being grounded. "Time out" is a form of negative punishment (removing stimulation, toys, playtime)

ps
-"negative reinforcement" is often used interchangeably with "positive punishment" when they're very different
-These categories are not totally independent- if you take away someone's food you that's negative punishment but their hunger pangs could be positive punishment

This is right- and useful

https://twitter.com/KenSheck/status/1201327125304881152

Reinforcement and punishment are in the minds of the beholder. On Twitter many people are strong reinforced by arguments and insults. It's possibly negative reinforcement, you're distracting them from their day to day lives, which are likely punishing.

https://twitter.com/G_S_Bhogal/status/1196213214494810112

This Bot corrects people every time they say "negative reinforcement" and says "I think you mean positive punishment" even if they're using it the right way 😂twitter.com/PosPunishBot