Reinforcement can be used to increase the frequency of a behavior (Wood, et. al., 2011). In the sense of operant conditioning, positive means to add, and negative means to remove. Positive reinforcement is defined as an increase in behavior that results from an added consequence (Wood, S., Wood, E., & Boyd, D. 2011). Studies on positive reinforcement show it can increase a behavior but said behavior cannot be maintained when the reinforcement is withdrawn (Rushton, J.P. 1975). An example of positive reinforcement would be rewarding a child with candy for reading a book. The child reading is the increased behavior, while the reward of candy is the added consequence. Negative reinforcement simply means “an increase in behavior that is brought
