Editing Reinforcement (section)

== Applications ==

Reinforcement and punishment are ubiquitous in human social interactions, and a great many applications of operant principles have been suggested and implemented. Following are a few examples.

===Addiction and dependence===

Positive and negative reinforcement play central roles in the development and maintenance of [[addiction]] and [[drug dependence]]. An addictive drug is [[reward system|intrinsically rewarding]]; that is, it functions as [[#Primary reinforcers|a primary positive reinforcer]] of drug use. The brain's reward system assigns it [[incentive salience]] (i.e., it is "wanted" or "desired"),<ref name="Reinforcement in addiction">{{cite book | vauthors = Edwards S | title = Neuroscience for Addiction Medicine: From Prevention to Rehabilitation - Constructs and Drugs | chapter = Reinforcement principles for addiction medicine; from recreational drug use to psychiatric disorder | series = Progress in Brain Research | volume = 223 | pages = 63–76 | year = 2016 | pmid = 26806771 | doi = 10.1016/bs.pbr.2015.07.005 | quote = Abused substances (ranging from alcohol to psychostimulants) are initially ingested at regular occasions according to their positive reinforcing properties. Importantly, repeated exposure to rewarding substances sets off a chain of secondary reinforcing events, whereby cues and contexts associated with drug use may themselves become reinforcing and thereby contribute to the continued use and possible abuse of the substance(s) of choice.&nbsp;...<br />An important dimension of reinforcement highly relevant to the addiction process (and particularly relapse) is secondary reinforcement (Stewart, 1992). Secondary reinforcers (in many cases also considered conditioned reinforcers) likely drive the majority of reinforcement processes in humans. In the specific case of drug [addiction], cues and contexts that are intimately and repeatedly associated with drug use will often themselves become reinforcing&nbsp;... A fundamental piece of Robinson and Berridge's incentive-sensitization theory of addiction posits that the incentive value or attractive nature of such secondary reinforcement processes, in addition to the primary reinforcers themselves, may persist and even become sensitized over time in league with the development of drug addiction (Robinson and Berridge, 1993).&nbsp;...<br />Negative reinforcement is a special condition associated with a strengthening of behavioral responses that terminate some ongoing (presumably aversive) stimulus. In this case we can define a negative reinforcer as a motivational stimulus that strengthens such an “escape” response. Historically, in relation to drug addiction, this phenomenon has been consistently observed in humans whereby drugs of abuse are self-administered to quench a motivational need in the state of withdrawal (Wikler, 1952). | isbn = 9780444635457 }}</ref><ref name="Incentive salience and motivation review">{{cite journal | vauthors = Berridge KC | title = From prediction error to incentive salience: mesolimbic computation of reward motivation | journal = The European Journal of Neuroscience | volume = 35 | issue = 7 | pages = 1124–43 | date = April 2012 | pmid = 22487042 | pmc = 3325516 | doi = 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.07990.x | quote = When a Pavlovian CS+ is attributed with incentive salience it not only triggers ‘wanting' for its UCS, but often the cue itself becomes highly attractive – even to an irrational degree. This cue attraction is another signature feature of incentive salience. The CS becomes hard not to look at (Wiers & Stacy, 2006; Hickey et al., 2010a; Piech et al., 2010; Anderson et al., 2011). The CS even takes on some incentive properties similar to its UCS. An attractive CS often elicits behavioral motivated approach, and sometimes an individual may even attempt to ‘consume' the CS somewhat as its UCS (e.g., eat, drink, smoke, have sex with, take as drug). ‘Wanting' of a CS can turn also turn the formerly neutral stimulus into an instrumental conditioned reinforcer, so that an individual will work to obtain the cue (however, there exist alternative psychological mechanisms for conditioned reinforcement too). }}</ref><ref name="Pleasure system - incentive sensitization">{{cite journal | vauthors = Berridge KC, Kringelbach ML | title = Pleasure systems in the brain | journal = Neuron | volume = 86 | issue = 3 | pages = 646–64 | date = May 2015 | pmid = 25950633 | pmc = 4425246 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018 | quote = An important goal in future for addiction neuroscience is to understand how intense motivation becomes narrowly focused on a particular target. Addiction has been suggested to be partly due to excessive incentive salience produced by sensitized or hyper-reactive dopamine systems that produce intense ‘wanting' (Robinson and Berridge, 1993). But why one target becomes more ‘wanted' than all others has not been fully explained. In addicts or agonist-stimulated patients, the repetition of dopamine-stimulation of incentive salience becomes attributed to particular individualized pursuits, such as taking the addictive drug or the particular compulsions. In Pavlovian reward situations, some cues for reward become more ‘wanted' more than others as powerful motivational magnets, in ways that differ across individuals (Robinson et al., 2014b; Saunders and Robinson, 2013).&nbsp;... However, hedonic effects might well change over time. As a drug was taken repeatedly, mesolimbic dopaminergic sensitization could consequently occur in susceptible individuals to amplify ‘wanting' (Leyton and Vezina, 2013; Lodge and Grace, 2011; Wolf and Ferrario, 2010), even if opioid hedonic mechanisms underwent down-regulation due to continual drug stimulation, producing ‘liking' tolerance. Incentive-sensitization would produce addiction, by selectively magnifying cue-triggered ‘wanting' to take the drug again, and so powerfully cause motivation even if the drug became less pleasant (Robinson and Berridge, 1993). }}</ref> so as an addiction develops, deprivation of the drug leads to craving.  In addition, stimuli associated with drug use&nbsp;– e.g., the sight of a syringe, and the location of use&nbsp;– become associated with the intense reinforcement induced by the drug.<ref name="Reinforcement in addiction" /><ref name="Incentive salience and motivation review" /><ref name="Pleasure system - incentive sensitization" /> These previously neutral stimuli acquire several properties: their appearance can induce craving, and they can become [[#Secondary reinforcers|conditioned positive reinforcers]] of continued use.<ref name="Reinforcement in addiction" /><ref name="Incentive salience and motivation review" /><ref name="Pleasure system - incentive sensitization" /> Thus, if an addicted individual encounters one of these drug cues, a craving for the associated drug may reappear. For example, anti-drug agencies previously used posters with images of [[drug paraphernalia]] as an attempt to show the dangers of drug use. However, such posters are no longer used because of the effects of incentive salience in causing [[relapse]] upon sight of the stimuli illustrated in the posters.

