Scenario A. Suppose that your employee Umberto has been having trouble with the paperwork he must do for his job. Your goal is for the employee to improve his performance; i.e. decrease his rate of errors. You are considering two approaches:
1. Option 1 is to spend time with Umberto every day helping him with his job. This is an appealing option to Umberto because he appreciates the attention and sees it as a positive reward.
2. Option 2 is to tell Umberto that has now lost his incentive option until his performance improves.
3. Option 3 is to tell Umberto that you are not taking away his incentive option for the coming quarter provided he makes improvements.

-Option 2 in the scenario above is an example of
A)positive reinforcement.
B)punishment.
C)negative reinforcement.
D)extinction.
E)none of the above

Question

Scenario A. Suppose that your employee Umberto has been having trouble with the paperwork he must do for his job. Your goal is for the employee to improve his performance; i.e. decrease his rate of errors. You are considering two approaches:
1. Option 1 is to spend time with Umberto every day helping him with his job. This is an appealing option to Umberto because he appreciates the attention and sees it as a positive reward.
2. Option 2 is to tell Umberto that has now lost his incentive option until his performance improves.
3. Option 3 is to tell Umberto that you are not taking away his incentive option for the coming quarter provided he makes improvements.

-Option 2 in the scenario above is an example of
A)positive reinforcement.
B)punishment.
C)negative reinforcement.
D)extinction.
E)none of the above

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Option 2 is an example of punishment because it involves removing a positive incentive (the incentive option) to decrease the likelihood of errors in Umberto's performance.