Suggests alternatives in solving the dilemma of the win/lose syndrome for young children participating in sports, games, and other competitive educational activities. Rather than reinforcing the "negative" aspects of competition ("winning is all," lack of participation, elimination), teachers should provide environments that help children to…

Evidence from a Rochester, New York study of high school and college students suggests that, for major student segments, higher education can be a negative product. Students may attend college to get away from family, procrastinate from job-seeking, locate a spouse, or meet higher job and salary requirements. Marketing implications are discussed.…

Intentional learning was found to be more efficient with reward than punishment. Incidental learning results showed no reward- punishment differences. (DG)

The study compared the relative effectiveness of different procedures (two potentially positive and two potentially negative reinforcing procedures) for decreasing response durations in three severely retarded 14- to 20-year-old women who were severely disruptive and noncompliant. (Author)

This study sought to supply evidence that educationally disadvantaged children learn more when the socio-emotional climate in the classroom is nonthreatening. (MM)

Argues that corporal punishment is a part of the UK's culture which needs to be banned by the government, as it has been in other European countries. Finds that hitting is not a good way to teach children proper behavior, has nothing to do with good discipline, does not relieve parents, and causes domestic stress. (SD)

The effects of two methods of negative reinforcement on three young children (ages two and three) with developmental delays and chronic food refusal were examined. Physically guiding the child to accept food contingent on noncompliance and nonremoval of the spoon until the child ate were tested. Both treatments were effective; however, parents…

Sixty mediators from British schools for children with mental retardation watched one of five matched videos depicting no self-injury, self-injury maintained by positive reinforcement, self-injury maintained by negative reinforcement, and self-injury unrelated to social events. Self-injury maintained by negative reinforcement was associated with…

Psychology students frequently have misconceptions of basic concepts in operant conditioning. Prior classroom observations revealed that most students defined positive reinforcement as reward and equated negative reinforcement and punishment. Students also labeled positive reinforcement as rewarding good behavior and negative reinforcement as…

Results of prior studies (e.g. [J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 32 (1999) 285]) showing that participants chose alternative behavior (compliance) over escape-reinforced destructive behavior when this latter response produced escape and the former response produced positive reinforcement may have been due to (a) the value of the positive reinforcer…

This paper describes systems dynamics, reviews the literature of uses of systems concepts in distance education (DE), presents a preliminary model, and ends in a call to researchers to contribute to the building of a standard model of DE. (Contains 4 figures.)

Rats were trained by shocking them in a closed compartment. When subsequently tested in the same closed compartment with no shock, normal rats showed an increased tendency to freeze. They also showed an increased tendency to actively avoid the compartment when given access to an adjacent neutral compartment for the first time. Amygdala…

Michael (1975) reviewed efforts to classify reinforcing events in terms of whether stimuli are added (positive reinforcement) or removed (negative reinforcement). He concluded that distinctions in these terms are confusing and ambiguous. Of necessity, adding a stimulus requires its previous absence and removing a stimulus its previous presence.…

This digest explores some of the reasons for spanking, examines its effectiveness, and suggests alternative discipline methods. Many parents believe that spanking will teach children not to do things that are forbidden, stop them quickly when they are being irritating, and encourage them to do what they should. Others believe nonphysical forms of…