Glossary
Remove aversive stimulus
What does “remove aversive stimulus” mean?
Removing an aversive stimulus means removing an unpleasant condition to help change a behavior.
Escape learning and negative reinforcement
The taxonomy includes escape learning in this category. When removing an unpleasant stimulus increases the preceding behavior, that is negative reinforcement. This should not be confused with adding an unpleasant consequence as punishment. Whether relief actually increases future behavior requires observation rather than an assumption that all relief is reinforcing.
Illustrative example
In an illustrative computer task, pressing a key stops an unpleasant sound. Researchers can then check whether that consequence increases key pressing. The sound stopping and the behavior increasing are separate observations.
Taxonomy definition
The original BCT Taxonomy v1 definitions identify this as technique 7.5.