In drug dependent individuals, negative reinforcement occurs when a drug is [[self-administration|self-administered]] in order to alleviate or "escape" the symptoms of [[physical dependence]] (e.g., [[tremor]]s and sweating) and/or [[psychological dependence]] (e.g., [[anhedonia]], restlessness, irritability, and anxiety) that arise during the state of [[drug withdrawal]].<ref name="Reinforcement in addiction" />

===Animal training===

{{main|Animal training}}
[[File:Chicken on a skateboard.JPG|right|thumb|A chicken riding a skateboard]]
Animal trainers and pet owners were applying the principles and practices of operant conditioning long before these ideas were named and studied, and animal training still provides one of the clearest and most convincing examples of operant control. Of the concepts and procedures described in this article, a few of the most salient are: availability of immediate reinforcement (e.g. the ever-present bag of dog yummies); contingency, assuring that reinforcement follows the desired behavior and not something else; the use of secondary reinforcement, as in sounding a clicker immediately after a desired response; shaping,  as in gradually getting a dog to jump higher and higher;  intermittent reinforcement,  reducing the frequency of those yummies to induce persistent behavior without satiation; chaining, where a complex behavior is gradually put together.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McGreevy PD, Boakes RA  |title=Carrots and sticks: principles of animal training |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-68691-4}}</ref>

=== Child behavior – parent management training ===

{{Main|Parent management training}}
Providing positive reinforcement for appropriate child behaviors is a major focus of parent management training. Typically, parents learn to reward appropriate behavior through social rewards (such as praise, smiles, and hugs) as well as concrete rewards (such as stickers or points towards a larger reward as part of an incentive system created collaboratively with the child).<ref name=Kazdin2010>Kazdin AE (2010). Problem-solving skills training and parent management training for oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QLzBv53CU2UC&q=Reinforcement Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents (2nd ed.)],'' 211–226. New York: Guilford Press.</ref> In addition, parents learn to select simple behaviors as an initial focus and reward each of the small steps that their child achieves towards reaching a larger goal (this concept is called "successive approximations").<ref name=Kazdin2010/><ref name=PMTO>Forgatch MS, Patterson GR (2010). Parent management training — Oregon model: An intervention for antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QLzBv53CU2UC&q=Reinforcement Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents (2nd ed.)],'' 159–78. New York: Guilford Press.</ref> They may also use indirect rewards such through [[progress chart]]s. Providing positive reinforcement in the classroom can be beneficial to student success. When applying positive reinforcement to students, it's crucial to make it individualized to that student's needs. This way, the student understands why they are receiving the praise, they can accept it, and eventually learn to continue the action that was earned by positive reinforcement. For example, using rewards or extra recess time might apply to some students more, whereas others might accept the enforcement by receiving stickers or check marks indicating praise.

