From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpositive/negative reinforcementpositive/negative reinforcementpositive reinforcement is when you give someone praise or rewards for their behaviour or work, so they want to continue doing well. Negative reinforcement is when you give someone punishments or criticism when their behaviour or work is bad, so that they want to improve to avoid punishments again We need to give students plenty of positive reinforcement. → reinforcement
Examples from the Corpus
positive/negative reinforcement• What are the sources of negative and positive reinforcement people might expect from organizational arrangements? 4.• This is known as positive reinforcement.• This, however, would not be positive so much as negative reinforcement, ie it was nice when the pressure stopped.• The general principle on which response-cost is based, is referred to by psychologists as negative reinforcement.• However, because reinforcement is derived from the termination of noxious events, it is referred to as negative reinforcement.• Teachers are not the only ones who may give positive reinforcement.• So positive reinforcement is anything that happens soon after the behaviour in question that is welcomed by the recipient.• Sometimes positive reinforcement does not require words. 