What is positive reinforcement and how to use it?

What causes certain behaviors to be repeated? How do we increase its frequency of appearance? Positive reinforcement has to do with all this, a procedure used especially in education and behavioral therapy that seeks to enhance desired behaviors.

But what else do we know about positive reinforcement? How is it used? What types of reinforcements exist? How is it different from punishment? If you want to know the answer to these and other questions, as well as discover possible reinforcements to apply in your daily life, keep reading!

What is positive reinforcement and how to use it?

Positive reinforcement is a widely used resource in behavioral therapy and education. This type of reinforcement includes all those elements that increase the probability of the appearance of a response.; That is, all those things that would help us consolidate a behavior and appear more frequently (they are usually appropriate and positive behaviors, such as, for example, sitting well at the table).

A key figure in this area is BF Skinner, an American psychologist famous for his behaviorist theory; He suggested that positive reinforcement is what allows certain patterns of behavior to be reinforced. According to him, Positive reinforcement is anything that helps us repeat a desired behavior.

Skinner systematically highlighted the characteristics of this type of learning procedure, and applied it to various areas (especially in education).

Positive reinforcement, furthermore, is a technique that is part of operant conditioning, a learning system based on the application of reinforcements and punishments in order to increase or reduce the probability of the appearance of certain behaviors. Through these types of procedures, the person creates an association between their way of behaving and their consequences.

Examples of positive reinforcements

What can be positive reinforcement? Virtually anything. They can be praise (verbal reinforcement), objects, gestures, gifts, prizes, words, food…

Depending on the nature and characteristics of positive reinforcement, it belongs to one group or another. That is to say, There are multiple types of positive reinforcement. Throughout the article we will learn what these types are.

How to use positive reinforcement

There are a series of premises that will make positive reinforcement more effective.and that have to do with how to use said procedure and how to choose the type of reinforcement:

Immediate: Ideally, positive reinforcement is applied immediately after the appearance of the desired behavior (that is, the one we want to increase).Consecutive: Positive reinforcement should appear just after the desired behavior, not before or during it.Quota: We should always apply positive reinforcement when the behavior we want to increase appears.Newspaper: We must extend this procedure over time so that the desired behavior is consolidated.Choice of reinforcement: we must choose reinforcements that are novel, diverse and that motivate the person.

On the other hand, when using positive reinforcement, we must also take into account the following, for it to be effective: We must specify precisely the behavior we intend to increase; In addition, we will control contingencies (or other reinforcements) that may be competing with ours.

Finally, we will prevent the person from becoming “satisfied” with the reinforcement (that is, preventing them from getting bored with it), and to do so we must control that the duration of the reinforcement is not excessive, estimating its optimal time.

Using positive reinforcement to change behavior

If we want to use positive reinforcement to modify someone’s behavior, we must come up with an implementation plan. That is, create a positive reinforcement program to structure the reinforcements. These types of programs consist of a plan that defines how we will encourage behavior. There are 5 basic programs:

Continuous: The behavior is reinforced after each occurrence.Of reason: Reinforcement is applied after a set number of occurrences (e.g., every other time).Interval: Positive reinforcement is given after a specific time (for example, after a week of good behavior).Of variable reason: the behavior is reinforced after a varying number of occurrences (e.g., after one occurrence, then after three more, then after two more).Variable interval: the behavior is reinforced after a variable time (e.g., after one minute, then after 30 minutes, then after 10 minutes).

Reinforcement and punishment

To understand more clearly what positive reinforcement is, we are also going to define what reinforcement and punishment consist of, antagonistic procedures.

Reinforcement, as we said, is any stimulus that increases the probability of the appearance of a behavior.; This can be positive (when the appearance of some element causes the behavior to increase) and negative (when the removal of some element causes the behavior to also increase).

