These methods are used primarily by Special Educators to change inappropriate student behavior. Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement are two techniques used to strengthen behaviors. Shaping and chaining are used to teach new behaviors. Positive reinforcement is the presentation of a reinforcer that results in the strengthening of that response. Negative reinforcement strengthens a response through the removal of an aversive stimulus contingent upon that response.
Punishment is the presentation of an aversive stimulus.
Extinction occurs when the reinforcement maintaining a response is removed there by causing a reduction in the frequency of the response. A response-cost system involves the removal of reinforcement contingent on a particular behavior. Time-out is the removal of the learner, for a limited amount of time, from the circumstances reinforcing the undesired behavior. Shaping is the reinforcement of successive approximations to a goal behavior. A reinforcer is presented contingent upon desired behavior.