Some of the most common tools parents and teachers use for managing children’s behaviors are rewards and punishments. While these methods tend to lose effectiveness as a child ages, there are times ...

Another one of my pet peeves is the fact that many people – civilians and scientists alike – use the phrase “negative reinforcement” to mean “punishment.” The two are not at all the same; in fact, ...

Modern parenting treats punishment like it's borderline abusive. We’re told that timeouts and lost privileges are traumatic, ...

Researchers used a model of behavior to better understand the basis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They showed that when learning parameters for reinforcement and punishment are extremely ...

A "punisher" is defined as an event that follows a given response and reduces the future rate of that behavior. For example, if a child has their video game taken away for not completing their ...

Three years ago, Valli Fraser-Celin adopted a blonde husky mix puppy, whom she named Husk. Fraser-Celin soon started looking for ways to curb Husk’s “totally wild” behavior, she said, like stealing ...

Three years ago, Valli Fraser-Celin adopted a blond husky-mix puppy, whom she named Husk. Fraser-Celin soon started looking for ways to curb Husk’s “totally wild” behavior, she says, such as stealing ...