Which of the following scenarios is the best example of negative reinforcement? a. Vanna fastens her seatbelt as soon as she gets in her car to stop the annoying alert sound. b. Drake no longer cuts class now that his parents confiscated his iPod. c. Maria now buys a different brand of cigarettes to get two packs for the price of one. d. Nate no longer arrives late at work following a reprimand from his boss.

a) Vanna fastens her seatbelt as soon as she gets in her car to stop the annoying alert sound

Explanation:

In operating conditioning, reinforcement refer to a consequence that is applied in order to increase the probability that the desired behavior takes place again in the future.

Reinforcement can be either positive or negative:

Positive reinforcement: It gives the person something that the person likes in order to increase the probability that the behavior takes place again. Negative reinforcement: It takes away something the person doesn't like in order to increase the probability that the behavior takes place again.

Punishment is the opposite, and it's the consequence applied in order to decrease the probability that the undesired behavior takes place again.

Punishment can also be positive or negative:

Positive punishment: It gives something the person doesn't like in order to decrease the probability that the behavior takes place again. Negative punishment: It takes away something the person likes in order to decrease the probability that the behavior takes place again.

Now we're going to see which of the options refers to negative reinforcement:

a) Vanna fastens her seatbelt as soon as she gets in her car to stop the annoying alert sound: The desired conduct would be that Vanna fastens her seatbelt. As soon as she does that the annoying alert stops. Thus, this is an example of negative reinforcement since it takes away something the person doesn't like (the annoying alert) to make Vanna fasten her seatbelt.

b) Drake no longer cuts class now that his parents confiscated his iPod:

In this case, Drake's parents took away his iPod but this is something that he liked so it is not considered reinforcement but negative punishment (to take away something that the person likes so that the conduct doesn't take place) since they did that as a punishment for cutting classes.

c) Maria now buys a different brand of cigarettes to get two packs for the price of one: This brand is giving Maria a positive reinforcement (giving something she likes such as two pack of cigarettes for the price of one pack) so that Maria buys more cigarettes. Thus, this is positive reinforcement.

d) Nate no longer arrives late at work following a reprimand from his boss:

In this case, Nate's boss used something Nate didn't like (a reprimand) to diminish the behavior, thus this is a positive punishment.