Question

You remember a friend of yours in elementary school stuck his tongue on a pole on a playground swing set in the middle of winter. He yelled in pain, but finally pulled his tongue off the pole. He said, "I'll never do that again, it hurts!" His behavior of putting his tongue on the pole involved ________ since he never did it again.

a. Positive reinforcement
b. Negative reinforcement
c. Positive punishment
d. Negative punishment

Answer 1

The student's behavior of sticking his tongue on the pole involved positive punishment, which decreased the behavior by adding an unpleasant stimulus.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's behavior of sticking his tongue on the pole involved positive punishment because an undesirable stimulus (the pain of sticking his tongue) was added to decrease the behavior.

Positive punishment is used to decrease a behavior by adding an unpleasant stimulus. In this case, the pain experienced from sticking his tongue on the cold pole served as the punishment, causing the friend to never repeat the behavior.