Overcoming Misunderstanding about the Concept of Negative Reinforcement

Abstract

Negative reinforcement is a misunderstood concept. This article describes a quiz that helps students ascertain whether they understand the concept. Six remedies for alleviating their misunderstanding are also described. The first three remedies pertain to teaching the concept of negative reinforcement. The remaining remedies alert students to the problems associated with the connotative meaning of the word negative and to the relative paucity of literature citations and textbook coverage of negative reinforcement.