COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT ON HUMAN VERBAL AND AFFECTIVE BEHAVIOR

Abstract

This study experimentally analyzed the relationship between verbal behavior and self-reported affective responses under contingencies of positive reinforcement (points gain) and negative reinforcement (avoidance of points loss). Using a computerized sentence-construction task with 162 undergraduates, we investigated how these contingencies affected pronoun selection and subsequent verbal reports of affect. While pronoun selection approximated chance levels during baseline, the introduction of differential consequences produced a systematic change: Both positive and negative reinforcement increased the frequency of the target pronouns, although average response levels were higher under negative reinforcement. Post-session verbal reports indicated that positive reinforcement was associated with significantly more positive affective evaluations of the task than negative reinforcement. These findings provide empirical support for the differential effects of reinforcing and aversive contingencies on human operant behavior and its collateral affective responses, demonstrating that contingencies shape not only behavioral outcomes but also their accompanying emotional states.