Classical conditioning focuses on the involuntary response of the learner following a stimulus. Skinner determined that reinforcement following a response would alter the operant, or response, by encouraging correct behavior or discouraging incorrect behavior. Types of reinforcement include positive and negative to strengthen a response, and punishment, extinction, response cost, and timeout to weaken a response. An example of positive reinforcement would be praise, a reward, or a gift after displaying appropriate behavior. An example of negative reinforcement would a child finally doing his homework just to stop his parents from nagging.
Punishment is used to weaken a response, or decrease an inappropriate behavior.
It is what most of us are familiar with. Examples include taking away a favorite toy when a child is acting up or grounding a teenager for coming home past curfew. Maintenance of the newly acquired behavior is an important part of the operant conditioning theory. Methods of maintenance include a ratio schedule of reinforcement and an interval schedule of reinforcement. A ratio schedule relies on the number of times the appropriate response is made after the stimulus is delivered.