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Negative Reinforcement
When we say that something is being negatively reinforced, we are just saying that our subject is making that response because it allows him to get rid of (or avoid, or escape from) something he does not want. And because it allows him to get rid of something he doesn't want, he will begin to emit that response more often in the future.
For example,if your dog goes in the house because he was cold when he was outside, then, we say that his going in the house was negatively reinforced, because it allowed him to get rid of the cold, which was something that he did not want.
It should be noted that in reality, there is no such a thing as a negative reinforcer. There are aversives and punishers and there is the response of avoiding or escaping from those things, and that response can be negatively reinforced. However, it is the response that is negatively reinforced. There is no such thing as a negative reinforcer, per se, and never could be since the word negative denotes the absence of something.
Negative reinforcement is the inverse of positive reinforcement. It is also the inverse of punishment. Hence, there can be no negative reinforcement in any given situation unless there is either an ongoing aversive stimulus or the threat of the same.
Negative reinforcement is an operant procedure.