Bite-Size Behavior Analysis: Behavior Analytic Definitions of Reinforcement & Punishment
Presented by Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
What in the world is negative reinforcement? How does the term "positive punishment" make any sense? Anlara Hoskins, Co-Founder of Candid Contingencies LLC, discusses the behavior analytic definitions of reinforcement and punishment and how they are different than what you might know them to be in your daily life. The labels "positive" and "negative" are explained and examples of all four different behavior change procedures are discussed. In this free 0.5 credit PDU, you will learn how to recognize these different procedures in your clinical work AND in your daily life. Check out candidcontingencies.org/rbt-pdu for guided notes and an accompanying YouTube video in which we further break down the content in this PDU (youtube.com/@CandidContingencies)
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About this course
Break down the behavior analytic definitions of reinforcement and punishment, and learn why we even bother going the extra step of labeling them "positive" or "negative."
From the talk
What was covered
Anlara Hoskins breaks down positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, with clinic and daily life examples for RBTs.
- Check one thing first: did the behavior go up or down over time, not during the session in front of you.
- Positive and negative only tell you whether something was added or removed, never whether the person liked it.
- If the rate never moves, what you handed over was a reward and not a reinforcer.
- Run preference assessments so the thing you deliver has good odds of actually working.
- Log the sequence you saw: what came before, what your client did, and what happened right after.
- When a plan pushes behavior the wrong way, report it fast so your analyst can adjust the protocol.
Reinforcement and Punishment Are Labels for What Happened Next
You hear the word reinforcement (a consequence that increases behavior) all day at work. Punishment (a consequence that decreases behavior) is the one people flinch at. Hoskins says the word just got a bad name early on. The label stuck, and now staff say they would never use it. The meaning is much plainer than the feeling it carries.
In behavior analysis (the science of behavior change), the split is simple. Reinforcement means the behavior went up. Punishment means the behavior went down. That is the whole test. We are not punishing a person. We are punishing a behavior. Hoskins repeats that line on purpose. It strips the cruelty out of a word that never meant cruelty.
She pairs it with an ethics point right away. You do not plan a punishment step until reinforcement options are used up. Yet punishment keeps happening with no one planning it. Hot stoves and skinned knees do that work on their own. So your job is not to avoid the word. Your job is to see it, name it, and report it.
reinforcement is increasing behavior and punishment is decreasing behavior so we're not punishing the person we're punishing the behavior
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Positive and Negative Mean Added or Removed, Not Good or Bad
Here is where most people get lost. Positive does not mean good. Negative does not mean bad. The two words point at one thing only. Was something added to the person's world, or was something taken away? Liking has nothing to do with that label.
Hoskins asks her trainees why we bother with the extra word at all. Her answer is practical. It lets two analysts name the type of consequence in one breath. You can say what changed and which way behavior moved. Your protocol may shorten it to Sr+ or Sr-. The S is the stimulus (any thing in the person's world). The R says that stimulus worked and behavior went up. The plus or minus says added or removed.
So two questions run through every example in this talk. Did the person like the outcome? And did you add or take away to get there? Liking tells you reinforcement or punishment. Adding or removing tells you positive or negative.
it's only referring to whether something was added to the environment or whether something was removed
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Positive Reinforcement: Add Something the Learner Likes
Start with a behavior you want more of. You add something right after it happens. For that to work, the thing you add has to be liked. Hoskins puts the question to the room: should that consequence be preferred or aversive (something the person does not like)? Preferred. Nobody signs up again for an ending they hated.
Her clinical example is one you have run a hundred times. A client has a match to sample program (pick the card that matches). You prompt, they match the shapes, you hand over a token (a chip they trade later) and say good job. Fill in the chart. Target behavior: correct responding. Consequence: the token, which you added. They like it, because tokens buy things they want. Correct responding climbs over the weeks.
This is also why we run a preference assessment (a check of what they like). You want good odds that what you hand over actually lands well. Guess wrong and you burn trials while the graph stays flat.
positive reinforcement is I got something good for doing this. I liked that outcome, so I'm going to keep doing that.
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Reinforcer or Reward? The Title Has to Be Earned
This is the line worth taking back to your team. A consequence only counts as reinforcement if behavior goes up later. It does nothing to the response (one single instance of behavior) in front of you. It works on the rate over time. If the rate never moves, what you handed over was not a reinforcer (the thing that made behavior grow).
Hoskins tests the idea on herself. She likes Oreos. She will not work for an Oreo. Hand her one and nothing about her rate changes, so it is just a reward. She points at the class pizza party too. If you did not care about pizza, your behavior in class did not shift. The pizza was still nice. It just was not doing any work.
The same rule runs in the other direction. A consequence only earns the name punisher (the thing that made behavior drop) if the rate falls. If it does not fall, the consequence was neutral. It gets no title at all.
a reinforcer is a title that something has to earn.
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Negative Reinforcement: The Seat Belt Alarm and the Screaming Client
Adding is not the only way to push a behavior up. Work backward again. You want more of a behavior, and this time you remove something after it. It has to be something the person dislikes. Take away a thing they love and they will not do it again.
Hoskins uses your own car. You sit down and the alarm starts nagging. You click the belt and the noise stops. Keep clicking that belt to kill the alarm and your rate is going up. The carmaker built a behavior plan into your dashboard.
