Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Reward and Punishment

A comment by Ben Hyde on a post at Crooked Timber:
Let’s train a pile of pennies to behave. Good pennies come up heads. Flip the pennies ten times. Divide them into two piles, the good ones and the bad ones. Now punish the bad ones. Beat them with stick. Repeat the experiment. Notice how their behavior improves! Now reward the good ones. Kiss them. Repeat the experiment. Notice how they appear to be slacking off! Clearly negative reinforcement works and positive reinforcement doesn’t.

1 comment:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

I think that is a magnificent proof.

And it certainly explains the Obama Administration campaign strategery.
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