B. F. Skinner Quotes

The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.

Typically, if you reward something, you get more of it. You punish something, you get less of it. And our businesses have been built for the last 150 years very much on that kind of motivational scheme.

The basic idea that incentives can be used to motivate behavior is a powerful one. It works for employees, and it has a clear place in parenting, as anyone who has tried to potty-train a recalcitrant toddler with sticker rewards knows.

It works. People respond to it.

This system of encouragement proves serviceable as a preventive of punishment, the attainment of the tickets being a reward, the forfeiture of them the reverse; and, as such, boys seem often more affected by their loss than by coercion.

Years of research in psychology has shown that rewards and punishments can be very effective in changing behavior. But, at the same time, they can create an addiction to rewards and punishments.

The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behaviors.

The object of rewards is to encourage; that of punishments, to prevent. If rewards are high, then what the ruler wants will be quickly effected; if punishments are heavy, what he does not want will be swiftly prevented.

Reinforcement is being right.

You get what you reward. Be clear about what you want to get and systematically reward it.

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

The question is the propriety of how we go about influencing and changing behavior.

All we can do is apply the physical stimuli which we have at our disposal to bring about a change of mind in these recalcitrant persons. Of this you may be sure: we shall continue to operate on the Italian donkey at both ends, with a carrot and a stick.

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

You've got to change incentives for good behavior as opposed to just disincentivizing bad behavior.

I found this deer toy that poops out candy. And so if I say, 'Cree, you have to go to bed right now. You will get a candy.' We've named the pooping deer 'Gus.'... He gets a jelly bean. And it works. Positive reinforcement is the way to go. I'm learning things like that which help me be a better parent.

Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences

Life needs penalties and rewards for people. You can't control people with only penalties. You have to think how to create rewards.

Reinforce what you want to see repeated.What gets rewarded gets done.

You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.

When I'm training a dog, I develop a relationship with that dog. He's my buddy, and I want to make training fun.

The best way to break a bad habit is to drop it.

I liked the game, I enjoyed the game, and the game fed me enough, and gave me enough rewards to reinforce that this is something that I should spend time doing, and that I could possibly make a priority in my life, versus other sports.

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.

You're much better off creating positive rewards, complimenting people for acting correctly, rather than punishing them when they act incorrectly.