The clinic version is rarely a plan. A client screams every time one other kid walks into the room. That kid does not like loud noise, so the kid leaves. Screaming climbs week after week. Fill in the chart: target behavior is screaming, and what changed is that the peer was removed. Your client liked that outcome, so screaming grows. Nobody wrote this protocol. The room wrote it, and your client figured it out.
that is negative reinforcement if i continue to engage in clicking in my seat belt so that i don't have to hear that annoying alarm anymore
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Negative Punishment: Losing Something You Wanted
Now flip it. You take something away again, but this time the person wanted it. They lose access to something preferred. Behavior goes down. That is negative punishment.
Her first example is an adult one. You make a new friend and the talks come easy. One day you bring up a topic and your friend shuts down and ends the hangout. That sits badly with you. The next time you meet, you leave that topic alone. Maybe it is worth opening later, once you know each other better. For now, one behavior dropped because you lost time you enjoyed.
The home example lands closer to work. You are leaving a session while your client eats. A parent says the TV goes off if food hits the floor again. Food hits the floor. The TV goes off. All week after that, the food stays on the plate. Food throwing dropped because something loved went away. The TV mattered more than the throwing did.
you're going to be doing that less which means that you're decreasing behavior over time which means that this was negative punishment
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Positive Punishment: Why the Name Sounds Like an Oxymoron
This is the box that sounds broken. How can punishment be positive? Go back to the two questions. Positive means something was added. Punishment means behavior went down. Add something they hate and they do it less.
Picture a client running outside. You say walk, and the words do nothing. They keep running, fall, and skin a knee. The next time you go out, they walk. Something was added, and it hurt. Behavior dropped. That is positive punishment. You still follow your first aid and documentation steps. The care and the analysis are two separate jobs.
The stove is the same story from your own childhood. Your parents told you it was hot. Telling you changed nothing. Touching it did. Hoskins is blunt about the clinical side of this box. You will rarely, if ever, see a punishment step written into a client's plan. It is a last resort, used to get a client safe. The analyst fades it out again as fast as they can. Broken rapport and emotional fallout are real costs.
You decrease behavior over time because you touched it and it hurts.
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
When Behavior Moves the Wrong Way, Tell Your BCBA
Hoskins closes with a case that turns inside out. A client is aggressive and it is dangerous. Reinforcement options are exhausted, so the team starts a timeout (a short break from fun). Your BCBA (the analyst who writes the plan) expects missing play to be aversive, so aggression should drop. It goes up instead. This client hates play and loves being alone.
Read the chart again. Something was removed. The outcome was good for the client. Behavior went up. The team wrote negative punishment, and what the client is getting is negative reinforcement. Nothing here is a mystery. The data said so, and the plan has to change.
The screaming client is the same lesson from the other side. As the RBT (the tech who runs sessions), you can hand over the sequence you saw. Peer walks in, client screams, peer leaves, and the rate keeps climbing. That is enough to trigger a functional behavior assessment (a look at why behavior happens). It can also point toward a replacement behavior (a safe way to ask). Your read of the room is some of the best information your analyst will ever get.
if things do not look the way that you would expect them to, now that you have a more robust understanding of all of the different types of behavior change procedures, tell your supervisor, tell your BCBA
From the talk — Anlara Hoskins, MA, BCBA, LBA
Common questions
What is the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment?▾
Negative reinforcement takes away something the person dislikes, and the behavior goes up. Punishment always means the behavior goes down. The seat belt alarm is the clean example: you click the belt, the noise stops, and you keep clicking it. The behavior grew, so it was reinforcement.
Does positive reinforcement mean the client liked it?▾
The word positive only means something was added. Whether the client liked it shows up in the data, not in the label. If they liked it, the behavior increases and you can call it reinforcement. If the behavior does not move, they did not like it enough.
What is the difference between a reward and a reinforcer?▾
A reinforcer is a title that has to be earned by the data. If the behavior increases over time, the thing you delivered was a reinforcer. If the rate stays flat, it was just a reward. Hoskins likes Oreos but will not work for one, so an Oreo is a reward for her.
Is punishment ever allowed in ABA?▾
Hoskins says it should be a last resort, used only after reinforcement options are exhausted. Analysts carry ethical duties to use the least restrictive treatment that works. When punishment is in a plan, it is there on a short term basis to get a client safe. The analyst should be fading it out as fast as possible.
Can positive punishment happen without anyone planning it?▾
Yes, and it happens constantly. A child runs, falls, skins a knee, and then walks the next time out. A kid touches a hot stove after being told not to, and never touches it again. Nobody programmed either one, but behavior still dropped.
What should an RBT do when a protocol is not working?▾
Tell your BCBA right away, and bring what you saw in order. Note what happened before the behavior, what the client did, and what changed after. Say whether the rate is going up or down. Analysts write plans with a direction in mind, and they need to know when the data go the other way.
About the speaker
Anlara Hoskins co-founded Candid Contingencies. She has worked heavily with RBTs and BCBA trainees in her career. This talk is part of the company's Bite-Size Behavior Analysis series, made to cover concepts in about 30 minutes. In this session she walks through all four behavior change procedures with guided notes, clinic examples, and everyday examples.
This summary was generated from the recording’s transcript. Quotes are taken word for word from the talk.
What you'll learn
- 11. Understand & recognize the differences between: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, & negative punishment (C.1, D.5) 2. Discuss clinical & practical examples of each 3. Be better equipped to implement your clinical protocols at work relative to each, as applicable
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