Negative reinforcement vs punishment

These four terms trip up more people than almost anything else in behavior analysis, partly because everyday English uses "negative" to mean "bad". In behavior analysis, positive and negative mean added and removed, and reinforcement and punishment mean the behavior goes up or goes down in future.

The BACB's 6th edition outline has separate tasks for telling apart positive and negative reinforcement (B.4) and positive and negative punishment (B.5), and for designing and evaluating each kind of procedure (G.1 and G.17).

Two questions decide it

For any consequence, ask:

1. Was a stimulus added or removed straight after the behavior? Added → positive. Removed → negative.
2. Did the behavior occur more or less often in future under similar conditions? More → reinforcement. Less → punishment.

Put the two answers together and you have the term. Nothing else, including how pleasant the stimulus seems, what anyone intended or what the procedure is called, decides it.

The 2×2 table

Original examples:

• Positive reinforcement: A learner asks for help, and a teacher sits down to help. Asking for help increases.
• Negative reinforcement: A driver fastens their seatbelt and the beeping stops. Fastening the seatbelt quickly increases.
• Positive punishment: A child touches a hot pan and feels a burn. Touching the pan decreases.
• Negative punishment: A teenager breaks curfew and loses phone access for the weekend. Breaking curfew decreases.

The classic trap: negative reinforcement isn't punishment

Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior. In Iwata's (1987) review, the process typically involves the removal, reduction, postponement or prevention of stimulation, and these operations strengthen the response they follow.

The confusion comes from the word "negative" and from the fact that something unpleasant is involved. But in negative reinforcement, the unpleasant thing is taken away when the person behaves, so the behavior becomes more likely.

Two forms are worth knowing:

• Escape: the behavior ends something already happening, such as leaving a noisy room.
• Avoidance: the behavior stops something from starting, such as paying a bill early to avoid a late fee.

A common scenario: a student is given a hard task, screams, and the teacher removes the task. If screaming increases during tasks, that's negative reinforcement of screaming. It is not punishment of the student, and it is not punishment of the teacher.

Judge by the effect, not the intention

Reinforcement and punishment are defined by what happens to the behavior in future. That has two consequences:

• "Punishment" that doesn't reduce the behavior isn't punishment. If a reprimand is delivered every time a child calls out and calling out increases, the reprimand is working as positive reinforcement, whatever the adult meant.
• "Rewards" that don't increase the behavior aren't reinforcement. A sticker chart that doesn't change behavior is a procedure, not a reinforcer.

When a scenario tells you what happened next ("over the next week, the behavior increased"), use it.

Telling negative punishment from extinction

Both can reduce behavior, but they're different:

• Negative punishment removes a stimulus the person already had after the behavior, such as losing tokens or screen time.
• Extinction stops delivering the reinforcer that maintained the behavior. Nothing extra is taken away.

Ask: "Is something being taken away that they already had, or is the usual payoff just not arriving?"

Practise the distinction

1. Write the four lines for each scenario: before, behavior, after, future. Then apply the two questions.
2. Classify from the learner's side. Ask what changed for the person whose behavior you're analysing.
3. Look at the adults too. In many scenarios the adult's behavior is negatively reinforced, because the problem behavior stops when they give in. Questions may ask about either person.

The lessons on B.4: positive vs negative reinforcement and B.5: positive vs negative punishment cover both in depth.

FAQ

Is negative reinforcement a type of punishment? No. Negative reinforcement increases behavior, by removing or preventing a stimulus. Punishment decreases behavior.

What does "negative" mean in behavior analysis? That a stimulus is removed, reduced or prevented after the behavior. It doesn't mean bad or unpleasant.

Is time-out positive or negative punishment? Time-out from positive reinforcement removes access to reinforcement after the behavior, so when it reduces the behavior, it's usually classed as negative punishment. The future effect on the behavior is still what confirms it.

How do I tell positive punishment from negative reinforcement in a scenario? Check the behavior's future. If it goes down after something is added, that's positive punishment. If it goes up after something is removed, that's negative reinforcement.

Sources

• BACB, BCBA Test Content Outline (6th ed.): https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/bcba-outline-6thEd (tasks B.4, B.5, G.1, G.17)
• Iwata, B. A. (1987). Negative reinforcement in applied behavior analysis: An emerging technology. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20(4), 361–378: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1286076/ (operations of negative reinforcement, escape and avoidance)