An example of positive reinforcement would be praising a child every time he eats his entire breakfast; On the other hand, negative reinforcement would be to remove tasks that he does not like every time he finishes his homework. Both behaviors (praising and removing tasks), if repeated over time after the behaviors we want to promote, would increase the probability of the desired behaviors appearing (in this case, that the child eats all the breakfast and finishes all the homework).

For its part, Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement; It would be anything that reduces the probability of the appearance of those behaviors that we want to eliminate. If the punishment is positive, we talk about the appearance of certain elements (for example, putting a child facing the wall, giving a fight or lecture, etc.); On the other hand, in negative punishment something that the child wants is removed (for example, taking away TV time, prohibiting him from going out on the weekend, etc.).

Differences between procedures

Thus, the essential difference between “positive or negative” of both procedures is the appearance (positive) or withdrawal/disappearance (negative) of some element. On the other hand, What characterizes the reinforcement procedure is that it seeks to enhance desired behaviors; On the other hand, punishment seeks to eliminate unwanted behaviors.

Types of positive reinforcement

There are up to a total of sixteen types of positive reinforcement, grouped according to six criteria, according to the Behavior therapy manual by Vallejo (2012). Do you want to meet them?

1. According to its origin

Positive reinforcement, depending on its origin (reinforcing value), can be classified as:

Primary: has an innate value, for example, food.Secondary: They become reinforcers through learning, and are more specific.Widespread: they are reinforcers of multiple responses (for example, money, tokens from a token economy…).

2. According to the reinforcement process

According to this criterion, positive reinforcement can be of two types:

Extrinsic: the procedure is open and observable (for example, praise).Intrinsic: the procedure is covert (e.g., a thought).

3. According to the administrator

Depending on who administers positive reinforcement, it can be of two types:

External: someone administers the reinforcement to the person.Self-reinforcement: It is the person themselves who administers their reinforcement.

4. Depending on the receiver

Depending on the person receiving the reinforcement, the following are distinguished:

Straight: the person himself receives the reinforcer.Vicar: The person observes how another person receives the reinforcer.

5. According to nature

Depending on its nature, positive reinforcement can be of the following forms:

Material or tangible: has a physical entity (for example, a bicycle).Edible or manipulable: eaten or manipulated (for example, jelly beans).Social: interpersonal in nature, includes verbal and non-verbal language (for example, a hug).Of activity: behaviors that are pleasurable for the person (for example, going to the movies).Premack principle: when a low-frequency behavior increases its probability of occurrence when associated with another high-frequency one.

6. According to programming

Finally, according to the programming, we find the following types of reinforcements:

Natural: They have a high probability of appearing in the environment.Artificial: They apply under specific conditions.

Contexts to apply positive reinforcement

When used correctly, positive reinforcement can be very effective (Scott et al., 2017). This reinforcement can be applied in various settings where desired changes in behavior are desired.

At home– Parents can use it to encourage their children to engage in all types of behavior. For example, a parent might praise a child for brushing his teeth, getting ready for bed, or cleaning her room.At school: Teachers can also employ positive reinforcement to help students engage in desired behavior in the classroom. An example of positive reinforcement in the classroom would be giving him a sticker on his reward chart for turning in homework on time.In therapy settings: Therapists also use positive reinforcement to teach new behaviors and coping skills.

While different strategies can be used depending on the situation, some experts suggest that positive reinforcement should be used more frequently than negative reinforcement or punishment.

Educate through positive reinforcement

It is evident that the use of positive reinforcement offers very positive results in education; In addition, it is part of broader behavioral programs and treatments, such as ABA therapy (Applied Behavior Analysis), devised by clinical psychologist Ole Ivar Lovaas and especially indicated for children with autism.

As we said, positive reinforcement is also part of broader behavioral techniques or programs, such as differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors, differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors, etc. In all of them, positive reinforcement is used as another tool that allows reinforcing and enhancing the behaviors that you want to maintain (that is, those that are adequate or appropriate).

Furthermore, positive reinforcement is very appropriate, not only to maintain desired behaviors, but also to create (establish) behaviors that do not yet exist.

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