Rewards & Punishment: - John Holt

REWARDS & PUNISHMENT
"...the anxiety children feel at constantly

being tested, their fear of failure, punishment,
and disgrace,reduces their ability both to
perceive and to remember, and drives them
awayfrom the material being studied into
strategies for fooling teachers into thinking
they know what they really don't know."
- John Holt
COMPONENTS OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
Reinforcementis any event that strengthens or increases the
behavior it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers:
1. Positive reinforcersare favorable events or outcomes that
are presented after the behavior. In situations that reflect
positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened
by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.
2.Negative reinforcersinvolve the removal of an unfavorable
events or outcomes after the display of a behavior. In these
situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of
something considered unpleasant.
**In both of these cases of reinforcement, the

behaviorincreases.
Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an

adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the
behavior it follows. There are two kinds of punishment:
Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as
punishment by application, involves the presentation of an
unfavorable event or outcome in order to weaken the
response it follows.
Negative punishment, also known as punishment by
removal, occurs when an favorable event or outcome is
removed after a behavior occurs.
* In both of these cases of punishment, the
behaviordecreases.
...RESEARCHES AND STUDIES...
According to an article by Jay Belsky in Psychology Today

dated Sept 2008....
Their work involved 8/9- and 11/12year olds who were given the
opportunity to learn some basic tasks
by means of positive, rewarding
feedback or negative, "punishing"
feedback. Specifically, all children
were given a computer task which
required them to discover rules and
when they correctly inferred a rule, as
revealed by choices they made in the
task, a check--positive reward-appeared on the screen; but if their
choice indicated that they had not
correctly figured out the rule of the
task, then a cross--punishment-appeared on the screen. Repeated
running of the task showed that
performance improved substantially
more when the feedback was positive
in the case of the younger children,
telling them they did well when they
did, rather than negative, telling them
that they did poorly when they did.
Just the opposite proved true in the
Because thecognitivetasks central

to this research were administered
while the children and young adults
were in abrainscanning machine,
brain imaging revealed that brain
areas responsible for cognitive
control and located in the cerebral
cortex seemed to play a role in why
younger and older children learned so
differently. That is, these brain control
centers were more strongly activated
in the face of negative feedback in
the case of older children and adults,
but more strongly activated when
receiving positive feedback in the
case of younger children. It is almost
as if for the younger children positive
feedback registered more strongly,
whereas for the older children, just
the opposite proved true.
Why might this be so? If you think

about it for a moment, as the
investigators did, it becomes apparent
that information which stipulates that
you did something wrong is more
complicated than information
stipulating that you did something
well. So younger children may simply
have an easier time processing
simpler, positive, rewarding
information than negative feedback.
As the authors noted, "Learning from
mistakes is more complex than
carrying on in the same way as before.
You have to ask yourself what precisely
went wrong and how it was possible."
That is, it takes more analysis to figure
out that what was done is mistaken
than that it is correct.
What still remains unknown is exactly

what accounts for the change in brain
functioning and how it occurs. Do new
connections within or between brain
regions emerge during the transition to
adolescence? Dohormonesassociated with
puberty play a role? Like all good research,
this elegant work raises new questions at
the same time it reveals new things.
But the bottom line seems to be that we
now have a better idea why rewards work
better than punishment with preadolescent children. So if it is an
explanation you need for why you should
reward good behavior more than punish
bad behavior, at least with pre-adolescent
children, now you have one. The task that
still remains, of course, is regulating one's
own irritability, frustration and thus
behavior in the face of annoying child
behavior so that we can ignore it.
REWARDS
useful with animals and very young children
children need dependency to feel safe and to learn to behave in socially accepted ways
builds dependency on reward/reward giver

the learner can spend a lot of time and energy concentrating on what will please the
instructor instead of reflecting on what they personally need to learn next
decreases self directed learning

once again intrinsic desire to learn is lost when you need an external reward or
punishment in order to motivate yourself to learn
increases competition
rewards only work when they are perceived to be in short supply. If a group of individuals
want a limited number of rewards (marks, placements, attention), then someone is going
to do whatever they can to win.
decreases effective team work

medical students have been competing successfully all their school lives and this
competition decreases their ability to be team players. Competitive people prefer to
work alone, be in charge or continue the competition into the workplace. The more
competition is expressed in passive/aggressive behaviour, the less effective the medical
team becomes at problem solving and planning.
PUNISHMENT
research has shown it doesn't increase learning over time

punishment becomes associated with learning, so simplistically you
avoid punishment by avoiding learning
increases dependency or rebellion
when you can't avoid punishment learning, you watch your teacher
very carefully and conform to what they want or you do the opposite and
constantly challenge the teacher in order to defeat them. These behaviours
can become habitual even when the threat is removed.
decreases self-directed learning
in both of the above situations, the desire to learn is motivated by fear
not intrinsic curiosity or desire to improve patient care; remove the fear,
remove the motivation to learn
embeds deeply in person and is difficult to shake
- years later, the punished sometimes becomes the perpetual victim or the
punisher even when they say they would never do this to others (like
abused children and spouses)
- years later, the punished continues to avoid learning, a dangerous habit
for a practicing physician
- years later, the emotional scars linger even in wonderful, productive
physicians

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REWARDS & PUNISHMENT

"...the anxiety children feel at constantly

**In both of these cases of reinforcement, the

Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an

...RESEARCHES AND STUDIES...

According to an article by Jay Belsky in Psychology Today

Because thecognitivetasks central

Why might this be so? If you think

What still remains unknown is exactly

builds dependency on reward/reward giver

decreases self directed learning

decreases effective team work

research has shown it doesn't increase learning over time

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