Reinforcement

Abstract

In Socrates’ original tutorial he would have encouraged Plato’s progress by all sorts of nods, smiles, murmurs or ‘that’s right’s. This feedback is technically called reinforcement or, more usually, reward. In the 1950s, Skinner and his associates would not accept the use of the term ‘reward’ because that implied that there were natural events that could be called rewards. But we know now, from brain research, that many of the things or events that reinforce learning are, in fact, ‘natural’ reinforcers. They do have a special role in the brain because they have survival-value for the person concerned.