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Positive Reinforcement
When we say that a response is being positively reinforced, we are just saying that after our subject makes that response, he is presented with something that causes him to make that response again.
For example, your dog walks in and sits down next to you because he knows that when he does that that you will pet him. Thus, the response is sitting next to you and the reinforcer for making that response is getting petted.
Sitting next to you will allow your dog to get something he wants. And because it allows him to get something he wants, he will begin emitting that response more often in the future.
However, positive reinforcement is not always good, nor does it always have a positive effect in a social sense or in terms of the outcome it produces. Nor does it always necessarily involve something that someone wants.
For example, if a dog snarls at you viciously, and you respond by tormenting the dog mercilessly, your cruel baiting of the animal may serve as a positive reinforcer that will cause him to hate people even more while spurring him on to behave in an even more menacing fashion in the future.
Indeed, if after a response is made, something is presented that increases the frequency with which that response is repeated in the future, then, positive reinforcement is said to have taken place.
Positive reinforcement increases the strength and frequency of all the specific responses with which it is associated. It also increases the general activity level of the subject.
In addition, a higher rate of reinforcement and a higher ratio of response to reinforcement will result in a stronger response that is emitted more frequently.
Positive reinforcement is an operant procedure.