The light was already present before you pressed the switch to turn it off and once you pressed the switch the light was gone. By turning off the light you are removing it or “subtracting” it. Everyday Examples of Negative ReinforcementĮxample One: Turning off a light at night time (Iwata & Smith, 2007).įor arguments sake we’ll say you want the light off at night so you can sleep. When you see the term negative used with reinforcement then think of something being subtracted.Ĭonsider someone taking a shower to remove a bad smell you could say taking the shower led to the subtraction of the bad smell or said another way, taking the shower was negatively reinforced by the removal (subtraction) of the bad smell. When you see a negative symbol in math then it means subtraction. What’s the “Negative” in Negative Reinforcement?Ī good way to remember the meaning of the “negative” in negative reinforcement is to think of it in relation to mathematics. Technically, for negative reinforcement to occur, the person must engage in the behaviour that created the favourable outcome more frequently in the future (Miltenberger, 2008). The stimulus could be anything, for example a person, a noise, a feeling, an emotion or an object.
The term "stimulus" would be used within Applied Behaviour Analysis to describe the "something" that is taken away or removed. Basically, when a person's behaviour leads to the removal of something that was unpleasant to that person then negative reinforcement is occuring.
Negative reinforcement occurs when something already present is removed (taken away) as a result of a person's behaviour, creating a favourable outcome for that person. Negative Reinforcement Negative reinforcement is "one of the most consistently misunderstood principles of behaviour." - Cooper, Heron and Heward (2007, p.255) What is Negative Reinforcement?
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