National Medical Admissions Practice Test 2025 – Complete Exam Prep

The concept of removing a stimulus to discourage behavior is referred to as negative punishment. This approach involves taking away a pleasant stimulus or consequence following an undesirable behavior, which makes it less likely that the behavior will occur again in the future. For example, if a child misbehaves and loses access to a favorite toy, the removal of that toy acts as a deterrent to the misbehavior.

In contrast, other concepts like positive punishment involve introducing an unpleasant stimulus to reduce a behavior, while negative reinforcement revolves around the removal of an unpleasant stimulus to increase a desired behavior. The term conditioned stimulus pertains to a previous neutral stimulus that, after being associated with an unconditioned stimulus, elicits a conditioned response and is not relevant in the context of discouraging behavior.