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From: rfb@h.cs.cmu.edu (Rick Busdiecker)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: re: Positive Reinforcement
Message-ID: <286@h.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 28-Dec-85 20:14:12 EST
Article-I.D.: h.286
Posted: Sat Dec 28 20:14:12 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Dec-85 20:20:47 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 28

> Just an open question here to all who are familiar with developmental
> psychology. Once the positive reinforcement is taken away (certainly
> you aren't going to lavish praise on your child EVERY time he doesn't
> defacate on the carpet?), doesn't the behaviour diminish? It would seem
> to me that positive reinforcement would teach the child to do a
> certain thing EXPECTING to be praised for it. Once the praise disappears,
> the child would then have no reason to continue behaving that way.

You're right.  There are similar problems with any form of conditioning.
The conditioned behavior is extinguished.  Rather than suddenly stopping the
praise, you switch from continuous reinforcement to intermittant
reinforcement.  I forget which conditioning schedule is the most effective,
but I think it's a random variable interval.  Basically, you continuously
praise the child until you get the conditioned behavior (not defecating on
the carpet) and then switch to occasional random-interval praise.  Research,
not just peoples gut feelings, has shown this to be a very effective method
to modify behavior.

Research also indicates that punishment is rather ineffective at
extinguishing an undesireable behavior.  It does suppress the behavior, but
not eliminate it.  For example, if two kids find that arguing over toys when
Mom or Dad is around gets their toys thrown away, they will probably
decrease the amount of arguing of toys they do ... when Mom or Dad is
around.

My wife tells me that the particular example of throwing away a child's
belongings does in fact teach a long term habit, but probably not one which
you would like to establish in your childre.  The habit is stealing.