===Economics===

{{main|Behavioral economics}}
{{further|Consumer demand tests (animals)}}
Both psychologists and economists have become interested in applying operant concepts and findings to the behavior of humans in the marketplace. An example
is the analysis of consumer demand, as indexed by the amount of a commodity that is purchased. In economics, the degree to which price influences consumption is called "the price elasticity of demand." Certain commodities are more elastic than others; for example, a change in price of certain foods may have a large effect on the amount bought, while gasoline and other essentials may be less affected by price changes. In terms of operant analysis, such effects may be interpreted in terms of motivations of consumers and the relative value of the commodities as reinforcers.<ref>Domjan, M. (2009). The Principles of Learning and Behavior. Wadsworth Publishing Company. 6th Edition. pages 244–249.</ref>

=== Gambling – variable ratio scheduling ===

{{Main|Gambling}}
As stated earlier in this article, a variable ratio schedule yields reinforcement after the emission of an unpredictable number of responses.  This schedule typically generates rapid, persistent responding. Slot machines pay off on a variable ratio schedule, and they produce just this sort of persistent lever-pulling behavior in gamblers.  Because the machines are programmed to pay out less money than they take in, the persistent slot-machine user invariably loses in the long run.  Slots machines, and thus variable ratio reinforcement, have often been blamed as a factor underlying gambling addiction.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lozano Bleda JH, Pérez Nieto MA | title = Impulsivity, intelligence, and discriminating reinforcement contingencies in a fixed-ratio 3 schedule | journal = The Spanish Journal of Psychology | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 922–9 | date = November 2012 | pmid = 23156902 | doi=10.5209/rev_sjop.2012.v15.n3.39384| s2cid = 144193503 }}</ref>

===Praise===

{{Main|Praise}}
The concept of praise as a means of behavioral reinforcement in humans is rooted in B.F. Skinner's model of operant conditioning. Through this lens, praise has been viewed as a means of positive reinforcement, wherein an observed behavior is made more likely to occur by contingently praising said behavior.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kazdin|first1=Alan|title=History of behavior modification: Experimental foundations of contemporary research|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofbehavio0000kazd|url-access=registration|date=1978|publisher=University Park Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=9780839112051}}</ref>  Hundreds of studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of praise in promoting positive behaviors, notably in the study of teacher and parent use of praise on child in promoting improved behavior and academic performance,<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Baker GL, Barnes HJ | title = Superior vena cava syndrome: etiology, diagnosis, and treatment | journal = American Journal of Critical Care | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 54–64 |pmid=1307879 | year = 1992 | doi = 10.4037/ajcc1992.1.1.54 }}</ref><ref name="Garland et al. 2008"/> but also in the study of work performance.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Crowell CR, Anderson DC, Abel DM, Sergio JP | title = Task clarification, performance feedback, and social praise: Procedures for improving the customer service of bank tellers | journal = Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis| volume = 21 | issue = 1 | pages = 65–71 | date = 1988 | pmid = 16795713 | pmc = 1286094 | doi = 10.1901/jaba.1988.21-65 }}</ref> Praise has also been demonstrated to reinforce positive behaviors in non-praised adjacent individuals (such as a classmate of the praise recipient) through vicarious reinforcement.<ref name="Kazdin, 1973">{{cite journal | vauthors = Goldman NC | title = Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the external auditory canal | journal =  Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery | volume = 106 | issue = 2 | pages = 214–5 |pmid=1310808| year = 1992 | doi = 10.1177/019459989210600211 | s2cid = 23782303 }}</ref> Praise may be more or less effective in changing behavior depending on its form, content and delivery. In order for praise to effect positive behavior change, it must be contingent on the positive behavior (i.e., only administered after the targeted behavior is enacted), must specify the particulars of the behavior that is to be reinforced, and must be delivered sincerely and credibly.<ref name="Brophy, 1981">{{cite journal|last1=Brophy|first1=Jere | name-list-style = vanc |title=On praising effectively|journal=The Elementary School Journal|date=1981|volume=81|issue=5|pages=269–278 |jstor=1001606|doi=10.1086/461229 |s2cid=144444174 }}</ref>

