reinforcement

reinforcement /re·in·force·ment/ (-in-fors´ment) in behavioral science, the presentation of a stimulus following a response that increases the frequency of subsequent responses, whether positive to desirable events, or negative to undesirable events which are reinforced in their removal.

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re·in·force·ment (rn-fôrsmnt)

n.

1. The act or process of reinforcing.

2. Something that reinforces.

3. The occurrence or experimental introduction of an unconditioned stimulus along with a conditioned stimulus.

4. The strengthening of a conditioned response by such means.

5. An event, a circumstance, or a condition that increases the likelihood that a given response will recur in a situation like that in which the reinforcing condition originally occurred.

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reinforcement

[rē′infôrs′mənt]

Etymology: L, re + Fr, enforcir, to strengthen

(in psychology) a process in which a response is strengthened by the fear of punishment or the anticipation of reward.

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reinforcement,

n the increasing of force or strength.

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reinforcement

the use of a stimulus to modify an existing form of response. The stimulus may be a reward or a punishment and the reinforcement may correspondingly be positive or negative.

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reinforcement

Psychology Any activity, either a reward-positive reinforcement, or punishment-negative reinforcement, intended to strengthen or extinguish a response or behavior, making its occurrence more or less probable, intense, frequent; reinforcement is a process central to operant conditioning. See Contingency reinforcement.