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Centre for Psychology

Positive Reinforcement: A Self-Instructional Exercise

Concept Definition: Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is one of the key concepts in behavior analysis, a field within psychology. Positive reinforcers are something like rewards, or things we will generally work to get. However, the definition of a positive reinforcement is more precise than that of reward. Specifically, we can say that positive reinforcement has occurred when three conditions have been met:

  • A consequence is presented dependent on a behavior.
  • The behavior becomes more likely to occur.
  • The behavior becomes more likely to occur because and only because the consequence is presented dependent on the behavior.
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Updated Thursday, 15-Apr-2010 15:02:27 MDT