Another one of my pet peeves is the fact that many people – civilians and scientists alike – use the phrase “negative reinforcement” to mean “punishment.” The two are not at all the same; in fact, ...

Some of the most common tools parents and teachers use for managing children’s behaviors are rewards and punishments. While these methods tend to lose effectiveness as a child ages, there are times ...

An owner's instinctual response to a dog's aggressive behavior might be to act aggressively toward the dog, but a new study shows that this could actually exacerbate that behavior. Meghan Herron, lead ...

When you need to get some tasks done and are short on attention, it’s hard to beat a timer. But whenever you do, it feels pretty darn good. The problem is that when you don’t finish in time, what’s ...

Like the wardens in Everquest 2 or the druids in World of Warcraft, reinforcement in MMOs is not always what it appears to be. In an earlier column we wrote about how positive reinforcement, as ...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- It seems the negative reinforcement measures that Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers used to keep a bear away from a popular restaurant's dumpsters-- is working. The ...

If we train our horses correctly, we should sense that they get “lighter” as training progresses. In other words, we should be able to execute cues with less force and get the same result. But until ...

As the concept of positive reinforcement gains popularity, researchers are trying to confirm its effectiveness at a more baseline level. According to a group of Midwestern equitation scientists, ...

Another one of my pet peeves is the fact that many people – civilians and scientists alike – use the phrase “negative reinforcement” to mean “punishment.” The two are not at all the same; in fact, ...

The University’s persistence on instituting a dubious rule to increase six-year graduation rates is ill conceived and will end up harming students. After all, the school’s proposed policies are mainly ...