What term describes the combination of positive and negative punishment?

• A. Two Types of Punishment
• B. Negative Punishment
• C. Punishment
• D. Reinforcement

Answer: (A)

Punishment in operant conditioning has two forms based on what is added or removed to decrease a behavior. When you refer to both together, you’re describing two types of punishment. Positive punishment adds an aversive consequence to reduce the behavior, while negative punishment removes a desirable stimulus to achieve the same goal. In practice, recognizing both forms helps you design effective, balanced training strategies for military working dogs. The other options don’t capture the dual nature: negative punishment names only one form; punishment is the general category without indicating there are two kinds; reinforcement is about increasing behavior, not decreasing it.