Final answer:
The most appropriate reinforcer to use when wanting to stop a rewarded behavior is extinction, which involves the removal of reinforcement that leads to a gradual decrease in the conditioned response.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a manager realizes that he or she has been rewarding the wrong behavior and wants to stop that behavior, the most appropriate type of reinforcer to use is extinction. In the context of operant conditioning, extinction refers to the decrease in the conditioned response when reinforcement is no longer provided. It is different from punishment in that it does not introduce a new consequence; rather, it simply removes the existing reinforcement, allowing the undesired behavior to diminish over time.
Extinction is an effective strategy for eliminating a behavior that has been previously reinforced because it gradually weakens the behavior by ceasing to provide the reinforcement that was maintaining it. This is in contrast to punishment, which aims to decrease a behavior by adding an unpleasant consequence or removing a desired one immediately following the behavior.
In operant conditioning, when a manager realizes they have been rewarding the wrong thing and wants to stop the behavior, the most appropriate reinforcer to use is extinction. Extinction involves withholding any form of reinforcement or reward, causing the behavior to decrease over time.