Primary Reinforcers: A Summary And Analysis

A behaviourist perspective suggests that all behaviour is observable, objective and learnt from experience. It is believed that behaviour can be learnt and reinforced through operant conditioning and unconscious physical response can be learnt through classical conditioning.

Negative reinforcers, he claimed, are when a child chooses certain behaviour in order to avoid a punishment. An example of negative reinforcement is when a child is allowed to skip a required chore if homework is finished by a certain time. A simple example of punishment is when a child is reprimanded or criticised for inappropriate behaviour.

B.F. Skinners theory of operant conditioning is probably the most commonly used theory in practice in early years settings. Skinner suggested that people draw conclusions based on the consequences of their behaviour when exploring the environment. He divided the consequences into three areas. The first area being positive reinforcers where people are likely to get something they desire if they repeat a certain behaviour. He suggested that this was the most effective way to encourage new learning. This can be seen in early years settings where by children are rewarded for good behaviour this lots of praise, attention, stickers or treats. This will help children to carry on showing good behaviour until such a time when it is learned. Second is negative reinforcers which are used to stop something from happening but the behaviour is also likely to repeated. Just like when a child is going down a slide but doesn’t like going fast so they use their hands on the sides to slow themselves down. The third is punishers, which is a behaviour that you learn to stop doing e.g. if you receive a shock from an electric fence then you learn to stay away from it.

Give a school-based example of two of the following: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, or extinction.

Positive reinforcers- Likely to repeat their behaviour when they get something they desire. He suggested this was the most effective way of encouraging new learning. Positive reinforcers for children include gaining adult attention, praise, stickers, sweets and treats.

There are different types of positive reinforcements. Primary reinforcement is when a reward strengths a behavior by itself, you work because of the payment. Secondary reinforcement is when something strengthens a behavior because it leads to a primary reinforce, you work to achieve your goal of getting a promotion, so you get there one step at a time.

Positive Reinforcer: a stimulus (event, activity, condition) that increases the frequency of a response that follows (immediately) while positive reinforcement is when a consequence strengthens the behavior that it follows.

2. Negative reinforcements – this also makes children repeat behaviour but in different ways e.g.: If a child does well in an exam therefore they don’t have to do their chores.

the reinforcer takes place in a reinforcement history that goes all the way back to the

Operant conditioning comes with four types of consequences: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive and negative reinforcement has shown to increase associated behaviors while positive and negative punishment has shown to decrease associated behaviors. For example, positive reinforcement could be giving an autistic child candy when they are taught new things. Negative reinforcement could be placing a rat in a box to try and teach it to press the bar to release food but instead sends an electric shock. As for positive punishment, we could use the same rat and after repeated shocks he understand that when he presses the bar he will get shocked. For negative punishment, if the rat continues to press the bar his food will disappear. Non-associative learning changes the size of responses to a single stimulus rather than form a connection between stimuli. Non-associative learning is split into two subcategories: habituation and sensitization. Habituation lessens our reactions to repeated experiences while sensitization enlarges our reactions to a range of stimuli following exposure to one strong

Chapter nine explained in great details what primary and secondary reinforcers are, I have to admit that before reading this chapter I was not aware of what primary and secondary reinforcers were. Since I am a runner I have to say that an ice cold bottle of water can be a pretty cool primary reinforcer after a long run and it can be also for students after the physical activity class. A secondary reinforcer can be a to get to wear technical fabric shirt (nylon, polyester or lycra) for the gym uniforms instead of cotton shirts which get wet with sweat and stays wet. Most adults from time to time like to receive some type of concrete reinforcers and children are not the exception. I believe that once in a while using concrete reinforcers in the

Primary reinforcers does not dependent on learning experiences (Chance 2014, p.138). Since they are not a product of learning, they are called unconditional reinforcers (Chance 2014, p. 138). Primary reinforcers are food or sleep. For example, when I am hunger, I eat. Secondary reinforcers works with the primary reinforcers. However, secondary reinfocers are learned experiences (Chance 2014, p.139). They are called conditional reinforcers such consists of every day praise. For instance, when a person teaches their dogs to sit, they reward them with a treat each time they sit. Generalized reinforcers focus on many reinforces and are paired with many other reinforcers (Chance 2014, p. 140). Money is primary reinforcers that can be traded

The second form of associative learning is operant conditioning whereby certain behaviours that are exhibited become strengthened or weakened by either a rewards which is a positive reinforcement or punishment which is a negative reinforcement (Lord 1997).

One of the simplest and most commonly-used methods of conceptualizing learning is that of reinforcement theory (Noe 2010: 142). Every time a parent promises a child a toy for being good during a grocery store trip or threatens a teen with being grounded for bad grades, he or she is using reinforcement theory. Reinforcement theory is based upon the assumption that people want to experience as much pleasure as possible and avoid pain. Thus, businesses offer workers bonuses for good work, and issue reprimands (such as docking pay or denying a promotion) for poor behavior.

     There are two forms of reinforcement: positive and negative reinforcement. When an event occurs producing a positive effect, it is considered positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a stimulus increasing the likelihood of a positive effect. An example of this would be to take two aspirins to remove the pain from a headache.