- Joined
- Sep 19, 2020
Technically positive reinforcement just means adding a stimuli in response to behaviour. Spritzing a cat with a little water spray bottle to tell them "no" when they're jumping up on the kitchen counter is positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is removal of a stimuli (e.g. locking a cat in the bathroom until it uses the litter tray then letting it out, removing the "I don't want to be locked in the porcelain dungeon" stimuli in response to it using the litter tray).
Spritzing a cat with water when they jump on the counter doesn't teach them to not jump on the counter, cats are smarter than that. Instead they learn "don't jump on the counter when human is watching", and will continue to jump on the counter when no one is looking.