ABSTRACT
Behavioural psychologists in the first half of the twentieth century developed a whole theory of learning and reinforcement on the ‘pain-pleasure’ principle involving various forms of punishment and reward (see Notes). Much of their experimental work was carried out with animals and birds such as rats and pigeons. This has often since been derided for being simplistic, or criticized as a technique for manipulating behaviour, although people sometimes forget that it did help to bring about a major swing in contemporary educational practice away from reliance on various kinds of punishment (beatings, lines, detention, etc) to an emphasis on positive reinforcement (attention, praise, grades, etc).
