Could you say that taking away the child’s hunger by giving them food is negative reinforcement because you are taking away the hunger, or is this just positive reinforcement?
If you give the child food as a reward, it’s positive reinforcement. If you give a child who is whining for a cookie one or more cookies, you are being negatively reinforced, because your reward for giving in is no more whining.
But you are positively reinforcing the child’s whining. Like the Terminator, they’ll be back.
First always remember that reinforcement is used when we want the behavior to continue and punishment is when we want the behavior to diminish. This is the hardest one to come up with an example, and I tell my students that it is the one that fits if none of the others make sense when they have to choose which example it is. This is the addition of something to remove an unwanted stimulus. You take an aspirin to remove a headache. We apply sunscreen to avoid a sunburn. I hope that helped.
Also, yes your example works!
Thank you!