ABA Exam CoachLessons · G. Behavior-Change Procedures
G.1 · Positive and negative reinforcement procedures
Here's a word that trips up a lot of people: "negative." In behavior analysis, negative reinforcement isn't punishment and it isn't "bad." It's one of the most useful tools you have. In the next few minutes we'll go through how to design positive and negative reinforcement procedures and how to evaluate them.
Key takeaway
Reinforcement is defined by what it does: future responding increases. Positive means a stimulus is added, and negative means a stimulus is removed, reduced, postponed, or prevented. Escape ends a stimulus that's already present, and avoidance prevents or delays one. To check whether something really is a reinforcer, look at the data, not at what you expected it to do.
Reinforcement is defined by what it does: future responding increases. Positive means a stimulus is added, and negative means a stimulus is removed, reduced, postponed, or prevented. Escape ends a stimulus that's already present, and avoidance prevents or delays one. To check whether something really is a reinforcer, look at the data, not at what you expected it to do.
Members get the full lesson video, notes and a 5-question test
The video walks through the idea, worked examples, the trap people fall into and an exam-style question. The notes and the checkpoint come with it, and your results feed your Where to focus plan.