BF Skinner is the father of operant conditioning. As an undergrad at Harvard, he invented the Operant Conditioning Chamber, now referred to as the Skinner Box.
The purpose of the Skinner Box was to isolate the four variables of behavioral modification, to see which variables were most responsible for changes for different behaviors.
These four variables are the root of all behavior modification:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment
Seems simple, but it isn’t. We must first parse the jargon. In operant conditioning, positive means add to, and negative means to take away. It has nothing to do with “good” or “bad”. It’s math - addition and subtraction.
Reinforcement is used to encourage the behavior you want, and Punishment is used to discourage the behavior you want.
Got it? Probably not. Sure, the positive reinforcement is easy:
Give a dog a treat for sitting on command.
Buy a toy for your kid for being a good helper.
Praise an employee for a job well done.
But if I asked for a list of negative reinforcements and negative punishments, you might struggle. Google won’t help you either. Many supposed experts mislabel negative reinforcements and negative punishments.
In the article, “What is Negative Punishment (Examples and Effectiveness)”, the author states that “Charging a fee to stop people from paying their bills late” is a negative punishment. Only it isn’t.
Charging a fee is adding a stimulus to punish the behavior - a positive punishment, not a negative punishment. Yet this article is one of the highest ranked results in google when you search for “negative punishment examples”.
Actual examples of negative punishment include:
Not petting or giving attention to your dog when they’re jumping on you.
Taking away the phone when your daughter doesn’t do her chores.
No chocolate cookie if you don’t get your 10,000 steps in for the day.
The same is true when you search for “examples of negative reinforcement”. One of the highest ranked articles, titled Examples of Negative Reinforcement says that honking your horn at a driver sitting at a green light is an example of negative reinforcement.
It’s not. Honking your horn is adding (positive) a stimulus to the environment to change an unwanted behavior (punishment). In the attempt to show you a negative reinforcement, they gave you the exact opposite: a positive punishment!
Actual examples of negative reinforcement:
Lift a curfew when your daughter keeps her room clean.
Cancel summer school when you son brings his grades up.
Remove mandatory daily meetings when your sales team increases closing rates
Positive punishment is also tough to understand. How do you add an unwanted stimulus that can only be removed through a certain, desired behavior?
The annoying ding will continue into you fasten your seat belt
You’ll also have to do the dishes if you don’t get the trash out on time.
You pay a late fee if you miss a bill.
Operant conditioning is powerful, but confusing. First, you must label it properly. Second, you must know how and when to apply which type of behavior modification. Third, the specific stimulus matter. How do we make it useful? Here’s how.
Let’s say your unwanted behavior is your screen time is interfering with your sleep time. You know you should put the phone down at least a half hour before bed time, but you can’t. Let’s consider how we can use each quadrant of operant conditioning:
If these worked in harmony, compliance means a slightly longer bed time while you enjoy your favorite cup of tea. If you don’t comply, you’re annoyed while on the phone, and you’re not as comfortable after putting the phone down to go to bed.
Problems you may run into:
You can opt out at any time. Since you’re not a rat in a box with a lab tech runs the show, you can simply decide to turn off the annoying music while you stay on your phone.
The tea might be problematic. The goal of reduced screen time is to increase sleep time. If you now have to get up in the middle of the night to pee, your sleep can still end up disturbed.
Lifting your bed time might be problematic. If your body has a certain window of time that’s optimal for sleeping, your reinforcer might run counter to you ultimate aim: better sleep.
The lumpy pillow might be problematic.
For the same reasons as the extended curfew and the tea.
Welcome to the real world, where change is tough! I developed my Attempt, Observe, Adjust approach specifically for this reason.