Quote:
Quote by: Fonceai  @brien
Excluding my own methods, I was thinking about the use of only positive reinforcement.
If you consider reinforcement on a scale, say from -10 to +10, with +10 being the most positive, then isn't a 0 just as bad as a -10?
Subsequently, won't you have to bombard the child with positive praise and reinforcement on a consistent basis so that the lack of it bears punishment?
Or even worse... being used to constant positive stimulus means the child will become dependent on it? |
Not quite Fonce. Positve reinforcement merely gives the subject a choice that is rewarded rather than punished. Given the choice, animals seem to adapt to reward better than they do punishment. This is the difference between corporal punishment and positive reinforcement.
Edit to add: I don't think children become dependent upon positve reinforcement rewards. For instance, in tolilet training, rewarding the child works until they understand that not messing their pants is the
reward they eventually obtain through the training. Yet in the beginning of the training, it is best to reward them after a succesful event to initially
"train" them. These immediate rewards aren't needed after the use of the toilet, because no messy pants becomes the actual reward of using the toilet. Children don't understand this at first, which is why we use an immediate reward during training rather than punishment.