Do punishments and rewards motivate learning?

Question

I got this question for my assignment. I have two main problems here.

1) How do rewards differ from positive reinforcements? I've read through some explanations but they are too scholarly, can someone give me a simple explanation.

2) I've genuinely no idea if I disagree or agree, one minute I take a position but the next I find some new research that supports the opposite viewpoint. What is your opinion on this matter?

I hope to see answers based on theories, but even personal opinions will help. Please help, my assignment is due soon! Thanks!

Answer 1

the carrot and the stick, the old proveb about the mule... do you hit it wth a stick from behind or lead it with a carrot? Positive reinforcement is better because the student will want to learn for the sake of learning not to stop a beating. The majority of animal training is now done using positive reinforcement. That's how they traing the dolphins at seaworld.

Answer 2

Okay,
generally speaking, rewards are given for doing something 'good' like getting an A on a test, but the performance on the test is not actually the behaviour that you are looking at.

Positive Reinforcement is when you do something to promote a specific behaviour. There is no set 'amount' to the behaviour. So, you can't really reinforce an 'A' test because that isn't the behaviour. You can reinforce the act of studying, or doing homework.
Punishments and rewards don't really motivate learning for most people. The fear of punishment might cause a person to study more, but the stress of the fear may prevent learning.

This sort of question is more philosophical, you just have to pick a side and argue it. My personal belief is that a better way to motivate learning is to create activities that promote involvement.

Here in BC, we have a document called the Primary Program that outlines current beliefs about learning:
Learning is both an individual and a group process, learning occurs at different rates for different people, and that learning requires the active participation of the learner.

Answer 3

Parental guidance means parents (or any mature modeling to children) should be displaying a balanced leadership role. All reward and no discipline is nothing but drama and drama breeds drama. It isn't party time it's a job not cut out for the fluffy. Natural bond and the responsibility of teaching a child self discipline should also never be tampered with. Those that love and respect children know the reality of -with inappropriate behavior comes a consequence that's a fact of life. If a child is accomplishing their goal or something an adult has asked of them then they are growing. This is expected as we grow towards adulthood. Bribing a child or withholding discipline stunts growth and can create codependency on the willing, standing-with-pockets-open government and mental health system not to mention a host of growth disturbances that will result in possibly never growing up. I'm assuming this is well known to people with agendas.

What isn't a fact is that everyone will get a dollar or a lollypop, even a verbal party thrown in their name for every single thing they accomplish. This accomplishes nothing but trouble...meaning people can't live life if they only behave in a civil manner when a, oh say, paycheck is cut for them. Past that it's caveman/woman world unless someone is constantly rewarding them for doing wrong and right. I have witness children being rewarded for being rude, bucking authority, feeling they have the right to beat their parents, breaking household rules you name it. $$$$$ What happens when the fix goes away? One way or another they will get it back. I've witnessed this as well it's called soothing the addiction to power by drinking, taking drugs, ocd, etc. Around comes the same people with the same enabling behavior it's a vicious circle and definately unproductive.

Answer 4

A reward is what you give a learner in order to achieve positive reinforcement - i.e. it's a component of reinforcement. Yes rewards do motivate learning new behavior but I once read about a study that found if you rewarded young children for behavior they enjoy they would start doing it for the reward, not because they enjoy the activity. I think the best techniques for teaching behavior are positive reinforcement and negative punishments (removing positive things e.g. taking away toys). Positive punishment should be avoided.

Answer 5

Both are good for motivating learning. But if you really want to see learning to it's fullest you then need to have both rewards and positive reinforcement in place. I should know because I teach young children. (A lot like the rats used in research studies :o) ) Rewards are used when they have REALLY reached a goal that was just unattainable in their eyes. And positive reinforcement is always used on a daily basis, like words of encouragement, high fives', the group of kids getting in on the celebration,etc. And I have also learned that keeping certain privileges from children 1-2 times will change the bad behavior to good.

Answer 6

1) Rewards tell a person, dog, or other animal, that the act they just peformed was good. Its like a form of bribery. If you do it often enough, eventually they will remember that they will get a reward for the good behavior, and expect it.

Positive reinforcers are something like rewards, or things we will generally work to get. However, the definition of a positive reinforcement is more precise than that of reward. Specifically, we can say that positive reinforcement has occurred when three conditions have been met:



A consequence is presented dependent on a behavior.
The behavior becomes more likely to occur.
The behavior becomes more likely to occur because and only because the consequence is presented dependent on the behavior.

Example of positive reinforcement of smiling:

Stephan and Cody were two mentally disabled boys who seldom smiled at other people. Dr. Hopkins used a procedure in which he would take them for walks, and if they smiled at passers by, he would give them some pieces of M & M's candy. This procedure caused Stephan and Cody to smile much more often than they had before.

Nonexample of positive reinforcement of smiling:

Stephan and Cody were two mentally disabled boys who seldom smiled at other people. Dr. Hopkins used a procedure in which he would take them for walks, and if they smiled at passers by, he would give them some pieces of M & M's candy. Stephan and Cody ate the candy quickly.

Analysis

The first item is an example of positive reinforcement. First, a consequence was presented dependent upon the target behavior. The candy was dependent on smiling because there was an if-then relationship between smiling and candy: If smiling occurred, candy was presented; but if no smiling occurred, no candy was presented. Second, there was an increase in the level of smiling. Third, the increase in the level of smiling was due to the relationship between smiling and candy.
The second item is not an example of reinforcement because there is no mention of an increase in the level of the target behavior. There must be an increase in some measure of the behavior in order to say that reinforcement has occurred.


2) punishments are used to prevent bad behavior. you don't punish a dog when they don't do something they don't understand yet. like when housebreaking a puppy, you point and yell as a form of punishment when they doodle in the house, but when they go outside, you give them a reward and tell them they did good. but, if youare trying to teach them sit on command and they don't you don't yell at them, because they don't understand, hence, no punishment. but when they do sit when u tell them to, they get a reward, and soon they will remember what the word "sit" means, and that if they do it, they will get rewarded...

so, it would seem that, relevent to the questions asked, rewards motivate learning much better because it is better to show someone or something they did something good and will more easily be remembered with a reward rather than a punishment, which is really only meant for bad behavior... it makes them want to perfom as opposed to have to perform.. big difference between want to and have to...

i know it was long, but i hope it helped!

Answer 7

no, only interest does. if your talking about really learning as opposed to memorizing something just to pass a test. rewards and punishment are something you do to a dog. it seems very few instructors have any imagination at all, and people do not want to be bored. if learning was made enjoyable, the response would be much different. simple enough? no theory, or opinion, just fact.

Answer 8

rewards do, punishments dont really do anything but make children feel like they're not good enough, because you really dont know when a child is trying their hardest. With rewards they'll work for it, and if they do succeed then they are rewarded, if not, they know they need to work a little harder

Answer 9

Read about Pavlov and his salavating dogs. Rewards show greater learning progress, however punishments would frusterate and cause resentment. Punishment is for bad behavior only.

Answer 10

ever trianed adog? they react well to rewards