AN INITIAL EVALUATION OF POSITIVE VERSUS NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT INCENTIVE PARADIGMS IN EMPLOYEES

BRIEF REPORT

Abstract

The present study was designed to compare the effects of positive and negative reinforcement incentive conditions on the behavior of two human services employees. After a no-incentive baseline, both employees were sequentially exposed to an evaluation condition that compared positive and negative reinforcement incentive conditions. After the evaluation condition the participants were directed to choose which condition they would prefer to work in. Results suggested that both reinforcement conditions increased performance relative to baseline, but that there were no significant differences between the conditions. One participant preferred to work in the positive reinforcement condition while the second preferred to work in the negative reinforcement condition