Acknowledging the effect of praise as a positive reinforcement strategy, numerous behavioral and cognitive behavioral interventions have incorporated the use of praise in their protocols.<ref name="Simonsen et al 2008">{{cite journal|last1=Simonsen|first1=Brandi|last2=Fairbanks|first2=Sarah|last3=Briesch|first3=Amy|last4=Myers|first4=Diane|last5=Sugai|first5=George | name-list-style = vanc |title=Evidence-based Practices in Classroom Management: Considerations for Research to Practice|journal=Education and Treatment of Children|date=2008|volume=31|issue=1|pages=351–380|doi=10.1353/etc.0.0007|s2cid=145087451}}</ref><ref name="Weisz & Kazdin, 2010">{{cite book|last1=Weisz|first1=John R.|last2=Kazdin|first2=Alan E. | name-list-style = vanc |title=Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents|date=2010|publisher=Guilford Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLzBv53CU2UC|isbn=9781606235256}}</ref> The strategic use of praise is recognized as an evidence-based practice in both classroom management<ref name="Simonsen et al 2008" /> and parenting training interventions,<ref name="Garland et al. 2008">{{cite journal | vauthors = Garland AF, Hawley KM, Brookman-Frazee L, Hurlburt MS | title = Identifying common elements of evidence-based psychosocial treatments for children's disruptive behavior problems | journal = Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | volume = 47 | issue = 5 | pages = 505–14 | date = May 2008 | pmid = 18356768 | doi = 10.1097/CHI.0b013e31816765c2 }}</ref> though praise is often subsumed in intervention research into a larger category of positive reinforcement, which includes strategies such as strategic attention and behavioral rewards.

===Traumatic bonding===

{{Main|Traumatic bonding}}
Traumatic bonding occurs as the result of ongoing [[cycle of abuse|cycles of abuse]] in which the intermittent reinforcement of reward and [[Punishment (psychology)|punishment]] creates powerful emotional bonds that are resistant to change.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Traumatic Bonding: The development of emotional attachments in battered women and other relationships of intermittent abuse|last1 = Dutton|date = 1981|journal = Victimology |last2 = Painter|issue = 7}}</ref><ref name="Sanderson2008">Chrissie Sanderson. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5vA42Opyx9cC&pg=PA84 Counselling Survivors of Domestic Abuse]''. Jessica Kingsley Publishers; 15 June 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-84642-811-1}}. p. 84.</ref>

The other source indicated that 
<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/traumatic-bonding| title = Traumatic Bonding {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}}</ref>
'The necessary conditions for traumatic bonding are that one person must dominate the other and that the level of abuse chronically spikes and then subsides. The relationship is characterized by periods of permissive, compassionate, and even affectionate behavior from the dominant person, punctuated by intermittent episodes of intense abuse. To maintain the upper hand, the victimizer manipulates the behavior of the victim and limits the victim's options so as to perpetuate the power imbalance. Any threat to the balance of dominance and submission may be met with an escalating cycle of punishment ranging from seething intimidation to intensely violent outbursts. The victimizer also isolates the victim from other sources of support, which reduces the likelihood of detection and intervention, impairs the victim's ability to receive countervailing self-referent feedback, and strengthens the sense of unilateral dependency&nbsp;... The traumatic effects of these abusive relationships may include the impairment of the victim's capacity for accurate self-appraisal, leading to a sense of personal inadequacy and a subordinate sense of dependence upon the dominating person. Victims also may encounter a variety of unpleasant social and legal consequences of their emotional and behavioral affiliation with someone who perpetrated aggressive acts, even if they themselves were the recipients of the aggression.

===Video games===

{{Main|Compulsion loop}}
Most video games are designed around some type of compulsion loop, adding a type of positive reinforcement through a variable rate schedule to keep the player playing the game, though this can also lead to [[video game addiction]].<ref>{{cite web | first = John | last = Hopson | name-list-style = vanc | url = https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/behavioral-game-design | title = Behavioral Game Design | work = [[Gamasutra]] | date = 27 April 2001 }}</ref>

{{Main|Loot box}}
As part of a trend in the [[video game monetization|monetization of video games]] in the 2010s, some games offered "loot boxes" as rewards or purchasable by real-world funds that offered a random selection of in-game items, distributed by rarity. The practice has been tied to the same methods that slot machines and other gambling devices dole out rewards, as it follows a variable rate schedule. While the general perception that loot boxes are a form of gambling, the practice is only classified as such in a few countries as gambling and otherwise legal. However, methods to use those items as virtual currency for online gambling or trading for real-world money has created a [[skin gambling]] market that is under legal evaluation.<ref name="eg pegi">{{cite web | url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-11-are-loot-boxes-gambling | title = Are loot boxes gambling? | first = Vic | last = Hood | name-list-style = vanc | date = October 12, 2017 | access-date = October 12, 2017 | work = [[Eurogamer]] }}</ref>