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Operant Conditioning
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Concept Version 13
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Reinforcement and Punishment

Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning

In the context of operant conditioning, whether you are reinforcing or punishing a behavior, "positive" always means you are adding a stimulus (not necessarily a good one), and "negative" always means you are removing a stimulus (not necessarily a bad one. See the blue text and yellow text above, which represent positive and negative, respectively. Similarly, reinforcement always means you are increasing (or maintaining) the level of a behavior, and punishment always means you are decreasing the level of a behavior. See the green and red backgrounds above, which represent reinforcement and punishment, respectively.

Source

    Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:

    "Original figure by Catherine McCarthy. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0."
    Catherine McCarthy CC BY-SA 3.0.

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