Why Hitting Snooze Is Negative Reinforcement

 You're sleeping peacefully when all of a sudden, BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! You're alarm system goes off. You quickly get out of bed and press snooze to stop the annoying sound. The action of getting out of bed to stop the sound is an example of negative reinforcement. According to 'verywellmind' Negative reinforcement "strengthens a response by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus"(Cherry, 2022). So in this case, the alarm sound would be the negative outcome or aversive stimulus. 

There are two types of behaviors associated with negative reinforcement. Escape and avoidance behaviors. Using the alarm clock example, an escape behavior would be to hit the snooze button to escape the annoying sound of the alarm. An example of avoidance behavior would be to turn off the alarm before it begins. Such as turning off the alarm the night before, so that you're not awoken by it in the morning. 

Resource(s):

Cherry, K. (2022, November 11). This is why negative reinforcement is effective. How Negative Reinforcement Works. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-negative-reinforcement-2795410

Comments

  1. You are right! I also think that negative reinforcement is when you do something to stop or avoid something. With your example: Escape behavior, you hit snooze to stop the annoying sound after it starts and avoidance behavior, you turn off the alarm the night before so it never wakes you up

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