Punishment and Negative Reinforcement

Bird training in the Australasia Pavilion.

 Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonparis/

 

It is not suggested to use Positive Punishment or Negative Reinforcement when training, such as spraying a parrot with water or flick its beak as a way to modify behavior. Such techniques are more likely to cause escape, avoidance, aggression, apathy, generalized fear of the environment, or generalized reduction in behavior, and are not considered good training methods.

Negative Reinforcement is commonly used with parrots and involves removing something aversive from the environment that will increase behavior. For example, "A rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a bar and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the bar again, and again the shock stops. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is strengthened by the consequence of the stopping of the shock." the shock is removed (negative) to increase the behavior (reinforcement) of pressing the lever.

Both Positive Punishment and Negative Reinforcement are inherently linked producing similar intensities in undesirable consequences such as escape, avoidance, aggression, apathy, generalized fear of the environment, or generalized reduction in behavior. As in the example with the rat, the shock acts as a Positive Punisher while the removal of the shock acts as a Negative Reinforcer which is why the two contingencies are inherently linked. Negative Reinforcement cannot be used unless an aversive (the shock) was already applied. Both are un-encouraged in common trick-training programs.

It has been said that three out of the four contingencies are labeled as aversives, excluding Positive Reinforcement. Depending on the contingency and the level of severity of the contingency used, side-effects will increase with application. To list the order of which the severity of side-effects intensifies: Negative Punishment, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment. That is, when considering a training strategy to produce results with the least amount of aggression, apathy, escape/avoidance etc. the best choice is Negative Punishment while the worst is Positive Punishment.

As a rule it it easiest to identify a Positive Punisher and Negative Reinforcer by the response given by the subject.