Hypothetical Experimental Scenario and Real-Life Application in School:

A typical operant conditioning experiment featuring positive reinforcement would include one in which an animal is rewarded on a ratio schedule of pressing a lever. In that scenario, the subject receives a food reward for pressing a lever a specific number of times. Four presses of the lever rewarded by a single food pellet would be a ratio reward schedule of 4:1. The relative effectiveness of this type of positive reinforcement would be much greater where the subject is hungry than where the subject is relatively satiated already (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). One useful application of operant conditioning would be to reward students for good conduct with additional recess time (positive reinforcement), or to eliminate homework assignments for students who participate in class (negative reinforcement).

.Conclusion:

Generally, both positive and negative reinforcement are equally effective because the relative effectiveness of each is largely dependent...

Both types of reinforcement work best where the consequences (whether positive or negative reinforcement) are particularly appreciated by the test subject.
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